dslreports logo
 story category
LTE Sony Xperia ZL Sold Unlocked, $760
Pre-Orders Begin Only Through Sony Store
Sony's new Xperia ZL smartphone is coming to the United States -- but at a steep unsubsidized price since the company has yet to partner with a wireless carrier to sell the device. Pre-orders began today via the Sony store in two flavors. The C6506 model sells for $760 and features LTE support, while the C6502 sells for $720 and will work on either T-Mobile or AT&T's HSPA+ networks. The phone sports 2 GB of memory, 5" "Reality" Display, 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 16GB of storage, the out-dated Android 4.1 and a 13 megapixel camera. Sony says they'll ultimately start selling the device through other retailers, but there's still no word on if they'll ever sell the device through carriers.
view:
topics flat nest 

EliteData
EliteData
Premium Member
join:2003-07-06
Philippines

EliteData

Premium Member

Pricey...

We will soon see smartphones reaching $1,000+.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Pricey...

Here is some specs on what networks the phone will work on:
»store.sony.com/webapp/wc ··· ications

Cellular and Wireless : UMTS HSPA+ 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
LTE Band I, Band II, Band IV, Band V and Band XVII

Data Transfer Rates : GSM GPRS Up to 70.4 kbps (download). Up to 35.2 kbps (upload).

GSM EDGE Up to 236.8 kbps (download). Up to 118.4 kbps (upload).

UMTS HSPA cat 24(download) Up to 42 Mbps
UMTS HSPA cat 6 (upload) Up to 5.76 Mbps

LTE cat 3 (download) Up to 102 Mbps LTE cat 3 (upload) Up to 51 Mbps

»news.cnet.com/8301-1035_ ··· eorders/

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

1 recommendation

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Pricey...

very nice.
DC-HSPA+ on all US bands.
LTE on T-Mobile and ATT's bands.

Dump CM10.1 on there and if I was in the market for a worldphone, this would be at the top of my list.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

1 recommendation

aaronwt to EliteData

Premium Member

to EliteData
said by EliteData:

We will soon see smartphones reaching $1,000+.

$760 is inline with other top of the line unsubsidized phones. I am grandfathered into Verizons unlimited data. If I switched to their new plans it would cost me, at a minimum, an extra $1500 over two years. So even though I would get a subsidized phone for around $200, I would pay at least $1500 more over a two year period. So it's cheaper for me to pay the unsubsidized cost of a phone and stay on my grandfathered plan, since over a two year period it would cost me much less.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25 to EliteData

Member

to EliteData
Soon? The Razor was $1200 when it first came out and there were idiots that bought it.

What we will see soon is reality in pricing and $700+ for a phone of any type is not it.

It has been well documented that even the iPhone and Galaxy phones are under $200 to make. Add on all the other "cost" associated to them and they can still be sold for $300 with plenty of profit.

Eventually what you will see are corporations having to really compete in the market and then you wont see them trying to make 100%+ profit. They will be down to the the standard 8-15% profit margin on electronics.
Kamus
join:2011-01-27
El Paso, TX

Kamus to EliteData

Member

to EliteData
said by EliteData:

We will soon see smartphones reaching $1,000+.

Yeah, that's very expensive. But for the mainstream i think we'll actually see far more affordable phones with 80-90% of the performance these things offer. I wouldn't be surprised if this year we see a $200 phone from the likes of Google or amazon.

cchhat01
Dr. Zoidberg
join:2001-05-01
Elmhurst, NY

cchhat01 to EliteData

Member

to EliteData
This has me thinking "what constitutes to such high cost of a hardware"?
The recent article here on phone subsidies really got me thinking, there's no point locking devices on postpaid (which made sense).
What got me thinking even more is that subsidies made it possible for "unsubsidized" phones to be so expensive. If you inflate the cost of a subsidy, you surely have to inflate the cost of the unsubsidized version.
More cash in the hands of the device makers. I really think the price point for an unsubsidized phone is somewhere near $500 max. Anything higher is just making the device makers and shareholders happier than they should be.
mob (banned)
On the next level..
join:2000-10-07
San Jose, CA

mob (banned)

Member

MFW


Sweet Jesus
patt2k
join:2009-01-16

patt2k

Member

$$

No worries price will go down soon in just few months a year max?
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner

Premium Member

It seems Sony

... still think of themselves as the "premium" product above all, reflected in the ridiculous price tags.

Those specs are nothing spectacular beyond what HTC and Samsung have out there.

Cheese
Premium Member
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL

1 recommendation

Cheese

Premium Member

Re: It seems Sony

That has always been Sonys mentality.

habskilla
join:2005-09-19
Moncton, NB

habskilla

Member

WOW

Is this phone really worth twice as much as a Nexus 4?
puck0114
join:2005-12-24
Portland, OR

puck0114

Member

Re: WOW

No.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

1 recommendation

me1212 to habskilla

Member

to habskilla
Short answer: No.
Med answer: Nope.
Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooo

Ultibeam
join:2008-05-27
USA

Ultibeam to habskilla

Member

to habskilla
The Nexus 4 does not have "official" LTE support, and it's limited support. Xperia also has microSD support and a 1080P display. Are those worth the extra cost? It depends.
puck0114
join:2005-12-24
Portland, OR

puck0114

Member

Re: WOW

Four hundred bucks for LTE and expandable storage along with no software updates sounds pretty steep to me.

Probitas
@teksavvy.com

Probitas

Anon

not worth it

With that kind of price tag, it should have a LOT more capabilities. I can buy a walmart PC that can do more than that for half the price.
NeoandGeo
join:2003-05-10
Harrison, TN

NeoandGeo

Member

.

Anal rape without lube.

The only sentence that makes sense seeing the price tag.

cchhat01
Dr. Zoidberg
join:2001-05-01
Elmhurst, NY

cchhat01

Member

Re: .

I thought it sounded familiar...

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· pPqcln6Y

Juggernaut
Irreverent or irrelevant?
Premium Member
join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC

Juggernaut

Premium Member

Funnier yet...

said by Ultibeam:

The Nexus 4 does not have "official" LTE support, and it's limited support. Xperia also has microSD support and a 1080P display. Are those worth the extra cost? It depends.

The Nexus 4 has a 7 band LTE chip in it, likely disabled by FW. Of course, it would trash the market putting out a $350 high end device with those capabilities. LOL!

Google did it better, and cheaper than the mainstream players. And, it scares the crap out of them.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

Re: Funnier yet...

said by Juggernaut:

Google did it better, and cheaper than the mainstream players. And, it scares the crap out of them.

Exactly... now that they (the premium phone brands) can't charge this much for questionable performance, they're trying to recast themselves as luxuray items...