Sony Xperia XZ Premium was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2017, going into the books of record as the first phone to be announced powered with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC.
But despite this early step into the market, it appears that the Xperia XZ Premium might still be overtaken by other OEMs in actually making Snapdragon 835-powered phones available for purchase in different markets across the globe. We’ve already seen flagship phones from HTC and LG, but none of them has the latest chipset, instead, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are expected to lead the way in debuting this advanced processor in the smartphone market.
This can be confirmed thanks to details available on various UK retailers that include Unlocked Mobiles, Amazon UK and Clove. According to Unlocked Mobiles, the new Sony Xperia XZ Premium will be available for pre-orders as early as April 17 for a price of £640. This is about the same time that Samsung is expected to start selling the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and it makes perfect sense for the Japanese company to come in with pre-sales at this point. Even though the pre-order date is confirmed, the retailer doesn’t reveal anything about the shipping date. On the brighter side, Amazon UK has more accurate details on the release date.
Apparently, Sony Xperia XZ Premium will be released in the UK on June 1, which is more than a month after going up for pre-orders on Unlocked Mobiles. Whether this release date also affects the latter retailer or not is still unknown. On the contrary, those who buy the XZ Premium from the former will have to pay an extra £9 as the phone is priced at £649.
As far as Clove is concerned, the Xperia XZ Premium will be priced at the same £649 and is expected in the first week of June, but there’s no specific date.
Other than Snapdragon 835 SoC, the Xperia XZ Premium ships with a 5.5-inch 4K display screen with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The SD835 is paired with an Adreno 540 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Even though the new USB-C port is there, you still get the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack. The back has a 19MP shooter while the front ships with a 13MP lens. To keep the phone alive is a 3230mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging and software-wise, you get the latest Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.