Sony announces waterproof Xperia ZR, lets you shoot Full HD videos underwater

Sony has officially announced the younger sibling of Xperia Z, it’s called Xperia ZR. This one comes with some real special capabilities that the flagship Xperia Z doesn’t have (more on that later).

By the looks of it, the design is particularly the same but the ZR will ship with a smaller 4.6-inch, 1280 x 720 resolution LCD display. It’s running on a Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU clocked at 1.5 Ghz with 2 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory with a microSD card slot and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

Let’s jump to those special capabilities. The ZR will be waterproof and dust-resistant with a IP55 and IP58 certification. This makes it capable of being submerged up until 5 feet underwater, as compared to Xperia Z which could go only till 3.3 feet in water. But wait, what should I do with a phone after taking it 5 feet below the water? Turns out that you can click 13-megapixel snaps as well as record Full HD videos using  the Exmos RS sensor featuring 16x digital zoom with auto-focus and Sony’ giving out a dedicated hardware shutter button to ease the capturing underwater. It can survive under freshwater for up to 30 minutes. The image sensor can capture in HDR (High Dynamic Range) for both photos and videos.

There is no pricing details available as of now, but we expect it to launch across the globe by Q2 2013. Till that time enjoy the promos by Sony given below.

(Source)