Sony Xperia XZ1 to launch in India on 25 September; first smartphone with Android Oreo

Sony Mobile India has started sending out invites to the media inviting them to a launch event on 25 September. While the device in question has not been specified a teaser in the invite reveals bits of the Xperia XZ1.

The Sony Xperia XZ1 along with its smaller sibling the Xperia XZ1 Compact and the phablet-sized XA1 Plus were announced together at the recent IFA Berlin. The XZ1 that is expected to launch in India on 25 September is the company’s current flagship offering and comes with some interesting hardware bits.

There’s a 5.2-inch Triluminous full HD display with a layer of Gorilla Glass 5 on the top. Below it sits a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset paired with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage.

As for the cameras, Sony has stuck with a single lens system as opposed to the dual camera setup used by most manufacturers today. The primary camera consists of a 19 MP Motion Eye camera featuring a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS mobile memory stacked sensor.

Moving to the front-facing camera, the Sony Xperia XZ1 gets a bigger 13 MP sensor. The device comes with the usual stack of connectivity options found on flagships smartphones.

Hardware aside, Sony seems to be the first smartphone manufacturer to offer Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. This is a big deal as most of the flagship smartphones released this year in India are still stuck on Android Nougat with many promising upgrades to Android Oreo.

Over the years, Sony has refused to launch the Compact or ‘mini’ version of its flagship devices. So we aren’t expecting them to launch the Xperia XZ1 Compact model this year either.