Sony cuts pre-order pricing for Xperia Z5 phones, may release a Japan-only Z5

By Jason Hahn September 6, 2015

sony cuts initial prices for xperia z5 phones may release a japan only compact premium

Sony’s recently announced line of Xperia Z5 smartphones has earned the company plenty of buzz, which may have led to a slight overreach on initial pricing for those new devices. Shortly after putting up the Xperia Z5, Xperia Z5 Compact, and Xperia Z5 Premium smartphones for pre-order on its site, Sony decided to cut a sizable portion off the initial prices.

On September 3, the Xperia Z5 line of phones was listed on Sony’s U.K. online store: 549 pounds (about $833) for the Z5 Compact, 599 pounds (about $909) for the Z5, and 699 pounds (about $1,060) for the Z5 Premium. The next day, those prices were knocked down to 429 pounds (about $651) for the Z5 Compact, 549 pounds (about $833) for the Z5, and 629 pounds (about $954) for the Z5 Premium, as observed by uSwitch.com.

Those markdowns equate to a 22 percent decrease in price for the Z5 Compact, an 8 percent decrease in price for the Z5, and a 10 percent decrease in price for the Z5 Premium.

“While it’s possible that weak day-one figures prompted the price cut, it seems more plausible to us that Sony independently decided it pitched its prices too high and opted to give its new phones more of a fighting chance,” according to uSwitch.com, which reached out to Sony’s PR team for more details.

In other Sony Xperia Z5 news, a tech site based in China recently discovered signs of a fourth Z5 phone: the Xperia Z5 Compact Premium. While the smartphone looks to have the same Snapdragon 810 processor as the Z5 Compact, it will evidently have 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB, a 1080p display instead of a 720p display, and a bigger battery. The catch for this unconfirmed sighting: the Z5 Compact Premium appears to be a Japan-only device.

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Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…

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