Japan’s Sony Xperia Z4 to relaunch as ‘Sony Xperia Z3+’ internationally

When the Sony Xperia Z4 was announced a few weeks ago, we were particularly harsh on Sony. The company didn’t do much to the Z3 to warrant a numerical jump in its naming scheme, and while the device wasn’t supposed to reach international shores, the company has come up with a cunning plan.

It’s not so much as an Xperia Z4 than it is an upgrade of the Z3, and thus Sony has decided that it will relaunch the Sony Xperia Z3+ to markets beyond Japanese borders.

Read more: 5 features we’d love to see on the Sony Xperia Z5

The new name makes a lot more sense, and keeps up with the Apple-like naming convention.

As for the device itself, there really isn’t anything different from the Sony Xperia Z4 that the company released earlier this year. It boasts a 5.2-inch 1080p screen but now boasts 3GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, with eight cores and a rather lofty clock speed of 2.1GHz on the sprightlier cores.

Of course, the changes are mainly in terms of battery size, device size (it’s a whole lot slimmer) and the lack of port covers for its amphibious tendencies. It’s still waterproof though, unlike Samsung’s Galaxy S6, a feature which the Korean manufacturer stripped from the S5.

It’s a welcome upgrade from the brilliant Sony Xperia Z3, and with its new name, it should do well in international markets. But does it make sense for Sony to launch a stop gap instead of a more refined flagship. And what does this mean for the next international Sony flagship?