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Sony announces Xperia Z1 smartphone with BIONZ camera, 5-inch display

Sony announces Xperia Z1 smartphone with BIONZ camera, 5-inch display

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During a live press event at IFA in Berlin today, Sony officially announced the Xperia Z1, its latest flagship smartphone. A successor of sorts to the Xperia Z announced at CES in January, the Z1 will come in three colors, black, purple, and white. Like the Z, the Z1 is also waterproof. It features a BIONZ image processor, 1/2.3-inch camera sensor, and Sony G-branded lens. Sony claims that this allows the Z1 to zoom in up to 3x with "zero loss" in image quality. It seems that Sony has been paying attention to what Nokia has been doing with the Lumia 1020 lately.

The Z1's main focus is its camera, and it comes with a suite of apps to help users take advantage of it. Sony has included quick sharing apps, advanced burst modes, and the new Info Eye app, which seems to approximate what Google Goggles already does. The Z1 also integrates with Sony's Play Memories cloud service, which lets users store and share images they take online. Other gimmicks include the ability to super impose dinosaurs on your image if you want.

Like the Xperia Z, the Z1 has a 5-inch, 1080p display, but it uses the newer Triluminos panel that debuted on the Z Ultra. It also has the "latest" Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm.

For more on the Xperia Z1, check out our in-depth look here.