Sony Xperia Z: Three Reasons Sony's Smartphone Will Challenge Samsung and Apple

While eagerly awaiting the Sony Xperia Z's release date, more and more features of the Xperia Z are being talked about on the tech blogosphere. Sony's new flagship smartphone does have great specs, but here are the three other Sony-original, exclusive features that will make the Sony Xperia Z a serious threat to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S series.

First, though, to play in the big leagues, you have to have the muscle. Sony's Xperia Z will come with the specs to compete with the upcoming generation of top smartphones.

It features a 5-inch display with full HD (1080p), a 1.5GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel rear camera. The Xperia Z will have 16GB of storage built-in, with up to 32GB through an SD card. It will come with Android Jelly Bean 4.1, but according to rumors, that will be updated shortly after the Xperia Z's release to Android 4.2, the latest version of Android currently only found on Google-branded Nexus devices.

But to stick out in an increasingly crowded field of 5-inch phablets, you've got to have something that makes your device special, the way Samsung made a PR spectical out of the Galaxy S3's tap to share ability.

These three features of the Xperia Z, in order of importance and exclusivity, will thrust Sony back into the spotlight.

3. Charging Chums
The Xperia Z isn't Sony's only hopeful game-changer, as a lot of buzz has been about the Xperia Tablet Z, which hopes to be the thinnest tablet in the world. Sony has made the Tablet Z capable of charging the Xperia Z with just a micro USB cable. This is great synergy between products for Sony, and it's surprising that it's an original feature. It just makes sense: a tablet with a bigger battery should be able to charge a phone with a smaller one.

2. Image Fidelity
In about six months, having a smartphone with a 13 megapixel camera is not going to be unusual, but what Sony's Xperia Z does with their hardware is. As seen on Gottabemobile, the Xperia Z has features like HDR photo and video, panoramic image capture, low light photography and image stabilization. What that amounts to is better looking photos no matter the situation. Here's an example of how much nicer the colors look from an Xperia Z phone, compared to an Apple iPhone 5 and Oppo Find 5.

Also, as we reported earlier, the Xperia Z looks like it will have custom screen calibration, so the images on the screen can be customized to fit your viewing conditions.

1. It Works UNDERWATER!
The Sony Xperia Z can be submerged in up to a meter of water and for up to 30 minutes and still work. This made it the biggest hit at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, from which the Xperia Z emerged as the most talked-about device of the show.

In the video below, the Xperia Z continues to stream music to a Bluetooth speaker while completely submerged. And it has a wet-finger detector, so after taking the phone back out of the water, it instantly responded to touch commands.