The Sony Xperia Z has been one of the hardest to get smartphones in recent memory. In addition to sellouts in virtually every country that this device has had the pleasure of gracing with it’s presence, including Sony’s home country of Japan and many European markets, we have seen some of the more interesting marketing gimmicks ever used to sell a mobile device, namely models taking a shower while using the handset.
Strangely enough however, even though Sony’s 2013 flagship was announced here in the United States at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show last January, we have heard nary a peep from the manufacturer as to when this device would be made available to customers in this country or what carriers would be offering the handset. Now obviously the smart money was that the Xperia Z would be available on the AT&T network because of their history together, but the guys over at TmoNews got their hands on a leaked image of the smartphone with the magenta carrier’s branding.
It’s important to keep in mind that there are more than a few caveats that exist on this report, even though TmoNews says this leak has been “confirmed” by three separate sources that the device is at least being tested on the network. One such red flag is that this could be a similar scenario to when T-Mobile was internally testing the HTC One X+ back in September. You may recall that there was an image of that phone with T-Mo branding leaked out to the world, but the One X+ never seen the light of day on the carrier after that as T-Mobile opted against offering the handset. Another such issue is that unlike the Samsung Galaxy S IV’s and the iPhone 5’s of the world Sony doesn’t make their smartphones one size fits all with regards to the carriers’ frequencies, and even though the Xperia ZL has the required 1700 LTE bands for T-Mobile the Xperia Z does not. That means this has to be an entirely new handset for everyone involved for it to be capable of running on T-Mobile.
That being said it is at least a positive sign that the Xperia Z is being tested on the network. Finally, here are the specifications for the device:
5.0 inches TFT Full HD 1080p panel
1.5 GHz Qualcomm APQ8064+MDM9215M Quad Core processor
146 grams (or 5.15 oz)
Water resistant up to 30 minutes
139 x 71 x 7.9 mm (5.47 x 2.80 x 0.31 inch)
13 megapixel Exmor RS camera with Auto focus and flash
2 MP, Exmor R, front facing camera (1080p)
2,330 mAh battery with talk time up to 11 hours and standby time up to 550 hours
- Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)