Sony’s smartphones have typically sold quite well in their home country of Japan, but the rest of the world has been a bit of a mixed bag. Their latest device, the Xperia XZ, recently went up for pre-order in multiple territories. Its head-turning design and focus on raw power without any frills is quite attractive to the right consumer, but add in some pre-order bonuses, and you have a device that it seems a good chunk of the country of Taiwan can agree with. When the Xperia XZ went up for pre-order in Taiwan, complete with a flip case, back cover, charging dock, and 16GB of extra storage via USB Type-C, it took only 45 minutes to sell out completely.
In response to this amazing first round of pre-orders, Sony plans to sweeten the pot a bit for the first wave of buyers to grab the device in Taiwan once it lands there in October. Early bird buyers after the official release will net themselves a pair of Bluetooth headphones, as well as an extra year of coverage under the standard warranty for the device. The Bluetooth headphones will be of the neckband variety, and much like the device that they come with, they will be waterproof. Despite last year’s warranty and use guideline hangups concerning aquatic activities, this combination could make users who live in rainy areas or near beaches quite happy.
To recap on the device’s specs, the Xperia XZ takes a page out of the Xperia Z lineup’s book, but scales things back just a bit to give consumers raw power and absolutely zero frills, hardware-wise. The flagship features here are the usual IP68 certification against water, dust, and the like, along with Sony’s award-winning 23-megapixel back camera. The phone sports a 5.2-inch display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, giving users a good enough screen for anything but VR use, though VR will be possible, if a bit low-quality. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 brings the blazing speed, paired up with a more than adequate 3GB of RAM. A 13-megapixel selfie cam adorns the front of the device, and a 2,900mAh non-removable battery keeps the lights on. The device will ship with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, with an update to Android 7.0 Nougat in the works, and storage is set at 32GB or 64GB of internal space, with a MicroSD card slot.
