MANILA, Philippines – Sony’s flagship for the 1st half of 2018, the XZ2, has been officially launched in the Philippines, with retail availability on May 11 in all authorized Sony dealers. 

Revealed at Mobile World Congress 2018 last February, the XZ2 boasts a redesigned look, ditching the angular looks that have long been a standard of the Xperia brand for a softer, rounder look.

Sony has priced the product at P43,990, which is cheaper than the flagship offerings from other premium brands such as the Samsung Galaxy S9 (P45,990), Huawei’s P20 Pro (P44,990), and the base Apple iPhone 8 (P44,990). Cheaper than the XZ2 are the standard Huawei P20 (P34,990) and the ASUS Zenfone 5Z (P29,995), which comes out in June.

The wide price range for flagships signifies the variety of consumer choices available at the moment. Essentially, these all offer their own definition of a flagship experience, and choice partially boils down to how appealing the unique selling points are. 

For the XZ2, the key features are its fresh redesign, supposed audiovisual prowess, and new camera tricks. The design of the XZ2 puts it squarely in premium territory with a glass back and glass front, an aluminum frame, some solid heft, and sophisticated curvature. It comes with a 5.7-inch 18:9 HDR display and stereo speakers.

New to the phone is the Dynamic Vibration System, which acts like the PlayStation Dual Shock technology – the phone vibrates accordingly to what’s happening in a movie or a game. The vibration is noticeably more powerful and refined than the usual phone vibration. 

The phone also touts itself to be the first smartphone capable of 1080p 960fps super slow motion recording. Last year’s XZ1 introduced 960fps super slow mo on smartphones, and the Samsung Galaxy S9 followed suit in 2018. But both of these could only accomplish 720p recording. Sony also said the XZ2 is the first phone capable of recording HDR videos at 4K resolution. 

Software-wise, Sony has an interesting 3D face scan and 3D object scan feature. Check out its photos:

Below are the key specs.

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Cameras: 19 megapixel (MP), f/2.0 at the rear; 5MP, f/2.2 at the front
Display: 5.7-inch Full HD HDR 18:9 display
Dust and waterproof rating: IP65/IP68
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB with microSD support
Battery: 3,180 mAh
SIM card slot setup: Dual-sim
OS: Android Oreo 8.0

Sony also announced the XA2 Ultra, a midrange phablet with a Snapdragon 630 chipset, a 23MP rear camera, and a 16MP+8MP super wide angle front camera. It’s marketed as a selfie phone, and is priced at P22,990. 

The XZ2 is available in the colors “Liquid Silver” and “Liquid Black.” It’ll be on pre-order until May 6. Pre-orders will come with a gift set worth P5,479, said Sony. – Rappler.com