Sony Xperia Z Release Date: T-Mobile Weeks Away from Carrying Sony's Smartphone

Sony's best attempt yet to compete with other flagship smartphones, the Xperia Z, is being released in the United States after a long wait following its launch in Japan and other countries. T-Mobile will carry the Xperia Z exclusively in the U.S. giving the "uncarrier" a new edge over its bigger rivals.

T-Mobile announced that it would exclusively carry the Sony Xperia Z on Tuesday, June 17, 2013, and while an exact release date and pricing plans were not part of T-Mobile's announcement, the company did state that it "will offer the device on its Simple Choice Plan with no annual service contract plus unlimited talk, text and Web" on the company's 4G and 4G LTE networks, the latter of which is available in select cities right now.

"T-Mobile customers traveling this summer will love the Xperia Z with its big, beautiful HD screen, water-resistant design and advanced camera features," said Jason Young, T-Mobile's vice president of product marketing. "This is an outstanding combination: a premium 4G LTE smartphone with Sony's best features coupled with T-Mobile's unlimited data and speedy nationwide network."

The Sony Xperia Z will be a powerful competitor for the U.S. "uncarrier," and for Sony, with specs that match up very well against some of the top smartphones, like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Xperia Z comes with a 1920 x 1080 full high definition display on a 5-inch screen. It's powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, clocked at 1.5GHz, assisted by 2GB RAM. It's got a 13-megapixel camera with a high dynamic range sensor for video capture and a 2.2-megapixel front-facing camera. It will run Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean right out of the box, with an upgrade to 4.2.2 available.

Perhaps Sony's biggest selling point with the Xperia Z is the fact that it is rated for up to 30 minutes underwater at a three-foot depth, which very few premium smartphones offer, though Samsung's Galaxy S4 Active variant was just recently announced with the same capability.