The Sony Xperia Z1 refresh that we have heard about so much recently has today been formally announced for China Mobile as the Xperia Z1 4G (L39t). This is the second Sony Xperia launched on China Mobile with TD-LTE bands, following on from the Xperia SP (M35t) earlier in the year. The Xperia Z1 (L39t) will launch in both black and purple for CNY 4,499 (£454, €539, $741).
As previously seen, the device is largely the same as the Xperia Z1, although it does sport some differences including no microSD memory card support – instead the Xperia Z1 4G (L39t) comes with 32GB internal storage versus 16GB in the global model.
Other differences include a plastic frame instead of the aluminium frame of the global Xperia Z1. The headphone jack is now placed in the centre of the handset, compared to the global Xperia Z1 which has it on the left edge. Lastly, the front facing camera of the L39t is on the left side of the SONY logo, versus the right on the global Xperia Z1.
Press pics: Xperia Z1 (L39t) for China Mobile
From what we can tell, the hardware under the hood remains the same and includes a Snapdragon 800 chipset (MSM8974) with 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 5-inch FHD Triluminos display, 20.7MP camera and 3000mAh embedded battery. The phone will launch with Android 4.2.2 firmware – at today’s press event handsets were running build version 14.1.M.0.177.
When we first saw pictures of a slightly modified Xperia Z1, we thought that Sony may be launching it with a new SoC and other hardware features. Obviously this is not the case now, however there is still a chance that this phone will launch in other markets such as T-Mobile in the United States under the ‘Xperia Z1s’ name we heard about previously.
Xperia Z1 (L39t) unboxing pics via Digi-Wo
Xperia Z1 (L39t) versus Global Xperia Z1 comparison pics via ePrice
Thanks Ben!
