The Xperia Z and ZL: Will they get their fair shake?

Posted by brandon.dean on January 13, 2013 12:48 pm 66

via cdn0.sbnation.com

As someone who is quite excited about these two devices, The Verge in particular was extremely tepid with its coverage of the devices. Not that the devices themselves were bad, but Josh et. al. seemed to be more taken with startups than with anything ANY established company was doing this year. Chris Zeigler in the Verge Mobile Show actually called out the weird vacuum of attention these two devices have gotten from outlets, basically saying that for some reason he is not sure of, they have zero buzz. The rest of the news media seems to be on a similar bent, that if it doesn't involve Apple, Samsung, Fitness, or Startups, you are out of luck coming out of this CES garnering any attention.

via assets.sbnation.com

First, lets just take a look at what Sony is offering. The Xperia Z is one of the first flagship level phones to be available outside of Asia that will be waterproof. Japan and Korea have had devices of this sort for years, but its essentially the first of its kind in the US, a waterproof phone that isn't mid range or low end. Another thing the device didn't get much attention for is the screen. Sure, there were several 1080p 5 inch phones at CES, but how many of those are actually going to be available outside of China? Two, and Sony makes them both. Good luck Finding Hwawei's or ZTE's offerings stateside. I also thing the design got overlooked with reviewers saying "It's nice" and then moving on to 4K tvs or the Occulus Rift (a device that I'll bet my hat wont make it to market before being acquired).

via cdn2.sbnation.com

It just seems like these two phones are getting dismissed just because phones by other companies will be announced at MWC. So, what do you guys think? Is Sony's lack of interest around the product fair? What if this had been the nexus device, would that have changed the fate of the phones ho hum reception?