Japanese electronics giant Sony on Friday launched a new Opulent Red colour variant of its premium flagship smartphone, Xperia XZ Premium in the Japanese tech market. To recall, the company introduced its latest flagship Xperia XZ Premium at the World Mobile Congress (WMC 2017) event in Barcelona, along with company’s other flagship Xperia XZs and two mid-range smartphones– Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra. The Xperia XZ Premium was first launched in Luminous Chrome and Deep Sea Black colour options, later the company introduced the handset in Bronze Pink colour variant as the third colour choice option in the month of April and now, the Japanese vendor has launched a new Opulent Red colour Xperia XZ Premium, christened as the “Rosso” in the company’s homeland, Japan. With the new Opulent Red shade, the Xperia XZ Premium will now be available in four attractive body colour options including Opulent Red, Bronze Pink, Luminous Chrome and Deep Sea Black colour options. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium Rosso colour variant will go on sale in Japan starting October 27 via the country’s biggest mobile carrier NTT docomo. Sadly, the company has made no official announcements about the pricing details and availability of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium Rosso colour variant for other markets including India. Apart from its paint job, the rest specifications and features are same to same as we have seen in the other existing Xperia XZ Premium models or variants.
A few weeks ago, the Japanese vendor also revealed a list of smartphones, which will receive the Android 8.0 Oreo update soon. The refreshed list includes Xperia X, Xperia XZ, Xperia X Compact, Xperia XZ Premium, Xperia X Performance, Xperia XZs, Xperia XA1, Xperia XA1 Ultra, Xperia Touch and newly launched Xperia XA1 Plus. Android 8.0 Oreo OS brings a vast array of new features and improvements including Background limits, Notification channels, Snooze notifications, Autofill APIs (Autofill, Font resources in XML), Picture in Picture (PIP) display for handsets and new windowing features, Web View enhancements, Java 8 Language APIs and runtime optimizations, Adaptive icons, Wide-gamut colour for apps, Support for high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs such as LDAC codec, Companion device pairing, Keyboard navigation and much more.
Sony Xperia XZ Premium Specifications and Features:
Recollecting some key specifications of the smartphone, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium sports a 5.5-inch Triluminos 4K (2160 x 3840) HDR display with a pixel density of 806 ppi (pixel per inch) and a scratch resistance Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on top. The Xperia XZ is the world’s first smartphone with a 4K HDR screen, which Sony claims the resolution is 40% brighter and better than high-definition displays. Under the hood, the Xperia XZ premium is powered by the latest and fastest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 540 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of storage, the smartphone is backed up by a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt memory, which can be further expanded up to 256GB via a microSD slot. Talking about its software front, the Xperia XZ Premium runs on company’s own custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system.
For photography enthusiasts, the Xperia XZ Premium comes with a 19-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony’s new “Motion Eye” camera system (based its new memory stacked 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor) that provides 5x faster image scanning and data transfer. “Motion Eye” camera is capable of shooting videos at 960 frames per second, providing Super slow motion video playback that is apparently four times slower than other smartphones. Other camera features include 5-axis image stabilisation, 25mm f/2.0 lens, 1.22-micron pixel sensor, Hybrid Autofocus, 4K video recording and SteadyShot technology. On the front, the Xperia XZ Premium sports a 13-megapixel front-facing camera with 1/3.06-inch Exmor RS sensor featuring with an f/2.0 aperture and a 22mm wide-angle lens. The front-camera is also capable of shooting full-HD videos in 1080p resolution.
In terms of Connectivity, the device offers various connectivity options including dual SIM dual standby (optional), 4G with VoLTE, Bluetooth v 5.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (dual-band), Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, GPS with GLONASS, a 3.5mm audio jack, NFC and USB 3.1 Type-C port for super-fast charging and data transfer. On the battery front, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium packs a non-removable Li-Ion 3230mAh battery and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology for fast charging. Sensors on the device include Fingerprint, Proximity, Compass, G-sensor, Magnetic, Gyro, barometer and colour spectrum sensors. Dimensionally, the handset measures 156 x 77 x 7.9 mm and weighs around 195 grams.
