Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact ZA1featured

IFA 17: Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact and XA1 Plus Released

Yesterday, at 19 o’clock, Sony held a conference in IFA 17, Munich, Germany. The platform seemed to be one of the best opportunity for a release so Sony release not one but three flagships at the same time. After much anticipation, Sony XZ1 / XZ1 compact and XA1 Plus hit the globe.

Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact ZA1featured
Left (XA1 Plus), Mid (XZ1), Right (XZ1 Compact)

All three phones have a minimalist approach. It reflects the old school design as there’s no full-screen, no ultra-narrow bezels. Like most of the Sony’s smartphone, these are also boxy and yet they don’t appear to be outdated. The two phone covers the high-end market while the third one covers the mid-end market. Here’s the detail you need to know about these three flagships:

Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact

XZ1 integrates a 5.2-inch 1080P display, support HDR. It’s an all-metal integrated design with the unique antenna layout. It occupies a space of 148 x 73 x 7.4mm and weighs 156g.

12_Xperia_XZ1
Sony Xperia XZ1

Meanwhile, X1 Compact integrates a much smaller 4.6-inch 720P display. The built material is different which is plastic and glass fiber composite. The phone appears to be chubby occupying 129 x 65 x 9.3mm but weighs only 143g.

Sony XZ1 Compact 1
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

At the same time, Sony has also stressed on the sound quality as both are Hi-Res gold standard certification. Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact features Gorilla Glass Protection 5 and is rated IP68 waterproof and dustproof. The phone also features a fingerprint reader except for the USA models.

Speaking of the hardware, both phones classify as top-tier flagships incorporating a Snapdragon 835 along with 4GB RAM, TF card support up to 256GB. The highlight of the two phones is the 19MP IMX400 rear camera with f / 2.0 aperture. There are some cool camera features such as Predictive Capture, 3D scanning mode (scan image and put it in 3D image format for 3D printers). The rear camera can shoot a slow motion video at a freaking 960fps and 4K on standard 60fps.

Sony XZ1 / XZ1 Compact power by a  2700mAh battery (QC3.0 fast charge), support Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. The best part is that both come with the Android Oreo v8.0 pre-installed.

Sony XZ1 XZ1 Compact comparison

The few hardware differences we see in both flagships are:

  • XZ1 has a 13MP front camera, meanwhile, Compact has 8MP wide-angle self-timer front camera
  • 64GB UFS flash memory and USB Type-C 3.1 in XZ1, meanwhile, 32GB UFS flash and USB Type-C 2.0 in Compact.

Sony states that XZ1 Compact is the only high-end smartphone with the 4.6-inch screen and Snapdragon 835.

Sony XA1 Plus

Among the high-enders, we also have a mid-tier smartphone as well. Sony XA1 Plus is the largest among the three phones with an enormous 5.5-inch Full-HD display. XA1 Plus measures 155 x 75 x 8.7 mm and weighs 198 grams, a bit heavy though. The design is almost the same as the other two phones but we can witness a lot bigger power button on one of the sides of the phone. The best part is that the bezels are ultra-narrow in comparison to the other two smartphones.

Sony XA1 Plus
Sony Xperia XA1 Plus

The heart of the phone is MediaTek MT6757 Helio P20 SoC coupled with 3GB RAM. XA1 inherits the 23MP rear camera with f / 2.4 aperture and hybrid focus from its ancestor XA1. Meanwhile, we have an 8MP front selfie shooter as well. Regarding connectivity we have NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, with apt-X support, a USB Type-C port, VoLTE, Cat.4 or Cat.6 LTE, depending on the region.

Also read: LEAGOO KIICAA MIX Preview – Meet The World’s Cheapest Full-screen Phone

Like the screen, the battery is also generous which is 3,430maH supporting Media Pump Express +2.0 quick charge.

Price & Availability

Here are the price tags of the three flagships as well as the selling date:

Sony XZ1 XZ1 Compact ZA1 Plus Price and release date