Nother CarGuy

Sony is putting effort into its smartphones again. The company’s new XZ2 and XZ2 Compact shrink down the chunky bezels of their predecessors (to an extent) and feature the same taller, slimmer displays that helped Samsung, LG, and other companies roundly outclass Sony’s smartphone design last year. Both new Sony phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, the latest and greatest silicon that will be inside most of 2018’s Android flagships. They’re scheduled to ship this spring, with pricing to be announced later. This time around, Sony isn’t overdoing it with a gimmicky 4K screen. The XZ2’s 5.7-inch, FHD+ (2160 x 1080) display has a 2:1 aspect ratio. The top and bottom bezels have been significantly downsized. There’s still enough room for Sony to put its name at the bottom of the phone, so the company isn’t quite at par with Samsung, LG, or OnePlus. But this is certainly an improvement. The screen supports HDR and Sony says it automatically up-converts SDR content ...

Sony’s Mobile World Congress plans seem to have leaked out ahead of time: details for its new flagship Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact smartphones have hit the internet a few days early, according to Evan Blass at VentureBeat. According to Blass, Sony will be announcing the 5.7-inch XZ2 (a follow-up to last year’s XZ1 model) alongside a smaller 5.0-inch XZ2 Compact model (which had a prototype show up online earlier this week). Both phones are said to offer Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 processor and ship with Android Oreo. Sony will reportedly be offering the same 19-megapixel, ƒ/1.8 camera from the XZ Premium. (That might not be a good thing, given that my colleague Vlad Savov found it to be fairly unreliable in his tests last year.) Also included is a rear fingerprint sensor, as opposed to the button-based sensors Sony has used in the past. Hopefully the company will continue the trend from the Xperia XA2 and offer fingerprint functionality in the US. There are a few...