Sony Xperia ZR Announced

The Sony Xperia ZR is the newest addition to the Sony Xperia Z line. Despite the Xperia Z being one of the most impressive devices that we’ve seen from Sony, it’s been struggling to contend with the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 in reviews and in public appeal. The Xperia ZR has the potential to bring some of the same features to the mobile market, but avoid competition with the One and the S4 by possibly being targeting a slightly more affordable area of the pricing spectrum. The original Xperia Z boasted both impressive specs and water resistance. It was the first time that a company’s flagship had been focused on durability, rather than hardware and features. The Xperia Z is still a powerful device with 1080p display and other modern accoutrements, but as far as software features go it’s lacking compared to its two main rivals: the One and the GS4. The Xperia ZR is even more water resistant than the original Xperia Z, meaning that it can still attract folks who are after a modern smartphone with enhanced durability. Where it could do better than its older sibling is that, with slightly reduced specs, Sony is in a position to add a more tempting price-tag to sweeten the deal. This way the Xperia ZR would be directly competing with less feature-intensive smartphones than the HTC One and GS4, while still offering Sony’s new water-resistant experience on a solid smartphone. The main problem here, however, is that the ZR really does feature ‘slightly’ reduced specs. As in barely. The CPU is a powerful quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, paired up with an Adreno 320 graphics processing unit (GPU). 2GB of RAM should keep the Android 4.1 OS running smoothly, but storage is just 8GB. Luckily there’s a MicroSD slot that supports up to 32GB of expandable memory, although at an added cost. The display is a 4.55 inch (also referred to as a 3.6) 720p of the TFT variety, offering 323 pixels per inch (ppi). Oddly, the camera is a 13MP shooter. We say oddly because we were expecting a toned-down 8MP shooter in order to keep costs low, but this makes a bit more sense after one sees Sony’s targeted ad campaign at the bottom of the article. The Xperia ZR also supports 4G LTE, but of unspecified bandwidths. Hopefully it’s enough of the major ones to cover most or all LTE regions. There’s no mention of battery size or life expectancy, but the 10.4mm profile likely indicates a decent battery. So the Xperia ZR seems like it’s basically just a slightly smaller Xperia Z, except with less storage, a smaller screen and a lower resolution. But it does have one key feature. Not only is the ZR designed to be durable against water damage, it can actually take pictures and record HD videos while under water. It’s much closer to being ‘water proof’, in terms of every-day usage such as in swimming pools or accidental droppage, than its ‘water resistant’ sibling; the Xperia Z. It seems a little odd that Sony would release two such similar phones; the Xperia Z with slightly better specs and the Xperia ZR that take’s the Z’s main attraction, water resistance, and does it better. Obviously Sony wanted to get the Z out of the door before the HTC One and GS4 made their debuts. But a high-quality smartphone that actually functions, rather than merely survives survives under water would definitely be enough to catch the attention of the public. This is especially so if said device had the entire marketing weight of Sony behind it and was not instead sharing the limelight with the Xperia Z. Even with its water-centric operations we feel that the ZR is going to need a lower price point in order to compete with the One and the GS4. If it had the same great specs as the original Z then Sony may be in with a chance in direct competition, but with the path that’s been taken it’s likely far too much of a niche market to make too many waves. At the very least it’s great to see manufacturers working on new ways to enhance the smartphone experience. Be it hardware-based with the new ‘ultrapixel’ camera, build quality and stereo speakers of the HTC One; feature-software-based with all the new features from the GS4; or durability-based as with Sony’s new Z and ZR approach, we’re just happy to see something other than a specs-war for once. We do hope that the Xperia Z and ZR end up at least doing well enough to keep Sony in the game. Lately Samsung has been dominating the Android competition, with only HTC looking like it can even almost keep up. We’d hate to see competition in the marketplace lessen and, while Sony’s approach is very niche, it might be enough to keep the ball rolling for now.