Last Fall, Sony introduced their new line of Xperia Z devices, the Xperia, Xperia Z5 Compact and the Xperia Z5 Premium. Traditionally, Sony smartphones have been difficult to get hold of in the United States, despite a handful of launches on T-Mobile’s network. Today, Sony is announcing that both the Xperia Z5 and the smaller yet similarly-specced Xperia Z5 Compact will be launching in the United States starting February. For those hoping for a widespread release of Sony’s devices, they might be disappointed to hear that these will be available through “participating retailers” and not the usual array of carriers and their stores.
Despite their similar looks, the Xperia Z5 has an upgraded camera over the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3+ and now also come with a fingerprint sensor across the range, too. We reviewed both the Xperia Z5 Compact and Xperia Z5 last year, and found them to be great phones in their own right, but the Xperia Z5 Compact still holds a special place in our heart for being one of the few smaller smartphones worth buying. The Xperia Z5 Compact will be available in Graphite Black, White, Yellow and Coral and start at $499.99. Meanwhile, the 5.2-inch Xperia Z5 will be available in Graphite Black, White, Gold and Green. Both devices share a similar Snapdragon 810 processor, a 23-megapixel rear-facing camera and more. The only difference with the Compact would be a smaller 4.7-inch 720p display and less RAM at 2GB. Both are IP65 and IP68 dust and water-resistant with no cap covering the microUSB port as with previous versions.
These prices aren’t cheap, especially in the face of devices from the likes of Motorola and the Nexus 5X, both similarly available unlocked sans contract. Either way, it is nice to see that Sony hasn’t forgotten about the US market entirely where smartphones are concerned. In a refreshing approach, these will be available through Amazon as well as Best Buy, B&H and others. According to Sony both devices will be available from February 7th onwards, so there shouldn’t be too much longer to wait for die-hard Sony fans to get their Xperia fix.