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Xperia Z4 rumor round-up: QHD or FHD?

• Egon Kilin
• January 21st, 2015

The Sony Xperia Z4 is supposedly around the corner, sources saying that MWC 2015 will be the place where the flagship first sees the light of day. Even though Sony hasn’t confirmed this yet, the release is pretty likely since launching any later than that would obliterate the (already slim) chances of the Xperia Z4 making enough waves to outdo the Galaxy S6, LG G4 and the HTC One M9 Hima. Since we don’t have any official information coming from Sony with regards to the Xperia Z4 display and specs, we’ll go out on a limb and detail all the rumors and leaks that we’ve come across in the past few weeks.

Xperia Z4 rumors have been many and some of them wildly contradictory. Some say that the handset will keep the 5.2 inch display with a 1080*1920 resolution, which seems to be the favorite of many fans and Android users out there. Having a FHD resolution display on an average display comes with one big benefit: it consumes less battery life than a bigger, higher resolution screen would. Nonetheless, another batch of rumors suggests that while the display size on the Xperia Z4 will most likely be between 5.2 and 5.3 inches, the resolution will be QHD, seen on the LG G3 and Galaxy Note 4 last year. There are many pro and con opinions for both options, but there also is a rumor going around about two different variants of the phone, which would be plausible.

Seeing as Sony usually launches more than one variant of a flagship, we don’t see why the Xperia Z4 release would be any different. Consequently, we could speculate that the bigger version of the Xperia Z4 will come with a larger QHD display while the more popular Xperia Z4 Compact would stay with a 5.2 inch FHD display. U.S. customers seem to be finding new appreciation for battery life and smaller, less pixel-packing displays and their battery management technologies. That being said, it is safe to state that the Xperia Z4 Compact, if it ends up being the one we are speculating about, would reap more success than the regular version of the Xperia Z4.

Spec-wise, Sony usually endows the full- and mini versions of its flagship with the same hardware, leaving only the display up for debate. From all the leaked spec sheets, we can form a pretty comprehensive image about what the Xperia Z4 specs will include. The Snapdragon 810 CPU is most likely to be featured in the handset, alongside 4 GB RAM and Adreno 430 GPU. Storage options should include 32 and 64 GB variants, but it’s not out of the question that Sony migrates towards the 128 storage option Apple already used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The Sony Xperia Z4 camera should also be bumped up a bit, featuring a 20.7 MP sensor on the rear with optical image stabilization and an LED flash as well as a 5 MP shooter on the front for all the selfie needs you might encounter. High IP certification is traditional on newer Xperia devices, so we expect the new line-up to come with the same waterproof certification as seen on the Xperia Z3, namely IP68. Since battery life is one of the most important aspects of a smartphone, we do hope Sony will slap at least a 3,800 mAh unit in the Xperia Z4 to support all those pixels on a QHD display, and at least a 3,500 mAh unit in the Xperia Z4 Compact to make for legendary battery life. We should see fast battery charging enabled thanks to the CPU and upgraded hardware, but Qi wireless charging would also be nice to see.

Overall, even though we haven’t received official word from Sony on the upcoming flagship, we do think that our estimates about the specs and display are plausible and pretty realistic. Alas, we will find out at MWC 2015, which starts on March 2, whether we were right in our assumptions. One thing we are most hopeful of is to actually witness the unveiling of the Xperia Z4 at MWC, seeing as the release might even get delayed for all we know.