Sony has churned out another flagship smartphone for the Western world, and surprise, surprise, it looks very similar to the rest of the Xperia Z models that Sony has released over the past two or three years.
The new Xperia Z3+ is very similar to the Xperia Z4 that was announced for the Japanese market last month. In fact the only difference is in the name, reflecting the smartphone's incremental update over last year's Xperia Z3.
Internally, the Xperia Z3+ packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, an upgrade over the Snapdragon 801 in the Xperia Z3. To make the phone marginally slimmer (6.9mm versus 7.3mm in last year's Z3), Sony has reduced the size of the battery by 200 mAh, resulting in a 2,900 mAh internal cell that also makes the phone lighter.
The Xperia Z3+ includes a 5.1-megapixel front-facing camera, an improvement over the previous 2.1-megapixel sensor. And for those that were constantly annoyed by the flaps around the Xperia Z3's waterproof body, the Xperia Z3+ has an exposed micro-USB port while retaining IP65/68 water resistance.
Most of the remaning Xperia Z3+'s specifications are the same as its predecessor, including the 5.2-inch 1080p IPS display, the 20.7-megapixel rear camera, and 3 GB of RAM.
There's no word yet on how much the Xperia Z3+ will cost but an educated guess would suggest it would match the Z3's price at launch. The Z3+ is set to be released globally in June alongside the Xperia Z4 Tablet.