Hideuki Furumi of Sony kicked off the press event on its booth before the start of the event by talking about the key concept of current president, Kaz Hirai, ‘Kando’ which is to say products that create emotional connections.
The first announcement in the event was of the Xperia Ear Duo which was launched at MWC, although the wireless ear buds have been long previewed and are unusual in allowing music to be heard without blocking ambient sound. They are available for sale from today at Amazon in the US.
5G is a big topic for Sony and it has been looking at opportunities with a range of network operators globally.
Sony is working with a number of 5G Operators.
The company is already working with NTT Docomo on a self driving car (MWC 2018 Roundup). Furumi introduced a video from the CTO of Ericsson, who highlighted that the technology is ready for commercialisation now that specifications have been approved, with implementation early in 2019.
Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, then came on to support Sony and he talked about the new Snapdragon 845 which will go past 1 Gigabit/second of LTE connectivity speed. He believes it will revolutionise the mobile experience. Qualcomm and Sony have worked together for a long time. The companies are expanding their collaboration on RF front ends and Amon said that there are 18 operators committed to 5G technology.
Sony started from technology but has a lot of content, too. There are three new ‘entertainment devices’ launched today, the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. There is also an Xperia XA2 Ultra. They are the smallest phones based on their screen size and with HDR, which is a key feature for Sony. The phones also have stereo front-facing speakers and there is a new dynamic vibration system to give physical sensations along with the audio.
Don Eklund is CTO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and he talked about the number of titles available from SPE with HDR and UltraHD. He showed a comparison of HDR and SDR (although he said that the LED wall limited the effect). Eklund said that when people see the HDR content ‘their’ eyes open wide. HDR is now coming to handheld consumer devices which can also capture HDR content.
Furumi then came back to talk about HDR in the new phones and he said that there is an Advanced Motion Eye technology which can capture UltraHD HDR content directly on the handsets. The content can be shown on HDR TVs and handsets. He also highlighted the 960fps slow motion technology that Sony launched last year (so there, Samsung!). The technology has now been updated to 1080P and the handsets can also take 3D selfies.
Furumi said that the new 845 chip allows fast wireless charging and 1.2Gbps on LTE networks.
He then previewed a new camera technology with dual cameras and Sony Fusion image processing which gives very high sensitivity with ISO 12800 for video and more than 50,000 ISO for stills, performance that was previously only available on interchangeable lens cameras.
Sony announced some new phones at the show and they have different displays.
Sony has the XZ2 and XZ2 Compact with HLG HDR. Image:Meko
The XZ2 has a 5.7″ HDR FullHD+ display while the XZ2 Compact is just 5.0″ and they both have Gorilla Glass 5. They use the Snapdragon 845 and both support the capture of UltraHD with HDR. They are certified for IP65/IP68 and the XZ2 has a 3180mAh battery. There is a dock (WCH20) for wireless charging. The processor is a Snapdragon 845 with 4/6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There are stereo speakers, but no 3.5mm port. The battery has 3180 mAh for the larger unit and the Compact has 2870 mAh.
The XZ2 and XZ2 Compact will ship from March.
XA2 and XA2 Ultra
The XA2 and XA2 Ultra are described as mid-range’ will ship from this month and use Android 8.0 Oreo.
The XA2 has a 5.2″ FullHD display with Gorilla Glass, a Snapdragon 630 and a 3,300mAh battery. There is a 23MP rear camera using a Sony 1/2.3″ Exmor RS sensor with ISO 12800 sensitivity. It can record UltraHD and can capture up to 120fps. The selfie camera is a 120 degree 8MP unit and the phone has a fingerprint sensor.
The Ultra has a 6.0″ FullHD display with Gorilla Glass and a 3,580mAh battery and the same 23MP sensor as the XA2. The selfie camera and fingerprint sensor match the XA2.
Finally, the Xperia L2 uses Android 7.1.1 Nougat and has a 5.5″ HD display
Analyst Comment
Just before the end of the show, we were able to find a specialist at Sony who confirmed that the HDR supported in the new XZ2 phones is based on HLG. It alsoi has brightness of 700 cd/m². There have been a lot of rumours of another new high end phone which would continue with the support of UltraHD on smartphones, but there was no sign. Staff could not, however, disguise some level of confusion over how they should respond to the rumour of an XA2 Pro. (BR)
