While rivals like Samsung continue to offer flagship phones with two screen sizes: big and bigger, Sony is continuing to go the other way: big and smaller.

Sony’s 2018 flagship line consists of the Sony Xperia XZ2 with a 5.7 inch display and the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact with a 5 inch screen. Both feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chips, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of UFS storage, and 2160 x 1080 pixel displays.

And both represent a major departure from Sony’s earlier phones when it comes to design. The only key differences are screen and battery size.

Sony Xperia XZ2

Sony has dropped the boxy design with big top and bottom bezels that it’s been using for the past few years to go with rounded corners, and a glass and metal design, with curved glass covering the phone’s metal back cover.

The phones come in silver, black, green, and pink color options and they have IP68 ratings for water and dust resistance.

Sony outfits the phones with a 19MP rear camera capable of recording 4K HDR video, 960 frames per second of super slow motion video at up to 1080p resolution (the Samsung Galaxy S9 can only do 960fps at 720p resolution), and a 5MP front-facing camera.

The phones also have HDR-friendly displays, which means you’ll not only be able to watch those HDR videos you shoot with the camera, but you should probably be able to view HDR content from Netflix and other online video sites.

Other features include a microSD card reader for up to 400GB of removable storage, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, Bluetooth 5, 4G LTE Cat 18 support (up to 1.2 Gbps), and stereo front-facing speakers.

The phones lack a 3.5mm audio jack, but Sony includes a USB Type-C to 3.5mm adapter.

The Sony Xperia XZ2 has a 3,180 mAH battery and the phone measures 153mm x 72mm x 11.1mm (6″ x 2.8″ x 0.4″) and weighs 198 grams (7 ounces).

Sony’x Xperia XZ Compact has a 2,870 mAh battery and measures 135mm x 65mm x 12.1mm (5.3″ x 2.6″ x 0.5″) and weighs 168 grams (5.9 ounces)

Both phones should be available in March, 2018.

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2 replies on “Sony launches Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact with Snapdragon 845”

  1. Pretty awful.
    The new phones have a BIGGER bezel than the old ones.
    Don’t believe me? Check the figures!

    The old Sony Z5 Compact:
    Body: 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm
    Total Screen: 10.18cm × 5.73cm = 58.33cm²
    16:9 Screen: 10.18cm × 5.73cm = 58.33cm²
    16:9 Video Screen to Body Ratio: 70.7%

    The new Sony XZ2 Compact:
    Body: 135 x 65 x 12.1 mm
    Total Screen: 11.36cm × 5.68cm = 64.52cm²
    16:9 Screen: 10.09cm × 5.68cm = 57.31cm²
    16:9 Video Screen to Body Ratio: 65.3%

    So the screen has become SMALLER by 1.8% (for 16:9 content), whereas the phone has become LARGER by 6.3%, meaning the bezel size GREW by 8.3%. This is the opposite of progress on both aspects.

    Not only that, they’ve made the device much thicker. And removed the headphone jack. And removed the Qi Wireless Charger (it works through plastic too, sony). And put the fingerprint reader in a slightly awkward spot. And lastly they’ve priced it too high. What’s next, it will be fragile like the iPhone 6? Overall a bad offering, gone is the legendary status and legacy of the 2013 SONY Z3 Compact…. five years later and they’re offering a worse variant for more money, that’s simply ludicrous.

    *most content are rendered in 16:9, so its the true size for practical real-world use

  2. I no longer have an interest in flagship devices, but it’s nice someone is offering the choice of a smaller device. I don’t tend to use my phone as a tablet and am perfectly happy with a 5″ screen.

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