Sony unveils its flagship phones, Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact

Xperia XZ1 

The Japanese tech-giant has announced its flagship smartphones, the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact at the 2017 IFA in Berlin, Germany, along with a host of mid-ranged smartphones, appliances and accessories.

The Xperia XZ1 borrows its looks from the Xperia XZ, but with a two-piece unibody metal build. It is quite slim at 7.4mm, with a weight of 155 grams, and comes in four colours; Black, Warm Silver, Moonlit Blue, and Venus pink. The power button on the side harbors the fingerprint sensor. All of this are housed in a body that is IP65/68 certified.

Xperia XZ1

The display on the Xperia XZ1 is a 5.2 inch Triluminos, X-reality panel, with HDR support and Full-HD resolution (1080 by 1920) with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. In terms of camera, the Xperia XZ1 packs a 19-megapixel primary sensor, with 1/2.3" Exmor RS sensor and RAM buffer. The camera comes with advanced features like Predictive capture and 960 fps HD video capture. For selfies, the XZ1 features a 13 megapixel, 1/3.06", Exmor RS sensor with a 22mm wide angle, f/2.0 lens.

On the performance side, the XZ1 houses a Snapdragon 835  chipset, with Adreno 540 GPU and 4GB of RAM, with 64GB fast UFS storage that is expandable via Micro SD. The XZ1 also features a stereo audio setup that boasts of S-Force Front Surround sound with other top features.


Top-tier connectivity ships with the Xperia XZ1: LTE Cat.16, Dual-Band, MIMO Wi-Fi a/c, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and a USB 3.1 cable connection, via a Type-C port. It will run on a Sony-skinned Android 8.0 Oreo and will come with a 2700 mAh battery unit, coupled with Qnovo adaptive charging and Quick Charge 3.0.

Xperia XZ1 Compact in four colours; Black, Snow Silver, Horizon Blue, Twilight Pink

The XZ1 Compact is a shrunk-down version of the Xperia Z1 in some areas. The body on the  XZ1 Compact is also of a unibody design, but it is made of 'glass fiber reinforced plastic.' The Xperia XZ1 Compact is thicker at 9.4mm and weighs 140 grams. The colours are a little different for the Compact, even though it ships with 4 variants as well; Black, Snow Silver, Horizon Blue, Twilight Pink, and it comes with a 4.2 inch HD display unit at 720 pixels.

On the front of the XZ1 Compact sits an 8-megapixel 1/4" ExmorRS sensor, with a wide-angle lens for those group shots. Also different is the USB Type-C port which is backed by USB 2.0. and a Cat. 15 LTE rating.

Xperia XZ1 Compact

All other things such as the primary camera, chipset, RAM, stereo speakers, OS and even the battery unit are the same with the XZ1. The Compact is also IP65/68 certified and also features fingerprint sensor on the side. Wifi a/c, NFC and Bluetooth 5 .0 also makes the cut to the Xperia XZ1 Compact as well.

Both phones will be available, globally, by September 17.

Photos: GSM Arena