Sony Xperia Z5 Australian release date, pricing and hands-on
Sony's newest Android phone boasts a 23 megapixel camera.
Sony's premium smartphone for 2015 is the Xperia Z5. In a market dominated by mobiles from Apple and Samsung, Sony's latest Android handset has some unique features. After spending a little hands-on time with the Z5, here are five reasons you might want to consider the Xperia Z5 as your next handset.
Very quick camera
It's no secret that most of the camera optics in smartphones are Sony built and designed, so it makes sense that Sony would save the best for its own devices . The Xperia Z5's 23MP sensor has a blindingly fast 0.03s focus rate for quick photo taking.
Integrated fingerprint sensor
Every phone manufacturer is doing fingerprint unlocking these days, but Sony's approach is to put the fingerprint sensor directly into the side power button, meaning that a single button press powers up the Z5 and unlocks it.
A range of size and power options
While everyone else is playing the bigger-is-better game (see the iPhone 6s Plus and the Galaxy S6 edge+, Sony is catering for fans of both large and small smartphones. As well as the regular Z5, it offers the cheaper and smaller Z5 compact and the larger Z5 Premium, which features a 4K 5.5 inch display.
Water and dust resistance
You can't exactly go swimming in the sea with the Xperia Z5, but its IP65/68 rating means that you can get it reasonably wet without fuss. Unlike previous generations of waterproof phones, there's no annoying seal over the microUSB charging port, either.
microSD expansion
Many premium Android phones are eschewing storage expansion capabilities and iPhones have never offered that option, which is a pain if you have a lot of photos, music, video or apps to store on your phone. The Xperia Z5 supports microSD expansion so you can bump up its storage at will, to a maximum of 200GB.
The Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 go on sale in Australia from October 10 for $999 and $849 outright respectively, while the Z5 Premium will cost $1,199 when it goes on sale in November. We'll update with details of how to buy them on contract when that information is released.
