Sony is expected to launch its latest flagship, known as the ‘Honami’ and the Xperia i1, at an event in Berlin, Germany on September 4, just two days prior to the IFA 2013 conference also taking place in the city and on the same day Samsung is pegged to announce its Galaxy Note 3 phablet.
While Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 will invariably generate a lot of interest and sell very well indeed, I suspect that the Sony Honami is going to be the star of the show and, for me, is shaping up to be the best smartphone of the year by a country mile.
Sony’s been on track to catch up with Samsung as one of the major players in the mobile industry for some time and makes no bones about being public with the fact it’s gunning for the top spot. So far, although its recent handsets have performed reasonably well in the marketplace it is yet to generate a runaway hit to rocket the company skyward in terms of market share, critical reception and widespread consumer adoration.
The Sony Xperia Z exhibited fantastic design and build quality while reiterating Sony’s exceptional ability to create amazing displays. The Xperia Z’s display remains one of the best I’ve seen this year and Sony’s tech layers, including the Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2, really do make all the difference.
But despite Sony having some excellent camera tech, the implementation in this case was not the best, with a bit too much post-processing evident in captured snaps. Additionally, while the display was glorious and the use of a Snapdragon 600 processor also rewarding, the resulting power drain was too much for the 2,330mAh battery pack and battery life was distinctly subpar.
The Xperia Z Ultra has followed on with similarly eye-catching and engaging design and a brilliant display, introducing Triluminos technology and an enhancement of the Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2 called the ‘X-Reality Engine’. The battery has been bumped up to 3,050mAh so it should cope much better than the Xperia Z.
However, it’s a massive device and more like a tablet at the end of the day. While such a device certainly has its place in the market I would hardly consider it a mainstream flagship – it’s a specialised piece of kit and will play second fiddle just as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 isn’t Samsung’s top dog next to its actual flagships.
But the point is: Sony is refining the formula and I think it’s getting very close to making gold with its alchemy.
I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the Sony Honami will be a stunningly well-made device, because Sony is now consistent in this respect and has a cohesive aesthetic it has every reason to continue using. It’ll look stunning and feel great in the hand, of that I am almost certain.
With the current crop of rival flagship handsets they fall pretty much into two categories in my view – those which look and feel great but have some key flaws and those that look and feel decidedly ‘meh’ but are excellent in terms of hardware and features.
Case in point, the HTC One looks and feels fantastic and has a very competitive spec. But the aluminium tends to scuff and dent, the battery life isn’t great and the camera could be better. And while its display produces excellent quality visuals it is a touch smaller than most of its contemporaries.
On the other side of the coin, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and LG’s G2 hit all the right points on spec and features but insist on using shiny, slippery plastic bodywork with a tacky feel. What’s more, they’re quite mundane to look at.
This is where Sony can really make a killing.
As well as having the potential to look, handle and feel like a million dollars the Sony Honami is also looking like it’ll deliver when it comes to the internal hardware too, meaning it’ll land that magical combo (which has hitherto been disappointingly elusive in 2013) of both superb form and function.
If the rumours and leaks prove true, and I think they will, it’ll pack a 5-inch Triluminos display with the obligatory 1920x1080 pixel full HD resolution and the X-Reality Engine. Visual quality should be equally as good as the Xperia Z Ultra but at a scale which is both more manageable and still big enough to make multimedia viewing a joy. It’ll also boast Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at around 2.3GHz with 2GB of RAM and not only does this benchmark impressively but having personally tried the chip on the Sony Xperia Z Ultra recently I can say it’s seriously quick stuff when Sony gets its hands on it.
A standout feature is going to be the camera, which is allegedly a 20-megapixel Exmor RS back-illuminated sensor (BSI) with an ‘aspheric’ Sony G-lens, Xenon flash, a Sony BIONZ image processor. There’s been no hints suggesting it’ll have optical image stabilisation but in recent rival releases this now appears to have been developed to the point where it can be put in smartphones while maintaining a relatively slim profile, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it included.
There shouldn’t be any concerns about battery life as it’ll tote a 3,000mAh unit and you can expect the usual landslide of connectivity options such as NFC, 4G LTE and MHL to name but a few. It looks as though we’ll also be treated to a microSD card slot, something which Sony frequently delivers but is becoming an annoying rarity on most flagships apart from Sony’s and Samsung’s.
Sony is also onto a winner with the water and dust proofing certification now seemingly ubiquitous across its recent premium models and a very sensible decision it is too – this is 2013, after all, and while we may still not having flying cars or robot butlers I should be able to us my phone in the bath without worrying.
Lastly, I should point out the Sony UI, which will probably be the same if not identical to the one we’ve seen already on the Xperia Z and Xperia Z Ultra. Having used this interface a few times now I have to say I find it to strike an excellent balance between having a specific Sony aesthetic while retaining that fundamental Android functionality – there’s a nice amount of Google’s stuff as the Android-maker intended it in there, which is great.
At this point I pretty much like everything I hear about the Sony Honami. Every new release I’ve got to grips with this year I’ve found lacking in some way but I can’t see any gaps in the armour this time around and that’s very pleasing indeed.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
Posts
No comments: