Sony unveiled the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact devices at MWC 2018 in February. The latest Sony flagships came with many awesome new features along with some improvements over the XZ1 series. But it seems that Sony saved some major refinements for the next XZ flagship.
Sony Xperia XZ3 is the successor of XZ2 and most likely to arrive in September at IFA 2018. In the XZ3 flagship we may see the most exciting design from Sony, 18:9 OLED display, Refined Camera and many more. Now we will roundup some of the anticipated features of the Xperia XZ3 flagship.
Xperia XZ3 Display
As the rumours revealed earlier, Xperia XZ2 arrived with 18:9 aspect ratio display design, however with IPS LCD display just like its predecessor. Some Sony fans may praise that the Display quality is very good and near to OLED Displays. But some consumers are looking for OLED display in their next flagships, according to some survey reports. As the OLED tech is much advanced, refined and supports the Day Dream feature fully, the Japanese tech giant may use OLED Display in the next flagship.
So most likely the Xperia XZ3 flagship will feature OLED Display of size of about 5.8 inch in 18:9 aspect ratio. The Display may boast QHD+ resolution and support for HDR content. Corning Gorilla Glass 5 will act as Display protector for XZ3. More details about Sony XZ3 Display will be revealed in coming days.
Xperia XZ3 Performance
In the Xperia XZ2 flagship, Sony used the latest Snapdragon 845 flagship chipset. As the SD 855 may not arrive until early 2019, XZ3 might be powered by the same SD 845 chipset with some refinements.
The Snapdragon 845 chipset is built on 10nm LPP process and contains four Kryo 385 cores clocked at 2.7 Ghz for heavy duty processes and four Kryo 385 cores clocked at 1.7 Ghz for house keeping processes. The BIG.Little architecture is very much useful to conserve battery accordingly.
Dedicated AI Processing Unit
The Snapdragon 845 mobile platform sports a dedicated on-device AI processing unit to massively increase the processing speed and provide user-friendly experience. The new processing unit supports secure AI processing, assistant features, advanced camera processing effects like Bokeh, etc.
With the AI unit, Xperia XZ3 flagship will support more immersive XR headsets, gaming and long lasting battery life. Recently, Google brought the neural network API with Android 8.1 which provides a base layer for learning frameworks. More applications based on on-device machine learning will arrive in coming days.
X20 LTE Modem
The SD845 mobile platform contains Qualcomm X20 LTE modem which is the latest innovation and built on 10nm process to conserve energy. The modem supports Cat. 18 LTE download speeds upto 1.2 Gbps, breaking the Gigabyte barrier. LTE Cat. 13 upload speeds of 150 Mbps are supported by X20 modem, using the Qualcomm upload+ technology.
The modem supports Dual Sim Dual VoLTE feature like its predecessor and 5×20 MHz carrier aggregation, Up to 4×4 MIMO on three carriers to boost download speeds. HD and Ultra HD voice features are also supported by this modem. So Xperia XZ3 devices will give lightening fast download and upload speeds due to X20 LTE modem.
Spectra 280 ISP
Another minor yet important component of Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform is Spectra 280 ISP which delivers amazing XR experience and captures pictures with richer colour. The ISP is capable of taking 16MP pictures at 60fps which is really awesome. Thanks to the improvements made by Qualcomm, the ISP can capture Ultra HD videos with cinema like quality and rich colours.
The upcoming flagship from Sony may boast 6GB Ram which seems to be minimum requirement for future flagships. More details about the performance of XZ3 will be revealed in coming days.
Xperia XZ3 Camera
Recently, Sony made new improvements regarding its camera technologies and XZ2 arrived with advanced Motion Eye camera sensor capable of super-slow motion FHD video at 960 fps and EIS feature. So we expect that in the upcoming flagship, Sony may refine further its Camera sensors.
The Xperia XZ3 flagship may sport 20MP Primary Motion Eye Camera with LED flash with 4K HDR video, Bokeh effect support, Super-Slow video, laser focus and EIS features. The Secondary or front Camera might be 8MP Sensor with Super-Slow motion 720p video support and Bokeh effect. So with super-slow motion video capabilities of XZ3, users can make videos more dramatic. Predictive Capture is another feature which automatically detects smile or motion and starts capturing pictures. Users can 3D avators or images by taking picture of an object and edit in 3D Creator. More details about the Cameras in XZ3 will be revealed in coming days.
Android P
Sony XZ3 may have the upperhand over rivals, because of pre-installed Android 9.0 P OS. Most of the flagships coming in Q4 of 2018 may feature the Android 8.1 Oreo OS including Note 9, according to a leaked benchmark. But the Sony’s flagship may feature Android P, as last year also the XZ1 comes with Android Oreo out of the box. In recent years, Sony has started releasing new updates quickly and also implemented the Project Treble in the XZ1 series.
If we look into the features of Android P, the latest update from Google arrived as Beta with many exclusive features like Indoor navigation, Neural Network API 1.1, Call recording notification, Vertical Volume slider, Screenshot Markup editor, Gesture based UI and security patches.
Xperia XZ3 Battery
The predecessor of XZ3 arrived with Non-removable 3180 mAh battery and many optimizations to improve the standby time. Perhaps, the next Sony flagship will be powered by 3300 mAh battery with improvements to stamina mode to increase standby time.
The XZ3 flagship may support Quick Charge 4+ feature which comes with significant improvements over QC 3 and 4 versions. The excessive heating of the device during charging is minimized and charging speed has increased slightly.
Xperia XZ3 Price
Recently both Samsung and LG announced flagships with price tags over the $1000 Mark, but Sony priced the Xperia XZ2 flagship at $799 initially and later many price cuts happened. The XZ2 flagship launched in the UK with a price tag of £699. Previously, the Japanese tech giant launched the Xperia XZ1 flagship with a price tag of $699. So we may see an increment of $50-100 in price of the next flagship over its predecessor.
So Xperia XZ3 might be priced in the range of $850-900 in the US and £750-800 in the UK. The price may vary according to storage options, colours and carriers.
Update on 13/6/2018 :
Some alleged images of the Xperia XZ3 flagships have surfaced online. Based on the images, we can easily identify that the design seems to very similar to XZ2 on the front side. But on the rear side, there are two Camera sensors with LED flash and most likely laser autofocus. However, instead of adopting the same dual camera design of XZ2 Premium the Japanese tech giant opted for a new Dual camera module with two circular lenses.
The fingerprint scanner is placed at the very centre of rear side and the Power button and volume rocker are placed on the right side of the phone’s frame. The image leaks are in line with the earlier spec sheet leak which claimed the XZ3 is coming with 19MP + 12MP dual camera combo on the rear side and 13MP front shooter. Any how, we have to wait until the official announcement of Xperia XZ3 to confirm these leaks.
Update on 15/7/2018 :
According to the pictures posted in Sumahoinfo, the upcoming flagship from Sony is coming with dual Camera module on the front side too. Previous leaks claim that the Camera module on the rear side of Xperia XZ3 will be same that XZ2 Premium with 19MP and 13 MP lenses. However, new leaks show the XZ3 front camera module consisting of two lenses. So the flagship can take selfies with various background effects and so on. As this is still a rumour, we have to this with a pinch of salt.
Update on 25/7/2018 :
Another leak about XZ3 from @onleaks in the form of 360 degree renders revealed the full design of Xperia XZ3, but contradicts earlier leaks. The front view shows 5.9 inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio and the display panel appears to sport curved corners unlike Xperia XZ2.
The renders also show that edges of XZ3 are curved like other flagships like Nokia 8 Sirocco and Galaxy S9. The aluminium body of Sony XZ3 looks similar to its predecessor except minor changes around edges. Rear view shows a single Camera sensor with LED flash and finger print scanner. However, earlier leaks show dual Camera sensors like XZ2 premium. The next flagship from Sony will make its official debut on August 30th, at IFA 2018 and may hit the shelves in September with a price tag of $800, according to the leak.
We will update this post soon with more details about the Sony XZ3 flagship.
