Sony’s Xperia Z4 is the flagship nobody asked for

Let’s talk about the Sony Xperia Z4. The Japanese electronics giant announced the latest in its line of premium Z-series smartphones recently for its home market. And it’s fair to say the popular reaction to the device has fallen somewhere between bewilderment and outright derision. Consumers and critics alike seem confused as to why this phone exists, questioning the priorities Sony’s taken with what appears to be its early-2015 flagship.

With questionable hardware priorities and no word of any global launch, it’s a bizarre turn for Sony, coming as the company looks to restructure and streamline its smartphone offerings and focus primarily on the high end of the market. The Xperia Z4 can boast only a couple of meaningful improvements over its six-month-old predecessor, and in one or two important areas it may actually be a regression from the Z3.

Now that the Nexus 5 is being phased out without replacement (could you get on that, Google?), and the Nexus 6 is ugly and huge, I consider the Z3 and Z3 Compact to be the phones to get if you want Android. They’re only six months old, modern in every respect, look great, have minimal software customisations, better battery life than the competition, and thanks to Sony’s progressive open source efforts, great third party ROM support (mostly).

Hence, it’s sad to see that, in the pursuit of thinness, the Z4 actually has a smaller battery, and possibly, shorter battery life.

24 Comments

  1. 2015-04-21 11:43 pm
    • 2015-04-22 12:02 am
      • 2015-04-22 1:27 am
        • 2015-04-22 2:27 am
        • 2015-04-22 5:28 am
          • 2015-04-22 6:39 am
          • 2015-04-22 6:17 pm
          • 2015-04-23 2:32 pm
      • 2015-04-22 1:43 pm
      • 2015-04-22 5:18 pm
    • 2015-04-22 1:34 am
      • 2015-04-22 4:38 am
        • 2015-04-22 10:28 am
          • 2015-04-24 2:25 am
    • 2015-04-22 2:05 am
      • 2015-04-22 7:02 am
        • 2015-04-22 10:48 am
          • 2015-04-22 11:02 am
    • 2015-04-22 7:15 pm
  2. 2015-04-22 12:28 am
    • 2015-04-22 8:27 am