The first smart phone contender of the year has been unveiled, and phone networks are falling over themselves to get it in your pocket. The Sony Xperia Z is coming to Vodafone, O2, Three, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U in March.
Other networks will no doubt follow, but Vodafone, O2 and Three are the first out of the gates for the new phone. Unveiled at tech-stravaganza CES in Las Vegas, the Xperia Z is a giant 5-inch Android behemoth packing Jelly Bean and more.
The Z is no Z-lister, with a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor keeping things ticking. It sports a 13-megapixel camera, and the 5-inch screen pumps out eye-popping 1080p video.
As a bonus, the 7.9mm body is waterproof, making this one of the highest-specced phones that can survive a dunking in your jacuzzi, cocktail or commode. Up until now, the toughness to survive an unscheduled swirlie or any drop greater than the distance from your pocket to an inch below your pocket is a feature only found on mid-range phones. It's good to see manufacturers making more expensive phones more robust -- more of this sort of thing please.
The Xperia Z does have 4G, so it could appear on the UK's first 4G network, EE. It's not clear whether it'll support future 4G networks from other companies, as Sony hasn't revealed which bands it's compatible with. EE is formed of a merger between Orange and T-Mobile, who may well still offer the Z on their 3G networks.
Prices and contracts are yet to be revealed, but Carphone Warehouse says the phone will launch in February, while Phones 4U says it will have the Xperia Z on 1 March. A smaller variant, the Xperia ZL, which has much the same specs but in a more compact chassis, will not be coming to the UK.
Is the Xperia Z the phone to revive Sony's phone fortunes? Can it take on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the iPhone? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page, and keep it CNET for the coolest gadgets and most powerful kit unleashed at CES.
Update: A previous version of this story claimed the Xperia Z did not offer 4G at all. This has been corrected in the text above.
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Comments 12
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anonymous 8 January, 2013 10:27
I really like the hardware of this phone...See if this had stock android 4.2.1 I would happily buy it but with that software, absolutely not as it would eventually drive me nuts.
anonymous 8 January, 2013 10:27
BBC reports that it has LTE???
Alwyn Maynard 8 January, 2013 10:37
"One thing the Xperia Z doesn't have is 4G, so it won't appear on the UK's first 4G network"
Wrong, wrong, wrong. It has is compatible with 6 different LTE 4G bands. It's the first trully global 4G phone
anonymous 8 January, 2013 10:45
That 5inch phones looks tiny in your hands. No pun intended
anonymous 8 January, 2013 12:17
Have Sony learnt nothing from apple? This phone looks good to me, and seems to be creating a bit of a stir, so why wait 2 months for people to get it? It should be released by the end of this month to maximise sales while exposure is good before competitors get a chance to unveil their handsets at mobile world congress. Whatever you think of apple, getting their new products out quickly after launch seems to be working for them.
Eric Manktelow 8 January, 2013 12:32
I would have been interested in the XL.
I think the waterproof one will be a fail, don't drop you phone down the toilet or use it in the shower... job done.
Looks like It'll still be the Note 2 for my next upgrade.
anonymous 8 January, 2013 13:21
It looks like a nice phone, but my experience of owning an Xperia P has put me off buying another Sony - they are so slow at updating Android! By the time Sony do eventually upgrade the OS they are about a year behind Google.
Plus, Sony have a habit of cramming their phones with bloatware that you can't uninstall.
I'd rather have a Nexus 4 or wait for the Samsung S4.
Damien2501 8 January, 2013 14:10
Good specs, but does it have a removable battery?? And I agree with Anon 12.17, they should release this phone next week rather than in 3 months time. Over the next couple of weeks soo many phones are gonna be revealed from HTC, LG, the Chinese manufacturers and RIM, and Sony is missing an opportunity.
Though I am glad Sony didn't make the mistake of making this phone exclusive to one network like Nokia. It'll be interesting to know what it costs SIM free.
Damien2701 8 January, 2013 17:26
But it's Sony so it will be overpriced and have a buggy skin over android and probably a plastic creaky build
anonymous 9 January, 2013 09:16
As Far as I heard the phone is built upon a carbon fiber skeleton frame, tempered glass with antishatter film, with the "BEST" proven hardware such as the S4 PRO,... does it work, I don't know... but what I do know for sure is their ui is slightly skinned Jellybean not like previous Sony phones. This is one bad mother******, and about time!
anonymous 26 February, 2013 08:44
Bloatware you can't uninstall huh?. Get root access to your phone and you can uninstall it or use the disabled function within settings/apps/all . Sony as a company work closely with phone software enthusiasts granting them access to drivers and such. I have bern running Jellybean on my Xperia s for 6 months now. Go over to XDA developers and you may learn a thing or 2.
anonymous 12 March, 2013 16:30
When is the Xperia Z coming out on the Orange network??
Huss