Following its appearance in the FCC in recent weeks with T-Mobile 3G support, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has confirmed that the current Xperia Z flagship will be released in the next few weeks, though no firm dates were provided.
The Xperia Z as currently available outside of the US includes a 5-inch 1080p HD display with Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 display technology, a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel EXMOR camera sensor with Fast Capture technology, and improved power efficiency through what Sony calls its STAMINA battery conservation software.
These features are included into a form factor that is water and dust resistant, measuring 7.9mm thick. Sony Mobile also directly sells a variant of the Z in the ZL in the US that is identical in terms of hardware, but omits the water and dust resistant bodyshell. Currently the only carrier that officially offers the ZL with a subsidy is the micro-regional carrier Cincinnati Bell.
In related news, Sony has followed up its AOSP development initiative from a few weeks back with the Xperia Z and has now expanded it to the Xperia Tablet Z. Like its first attempt, the AOSP build and related files are being hosted and provided by Sony Mobile in order to increase Android modder and developer support for the tablet.
Like the initial Xperia Z AOSP build, the files and AOSP build provided by Sony Mobile for the Tablet Z are deliberately incomplete so as to allow developers to coalesce around the device and to form a support community for third-party ROM development without having to start completely from scratch in terms of development.
