Sony Xperia Z in India for Rs 38,990: Can it hold up against the competition?

The Sony Xperia Z has been launched in India today. This is Sony’s flagship smartphone and the device is already up for pre-order on Flipkart for a price of Rs 38,990, and Sony has priced the device at exactly the same amount. For Sony, this is an important device as it will compete with all the other high-end devices in the market. Here’s a look at some of the key competition for the Xperia Z in India when it comes to some key factors. Price: At Rs 38,900, the Sony Xperia Z is a tad too expensive than the recently launched LG Optimus G, which was priced at Rs 34,500, but is now retailing for Rs 30,990 on Flipkart. The Xperia Z is of course much less than either the iPhone 5 priced at Rs 45,500 or the BlackBerry Z10 which is Rs 43,490. Of course, the Samsung Galaxy S III is now available for as low as Rs 28,000 in India but with the Galaxy S IV coming out this month and perhaps hitting India by April, Samsung’s latest offering won’t come cheap. Like the S III, the S IV is likely to retail at Rs 40 k and higher in the initial phase. The HTC Butterfly, HTC’s latest Phablet, which also has a 5-inch screen like the Xperia is priced at Rs 45,500 in India. In terms of price, the Xperia Z is well-placed in the 30k and above range, though the price could come down. But it does have a strong competitor in LG’s Optimus G which has similar specifications and a lower price. [caption id=“attachment_650237” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Sony Xperia Z in this file photo. AFP[/caption] Processor and space: Sony’s Xperia Z like the HTC Butterfly, the Samsung Galaxy S III, and the LG Optimus G is a quad-core smartphone. The Xperia Z has a Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5Ghz and comes with 2GB RAM along with 16GB built-in space and a microSD card slot with 32GB as the maximum limit. Samsung Galaxy S III has 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 processor with 1 GB RAM in India. The iPhone 5 has a dual-core A6 CPU processor which is believed to be clocked at 1.3 Ghz and comes with 1GB RAM. BlackBerry Z10 has a dual-core processor and 2 GB RAM, The Xperia Z does have more RAM than the S III and iPhone 5 phones for now, but remember S III is nearly a year old, and the S IV is already expected to come with specs designed to blow the competition away. ( More on that here ) BlackBerry Z10 comes with 16 GB memory and a microSD slot with 32 GB as maximum space limit. The iPhone 5 of course comes with fixed memory space; 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions. The Samsung Galaxy S III is available in 16 and 32 GB versions with a 64 GB microSDX slot option. HTC Butterfly has only 16 GB space with space for a 32GB MicroSD slot.The LG Optimus G comes with 32GB space but no slot for a MicroSD card. The Xperia Z can match up to most of Android its competitors in terms of processing and memory space. Camera: Like the LG Optimus G, the Xperia Z also comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera. Both phones have much better cameras than the rest of the devices in the market. The Samsung Galaxy S III, iPhone 5, BlackBerry Z10 and the HTC Butterfly all have eight megapixel cameras. If all you care about is the number of megapixels on your camera, then the Xperia Z and LG Optimus G are great options. OS : Like the latest Android phones, the Xperia Z runs Android 4.1.2 version of Jelly Bean but Sony has promised that users will get the 4.2 update soon after the launch, reports IBN-Live.  HTC Butterfly has 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and it’s not sure when the phone will get the 4.2 version.  The Samsung Galaxy S III has got the Jelly Bean 4.1 update. The iPhone of course runs the iOS, while the BlackBerry Z10 runs on the latest BlackBerry 10 OS.