Sony and Verizon Wireless have developed a new smartphone, the Xperia Z3V, which will be sold in the U.S. starting later this month.
The smartphone is a variant of the Xperia Z3, which was announced at the IFA trade show in Berlin last month. The smartphone will be sold for US$199 through Verizon with a two-year mobile contract, the companies said at an event Thursday in New York.
The Z3V smartphone has a 5.2-inch screen and looks and feels just like the Z3, but there are subtle differences. The Z3V has wireless charging and offers a longer battery life of two hours. The Z3 has one-and-a-half hours of battery life.
The Z3V also lets users play PlayStation 4 games remotely on their phones with the Remote Play feature.
The Z3V has the same 20.7-megapixel rear camera as the Z3, but advanced software to shoot and edit pictures.
Other features include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution screen and a 2.2-megapixel front camera. It runs on the Android 4.4 OS, code-named KitKat. The smartphone is also waterproof.
The Xperia Z3V is the effective successor to the Z2, which shipped just six months ago, and has received good reviews. But PC Advisor says that the hardware in the Z3 is similar to that of its predecessor, so there's no major reason to upgrade.
Sony's U.S. mobile business has struggled. But the company is committed to that market, said Kunimasa Suzuki, president and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications, at the event. The Z3V is central to the company's plans for the market, which also include bringing all of gaming, movie, music and device assets together.
The Z3V was one of many product availability announcements made at the press conference. Verizon will sell Sony's Smartwatch 3 starting later this month, though no price was announced.
The Smartwatch 3 was also announced at IFA. It will run on Google's Android Wear OS and offer two days of battery life, said Jeff Dietel, vice president of marketing at Verizon Wireless, at Thursday's event.
The Smartwatch 3 will support touch, voice and gesture input. It will show reminders, notifications and information from the Web. It will join a growing market of smartwatches based on Android Wear, along with watches from Samsung, LG and Motorola.
Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com