Barely even a week old, the Sony Xperia Z1S was just announced at CES. This device, which packs the same internals as the Xperia Z1, but with the added benefit of supporting T-Mobile’s growing LTE bands, is currently available through T-Mobile’s website for a retail of $528, which can be subsidized for $22 over a 24 month period. If online purchases are not your cup of tea, fear not: On January 22nd, this phone will be available for purchase through T-Mobile retail stores. This 5-inch beauty offers a 1080p screen with 2GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 800 processor, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and a wonderful 20.3MP rear camera. Even though Android 4.4 KitKat has been out for a few months now, Sony still opted to send out this phone with Jelly Bean. Hopefully in the near future we will see that they are going to bring this phone up to speed. With similar internals, barring the camera, to the Nexus 5, a phone like this should be able to run KitKat with no problems at all.
The phone itself is still water and dust resistant, which is one of the distinguishing features of Sony’s Xperia mobile direction. Sony is also offering a $100 Visa gift card to any consumer who purchases a PlayStation 4 with the Xperia Z1S. This added incentive is a rather interesting move by Sony, attempting to bridge the gap between their mobile technologies and their home entertainment systems.
It is important to keep in mind that in order to take advantage of T-Mobile’s Early Termination Fees (ETF) program, it may be easiest to wait until the phone appears in retail stores on January 22nd. With T-Mobile looking to bridge the gap between them and the other carriers, namely AT&T, this play is a pretty good move for them. Not only is this phone decently priced, but keeping it unique to T-Mobile, along with the temptation of the ETF deals and the Visa gift card, makes purchasing products from Sony a very enticing deal indeed. What do you think? Will you be looking to pick up one of these from T-Mobile, and will you be following what Sony obviously wants you to do (purchasing a PS4 as well)? Or will you pass on this and wait for something more revolutionary? Let us know in the comments!