Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium set for a 30 July launch in the US for a whopping $999

The Sony **Xperia XZ2 Premium** , which was unveiled earlier this year in April, has finally been given a release date and price tag. The phone is set to launch in the US on 30 July for a mind-boggling price of $999. To put things into perspective, the iPhone X has a starting price of $999. [caption id=“attachment_4617101” align=“alignnone” width=“1000”] Sony Xperia XZ 2 Premium.[/caption] Xperia XZ2 Premium can be pre-ordered in the US on Amazon and Best Buy. If users are to pre-order the phone on Amazon, they will also receive a pair of Xperia Ear Duo wireless headphones for free. Sony has abandoned its block-styled design for its XZ lineup and instead adopted a new back which has a slight curve, quite like the HTC U11. So what exactly makes this phone so costly? The Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium is Sony’s first end to end 4K HDR product offering that enables customers to not just shoot 4K HDR video but view it on a 4K HDR display as well. However, the display remains a standard 16:9 unit similar to its siblings and does not follow the current 18:9 trend. [caption id=“attachment_4617131” align=“alignnone” width=“1000”] Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium Camera.[/caption] Inside the phone, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC paired with 6 GB RAM (instead of 4 GB on the standard model) and 64 GB of storage (expandable up to 400 GB). The optics is where Sony seems to have invested most of its money in. The XZ2 Premium has a dual camera setup with a 19 MP f/1.8 primary sensor and a 12 MP black and white secondary unit with a f/1.6 aperture. Both rear cameras are powered by Sony’s Bionz mobile image-processing engine and the AUBE fusion ISP that can deliver 960 fps super slow motion video recording. There’s also 5-axis image stabilization. On the front 13 MP unit with a 22 mm wide-angle lens, f.2.0 aperture which also offers 5-axis image stabilization on the front-facing camera. Connectivity options include support for 4G LTE (Cat 18) with download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, DLNA and a USB 3.1 Gen1 port at the bottom end. The smartphone runs Android O and is powered by a 3,540 mAh battery that comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support. There is currently no information on when the device plans to come to India.