Sony is expected to announce the Xperia Z3 next month, most likely around the time of the IFA event, but thanks to TENAA (the Chinese equivalent of the FCC), almost all of its specs have leaked out along with some shots of the device.
Despite the big leak, though, there aren't any exciting revelations. The Xperia Z3 seems to be almost identical in shape, size and specs to the Xperia Z2 released earlier this year, which was, in turn, only a minor upgrade to the Xperia Z1 released a few months before that.
The Xperia Z3 seems to be sporting the same Snapdragon 801 chip as the Xperia Z2; however, this time it's clocked at 2.5 GHz instead of 2.3 GHz. Since Snapdragon 801 usually comes at 2.5 GHz, it was strange to see the Xperia Z2 clocked at 2.3 GHz in the first place.
The phone is only a little lighter at 158.4g compared to 163g for the Xperia Z2. The screen and resolution are the same, featuring a 5.2" 1080p display, and it also has the same 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage as the default.
If these leaks are real, then this phone has no reason to exist. From the specs we see here, it just looks like a rebranding and relaunching of the Xperia Z2. It's rather strange that Sony would do this just to have something to show at IFA. It's unlikely that most people who are interested in this device, including all the tech media, won't notice it's basically the same phone as Xperia Z2 but with different colors.
What's perhaps even worse is that these specs won't be very competitive by autumn. Sony has had some troubles in the past keeping up with the competition in terms of specs, but with the "One Sony" restructuring as well as the appearance of the Xperia Z1 last year, it seemed like the company had finally caught up and gotten on a good path. Now we see that its phones are already stagnating and falling behind again, which will only make it that much harder to catch up to the competition.
If these specs had come from any other source, it would be very difficult to believe them, but because they're showing up on China's certification agency site it's more believable -- and that means Sony could have a pretty rough holiday season this year.
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