Sony today announced the Xperia Z3v for Verizon Wireless. It's a 5.2-inch, waterproof Android phone with a gorgeous glass front and back, which works as a display screen for your PlayStation 4 console.
We have a full hands on of the European Z3 from its announcement in September, and we were the first site to reveal that the Z3v would come to Verizon.
The Verizon Z3v has a few differences from the European Z3, and from the T-Mobile Z3 model, which still doesn't have a price or release date. For one thing, the Z3v has wireless charging built in. It also comes with 32GB of memory standard, although only 22.9GB is available for use.
That's because of a truly epic amount of bloatware. On our demo unit, Verizon had pre-loaded Google Play, the Amazon AppStore and a Sony app discovery app. There are three other Amazon apps, a Sony PlayStation app, and a bunch of Verizon apps including that perpetual Verizon NFL app that appears everywhere. I didn't get a chance to see if they were deletable. Fortunately, the phone also has a MicroSD memory card slot.
The PlayStation gameplay capability and the 20.7-megapixel main camera will be big draws here, as they will be on all versions of the Z3. You can buy a $59 dock that snaps the phone onto a PlayStation DualShock controller. If your phone is on the same Wi-Fi network as your PS4, you can then use the phone's screen, essentially, as a TV screen, and play any game that doesn't require the PS4's camera. It's like a Sony version of the Nvidia Shield's PC streaming capability.
The Xperia Z3 also has a 20.7-megapixel main camera and a 2.2-megapixel front camera. I snapped a few shots and it was a bit less than instantaneous, so I'd like to look closer. Sony says the camera has excellent low-light performance, with 12,800 ISO sensitivity.
I ran the Sunspider Javascript benchmark on the phone's 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, and got an 801ms result. That's about the same result as we saw on the Samsung Galaxy S5, although it's slower than we saw on the new iPhone 6.
The Z3v feels premium, and if its imaging capabilities play out, it will be a luxurious multimedia phone. The Z3v will go on sale on Oct. 23 for $199.99, with a two-year contract.
Whither the Compact?
I was absolutely crushed today to see no announcement or news about the Xperia Z3 Compact, which would be the only Android-powered, but iPhone-sized superphone in the U.S., if it's ever released here.
While every manufacturer other than Apple seems to think that "smaller" always means "lower quality," Sony bucked the trend in September to offer up a 4.6-inch device that could take over the cult position held by the 2013 Moto X in my heart. At the time, the company said it would come out later this year in the U.S.
Unfortunately, there's still no word on when we'll see the Z3 Compact stateside.