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Sony’s flagship Xperia Z4 goes global with the humbler title of Z3+

Coming in June with Android 5.0 and an upgraded processor, but otherwise it's the same old Z3

The new flagship phone for Sony is the Xperia Z4. In Japan. For the rest of the world, that very same phone will be known as the Xperia Z3+, which today gets its official announcement and a June release date. If you thought HTC stuck close to its prior design with the HTC One M9, Sony goes even further by pretty much reissuing the Z3 with refreshed internal specs and one rather nice external upgrade. The new handset is still waterproof, but its USB port no longer requires a flap to protect it from water ingress.

Sony calls the Z3+ an evolution to the Z3 family and that's precisely what it is. The 5.2-inch screen still has a resolution of 1080p, the rear camera is still a 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS sensor, and the aluminum-framed body is still available in a choice of black, white, or copper. There's a refreshed aqua green option as well, plus the phone's thickness has been reduced from 7.3mm to 6.9mm, but those are the sort of infinitesimally small changes that merit a name like the Xperia Z3+: nice to have, but not enough to justify describing this as a whole new device.

The processor has been upgraded to the newer Snapdragon 810 with Adreno 430 graphics, and there's 3GB of RAM on board, however the Z3+ has a slightly smaller battery than its predecessor, coming in at 2,930mAh. Running Android 5.0, the Xperia Z3+ is expected to be available globally from June, alongside the Xperia Z4 Tablet, which was announced at MWC in March.

Sony Xperia Z3+

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