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Sony has long struggled to get its phones noticed in the sea of top-tier Android devices, so at MWC 2019, the company is trying a new strategy to make its phones stand out — literally — by featuring ultra-tall 21:9 displays. That starts with the Xperia 1, its new flagship. The Xperia 1 is the successor to the Xperia XZ3 that Sony released last fall. But as the name implies, Sony is viewing this as a chance to start fresh with its mobile phone brand, beginning with a new design centered on that very, very tall display. And make no mistake, the Xperia 1 — along with the more budget-friendly Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, which also will have 21:9 displays — is a tall glass of water. The screen itself is a 4K HDR OLED panel (supposedly the first on a smartphone) that measures in at 6.5 inches. The key thing here is that aspect ratio; sure, there are plenty of screens that are 6.5 inches on the diagonal, but the Xperia 1 is taller than basically all of them. There’s no notch, although ...

Less than two months after unveiling the Xperia XZ2 at Mobile World Congress, Sony is back again with the Xperia XZ2 Premium. It retains the same overall design as the XZ2 — a departure from Sony’s past phones — but upgrades the display, camera, battery, and other specs. Still no headphone jack, though. The XZ2 Premium will be available beginning this summer. Pricing has yet to be announced, but it certainly won’t be cheap. The XZ2 runs $800 unlocked, so you’re probably looking at a $900 or $1,000 phone here. Sony is putting a 5.8-inch 4K display in the XZ2 Premium, an improvement over the 5.7-inch Full HD+ (1080 x 2160) screen on the regular XZ2. Both of them support HDR video. When you’re watching videos, listening to music, or playing games, you’ll notice the new vibration system that debuted in the XZ2; it’s meant to provide rumble feedback to match whatever’s happening on screen, but feels somewhat gimmicky. The biggest upgrade here, according to Sony, is the camera. ...

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...

Changes are on the way to Sony’s smartphone lineup. The company is discontinuing its Xperia X and Xperia X Compact lines of devices, which it considers “premium standard” (midrange), Sony announced at its investor conference, according to XperiaBlog. Sony has decided to shift its focus to its flagship devices, and says it will launch at least two new devices that fit into that category before the end of the year under the Xperia name. Given the trend of smartphones and Sony’s design prowess, those devices should be something interesting to say the least. But as usual with Sony smartphones, the software will remain the big question. Sony usually unveils its flagship device at IFA in September, so it shouldn’t be too long before we see new devices from the fabled company. TheVerge

Meet the future of Sony flagships - well, what will be future. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium and its 5.5” 4K are scheduled to land in “late Spring” while the smaller 5.2” Sony Xperia XZs will arrive earlier (in April) to dazzle us with its cool new camera, which Sony will be marketing as Motion Eye. Sony Xperia XZ Premium: That’s what Sony calls the camera used on both the XZ Premium and XZs. Its crowning achievement is 960fps slow motion video - that allows to slow down time 4x slower than current cameraphones. It also features an “anti-distortion shutter” which minimizes rolling shutter. Both features are enabled by Sony’s unique memory-stacked sensor. The slow-mo video is captured at 720p, though, not 1080p. But hold on, the Xperia XZ Premium will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 chipset (we guess that’s the reason behind the delayed launch). The chipset is hooked up to 4GB of RAM and will run Android 7.0, naturally. 4K screens are back, this time around with a much-improv...

Sony revamped both the bezel-light 5” mid-ranger and the selfie-holic 6” Ultra model under the new XA1 heading. Seriously, though, the cameras on these two phones punch well above their weight category. Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra: We remember the previous Ultra as being only the second phone with an OIS-enabled selfie camera (behind the HTC 10 flagship). The Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra continues that proud tradition with an impressive 16MP 1/2.6” sensor coupled with a 23mm (equiv.) f/2.0 lens with autofocus and a dedicated LED flash. Again, that’s the selfie camera even though those are main camera specs. The main camera itself is no slouch either - 23MP 1/2.3” sensor, 24mm (equiv.) f/2.0 lens and SteadyShot (no OIS here, though). The other thing we remember about the previous model was its size. The XA1 Ultra brings back the substantial 6” screen with 1080p resolution. The company managed to make the phone lighter, and it weighs less than the XZ Premium, cool! Sony upgrade...