Sony isn't one to hang around a year to upgrade its flagship smartphone, and the successor to the Sony Xperia Z2, the Xperia Z3 (D6653), is pegged for a September 2014 UK launch. Here's everything you need to know about the Sony Xperia Z3, including release date, price, specs, performance and the very first photos (via Xperia blog). Also see: 26 best smartphones 2014
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6653): Release date in the UK
Unlike Samsung and HTC, Sony isn't one to hang around a year to upgrade its flagship smartphone. In February last year we saw the arrival of the Sony Xperia Z, which was replaced with the Xperia Z1 in the September of that same year. Six months later we saw the arrival of the Z2, unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February and on sale in the UK by March. So what's going to happen in September 2014? We'll give you three guesses. See also: 6 things we want to see in the Xperia Z3
The latest tip-off that the Xperia Z3 - and Z3 Compact - will be here in September comes from Vodafone Germany. A leaked screenshot of the rules for a raffle competition, which runs from 1 July to 30 September, suggests both phones will be given away as prizes.
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6653): Price in the UK
Let's have a look at how much Sony has charged in the UK for its previous Xperia smartphones to enable us to take a realistic guess at what the Sony Xperia Z3 will cost.
The first Z-series model, the Xperia Z, has an RRP of £549 and now sells for £277. Sony got greedy with its successor, the Xperia Z1, setting an RRP of £599. That phone now sells for £363. It must have learned from that handset, though, as the latest in Sony's Z-series line-up, the Z2, went on sale with an RRP of £559. Right now, the Z2 costs around £538 SIM-free.
So, what does this tell us? Sony knows it can't get away with charging circa-£600 for its flagship Xperia smartphone, but it's not prepared to drop much lower than £550, even several months after its launch and its rival, the Samsung Galaxy S5, is now available SIM-free below £500. And let's not forget that by the time August/September comes around, both the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 - and the soon-to-be-released LG G3 - will cost much less still.
How much will the Sony Xperia Z3 cost in the UK, then? Our guess: £550- to £575.
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6653): Design
Early rumours of the Sony Xperia Z3 stem from photos leaked on Chinese website Mobile.it168, and there's been no confirmation from Sony that they are genuine. Regardless, let's look at what we can glean about the Sony Xperia Z3 from the leaked photos.
The Sony Xperia Z3 is equipped with a metal frame, which reportedly has a PVD coating that creates an attractive mirror-like finish akin to that of stainless steel. We suspect the Z3 will follow the square-ish design of earlier Z-series handsets, but this one will be both thinner and stronger than ever, more resilient to accidental damage from bumps and scrapes.
The first leaked photos come from the Xperia blog.
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6653): Hardware
The website also reports that the Sony Xperia Z3 will be significantly faster and more powerful than its predecessor, packed with a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor that uses the Krait 450 architecture, 3GB of RAM and Adreno 420 graphics.
As before, we'll see a 20.7Mp camera on the rear of the Sony Xperia Z3.
However, rather than follow in LG (with the G3) and Samsung (with the Galaxy S5 Prime)'s Quad-HD footsteps, the website claims Sony will concentrate primarily on performance and stick with a full-HD display.
Some of this information is backed up by a leaked screenshot of the D6653 (thought to be the Z3)'s About phone menu. It shows that the phone is running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974-AC chipset and has a 1080p display. The Sony Xperia Z3 is also running Android KitKat 4.4, and has a 23.1.X.XXX build number and a 3.4 kernel.
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6653): Performance
In the most recent leaks, Antutu benchmarking results have been revealed for an unknown Sony smartphone with the model number D6653, thought to be the Z3. The D6653 recorded 37,169 points, making it 7 percent faster than the Sony Xperia Z2, which scored 34,659 points.
Antutu noted the following:
CPU: Good, Supports large apps and multitasking.
RAM: Excellent.
2D graphics: Excellent.
3D graphics: Excellent, Fluently support large mobile games.
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