Sony Xperia Z from 2013
In this edition of ‘The forgotten smartphone’ we go back to the year 2013. The Sony Xperia Z was released; it was seen as the manufacturer’s first true flagship. What’s so special about the Xperia Z?
Sony Xperia Z
The Sony Xperia Z was released at the beginning of 2013 and was the first device to appear here with a Full-HD display. With this high-end model, Sony wanted to compete with brands such as Apple and Samsung, which were very successful with their iPhone and Galaxy S series. In addition, we saw brands such as HTC and LG trying to penetrate this market, and Sony also made an attempt. The Sony Xperia S already appeared in 2012, and the Sony Xperia Z was introduced in 2013.
The dust and waterproof housing was one of the real key features of the device. In addition, there was the Full-HD screen, which was also present on the HTC One (M7). The rise of the 4G network also began and the Xperia Z was equipped with support for access to the network.
The housing of the Xperia Z was made of glass and offered a 5.0 inch display with a high pixel density of 441 ppi, which was nice and big for the time. There was also a 2.2 megapixel front camera and we saw a 13 megapixel camera on the back. Characteristic of the devices from Sony was the presence of the physical shutter button on the side of the smartphone. The smartphone came with a Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM. We also saw 16GB of storage space that could be expanded with a memory card. There was WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and a 2330 mAh battery.
Out of the box, the Sony Xperia Z shipped with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Later, the smartphone received an update to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. As we saw with previous Sony’s, here we saw the Timescape interface for managing social media updates. You could continue to work with PlayStation Mobile and various other well-known Sony apps such as Walkman and TrackID. Later, the Sony Xperia Z series was expanded with the Z1 (in the autumn of 2013) up to and including the Z5. Sony then started with the Xperia X series and the manufacturer stopped with the Z series.
In the Netherlands, the Sony Xperia Z was released with a suggested retail price of 629 euros.
Sony Xperia Z summarized in 3 points:
- Full-HD display
- Access to 4G network
- Physical camera key
