Customers over the globe will know the struggle Sony has been facing in the last couple of years. The premium smartphones have not gotten that much attention from users because Sony’s phones are mostly overpriced.
The last flagship, Xperia XZ, did not do well either, even though it had some really interesting features. Sony, without losing any hope, has launched the cheaper version of the flagship XZ Premium in India, called Xperia XZs.
The phone was unveiled at MWC 2017 along with Xperia XZ Premium, which is the flagship. XZs also gets a few features from its older sibling, while still maintaining the flagship-type specifications.
Take a look at the specs below –
- 5.2-inch full HD TRILUMINOS display with Corning Gorilla Glass
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor coupled with Adreno 510 GPU
- 4GB RAM, 32GB Internal memory(single SIM) or 64GB internal memory(dual SIM)
- 19MP Motion Eye rear camera, 1.1cm Exmor RS for mobile memory stacked sensor, 960 fps super slow motion videos, Predictive Capture, Anti-distortion shutter, Triple image sensing technology
- 13MP front-facing camera with 8.3mm Exmor RS sensor
- USB Type-C with Quick Charge 3.0, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2
- 2,900 mAh battery with Stamina mode
- Available in Ice Blue, Black and Warm Silver
- Runs on Google Android Nougat 7.0
- IP65/IP68 water resistant
By now, you must have realised that Xperia XZs doesn’t hold the tag of a premium smartphone, and the company seems to have focussed on only the smartphone’s camera. No doubt the camera takes super slow motion videos and extremely nice photos, but there is nothing else to compete with other similar phones.
Sony has priced the phone at Rs. 51,990 but will retail in India at Rs. 49,990. It will be available on all leading e-commerce stores, and you can get notified as soon as it launches.
Sony Xperia XZs’ launch is a damp squib
To be very honest, Xperia XZs does nothing better than the OnePlus 3T, a smartphone priced Rs. 20k less than XZs except for the camera. Other than the camera, XZs fails to impress and the company has gone way too steep with the pricing.
Smartphones priced in the same category usually come with larger screens with atleast a 2K display. A full HD 5.2” display used to be the norm in 2015, and Sony seems to have forgotten that we’re now moving to 2K displays, if not 4K.
Secondly, this phone doesn’t have the latest Snapdragon 835 processor, but that is ok considering Snapdragon 820 is also pretty good. The camera is the only feature in the phone to talk about and Sony has done that enough. The smartphone is actually being marketed at the best smartphone camera ever, with ultra-slow motion video capture capability.
However, someone might shell out this money to purchase an actual DSLR or Point & Shoot instead of buying this phone. Thirdly, the battery on this phone is tiny and will not last more than a day.
Overall, Sony should have priced this phone around Rs. 35,000 (or may be even lesser) to make it a success. At Rs. 49,990 I see extremely low sales and probably price cuts in the next few months before Xperia XZ Premium launches. If you have a budget of Rs. 50,000, please take a look at OnePlus 3T, Google Pixel or even Chinese smartphones for value for money.
