Sony’s Xperia Z1 has undergone quite a transformation over the past couple of months as it made its rounds through the rumor mill. First we heard about the 20 megapixel camera onboard and thought it might fall in line with what Samsung did with the Galaxy S4 Zoom. Later on we found out that this is in fact a high-end phone, unlike the Galaxy S4 Zoom, and comes with a standard lens rather than one equipped with optical zoom. We then found out that Sony plans to release external camera lenses that clip onto your phone, and they showed it off with no less than the Honami, or what we now know as the Xperia Z1. Then you’ve got the battery, which looks to be a sizable 3,100 mAh, and includes Sony’s STAMINA mode battery saving technology. All this adds up to one incredible smartphone, but there’s one thing that had yet to be unveiled: waterproofing technology. Sony teased the image above on its Facebook page with the caption “About to make a splash…”, referring to its newest unreleased phone of course.
Now we know that the Xperia Z1 is officially joining the rest of the Xperia Z lineup by being fully waterproof via IP 55/58 certified, which means you can take this puppy underwater up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes without causing any kind of damage. That changes the game, especially when you consider the 20.7 megapixel camera on the Xperia Z1 can also shoot 4k video. That’s pretty incredible when you consider that Ultra HD 4K TVs are still a ways away from being priced in a consumer-friendly manner. This means that you can enjoy videos and pictures taken from your shiny new Xperia Z1 over the next few years without experiencing the “eye hurt” that always happens when we move to a new resolution standard for TVs. It’s like if those old VHS tapes of yours were magically in 1080p so you could still enjoy them on your 60″ TV. Sony is definitely future-proofing the Xperia Z1, and the rest of the spec tree doesn’t hurt at all either:
- Water-proof, shock/dust/shatter-resistant via IP 55/58 standard
- Carbon fiber frame, Dragontrail tempered front glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on back
- 20.7 megapixel rear camera, f/2.3 with 4K video recording
- 2 megapixel front camera with 1080p video recording
- Physical shutter button
- 5-inch 1920 x 1080 Triluminos display
- 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU
- Adreno 330 GPU
- 16GB internal storage
- microSD card support
- 3100 mAh battery with STAMINA mode
- Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
- IR Blaster/Remote
- Stereo Speakers
- Support for MHL and Miracast
- Bluetooth 4.0
- NFC
- LTE
- WiFi b/g/n/a and ac
- 144 x 73.9 x 8.3mm
To say the Sony Xperia Z1 is top of the line doesn’t really come close to getting it right, really. This thing has so many bells it makes Santa Claus jealous; let’s not even get into the whistles. Pretty much every selling point on every major phone out there has made its way onto the Xperia Z1, as this is truly Sony’s new flagship follow-up to the excellent Xperia Z. Of course all these specs are still filed under the “rumor” category, so while you should take them all with a grain of salt, they are likely the final specs as we’ve seen them in bits for quite some time now. Will Sony debut the Xperia Z1 at IFA in Berlin in just a few weeks? Highly likely, so stay tuned until then.