Sony's flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z, will make its appearance on South African shelves in April. This is before the release of Samsung's Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, showing that Sony is eager to position itself alongside the market leaders.
The Xperia Z will be available from all three of South Africa's top mobile operators - MTN, Vodacom and Cell C - from April, says Sony. The Xperia Z will be on MTN's shelves by the end of the first week in April, and available at Vodacom outlets closer to mid-April. Cell C customers will have to wait until the end of April for the provider's stock to arrive.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck is already impressed by the Xperia Z. "It is a real head-turner. Although it might look very similar in shape to the BlackBerry Z10 and iPhone 5, when you put them together you can clearly see the difference."
High spec
The Xperia Z has attracted a lot of attention, not only for its looks, but also setting itself apart with high quality visuals stemming from Sony's stable of televisions. In terms of genuinely competitive specifications, many believe the Xperia Z will establish itself as a respected premium Android phone.
It also has a water-resistant feature allowing the smartphone to dive to a depth of up to 1m for 30 minutes. It claims to be dust-resistant. Goldstuck agrees with this: "Although it's a big phone in hand, it feels thin yet solid. The voice quality is superb, and the camera and display magnificent."
The Xperia Z features a five-inch, full HD, 1080p Reality Display powered by a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. It will initially be available with Google's Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and is upgradeable to 4.2 and supports 4G LTE.
Earlier this week, Vodacom announced its LTE service is also available to prepaid and Top Up users. Building on Sony's reputation for producing high-quality digital cameras, the smartphone is equipped with a 13MP camera.
Mansoor Ahmed, Sony product manager for Middle East and Africa, told ITWeb earlier this year that the Xperia Z is designed with the end-user in mind. "They are not primarily concerned about tech jargon but rather the convenience of the device. The common term now is 'tap and share' as opposed to Bluetooth, which involves pairing a device and is a lengthy process."
Past attempts
Goldstuck says Sony's mobile unit has only been up and running for a short time, making it difficult to really prove itself.
Following the Japanese manufacturer's split with long-time mobile partner Ericsson, the Xperia S did not seem to blow up the market and questions regarding the device's build quality did not help its selling cause, according to reviews at the time.
Building on the Xperia brand, Sony released a successor to the Xperia S in the form of the Xperia T, which was cited as being a well-specced alternative to its pricier rivals.
Worthy contender?
Goldstuck believes the Xperia Z is the most competitive offering since Sony started its mobile division.
While he believes the Xperia Z overtakes the iPhone in terms of experience, the S4 is a different story. "Although the Z is one of the best Androids released yet, I still think the S4 will give it a run for its money," says Goldstuck. The differentiating factor rests on marketing, as it is expected that Samsung will pull out all the stops to promote the S4 and Sony can't compete on that level.
"The Xperia Z is a brilliant smartphone and worthy contender, but unfortunately it won't show that in the sales."
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