{"id":404524,"date":"2018-02-26T11:56:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T11:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=404524"},"modified":"2018-02-26T11:56:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T11:56:29","slug":"sony-phone-adds-rumble-games-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=404524","title":{"rendered":"Sony phone adds rumble to games and films"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sony’s latest top-end smartphone vibrates in time with movie and TV action scenes and video games.<\/p>\n

The Xperia XZ2’s rumble tech adapts a feature originally developed for the firm’s PlayStation controllers.<\/p>\n

It also records “super-slow-mo” videos at a higher resolution than Samsung’s Galaxy S9.<\/p>\n

Sony has, however, pioneered other phone innovations in the past – including a 4K screen and waterproofing – only to see its sales still struggle.<\/p>\n

In 2017, it was only ranked the 15th best-selling smartphone manufacturer, according to research firm IDC, with a 0.94% share of the market.<\/p>\n

“It is very frustrating when we bring something out to the market first, and maybe the competition comes a year later and does kind of the same thing and gets more buzz around it,” acknowledged Sony’s senior manager Adam Marsh.<\/p>\n

“We will definitely be improving how we go to market with the product this time to really ensure the consumers understand the experiences that we can offer.”<\/p>\n

But analysts question both the appeal of the new features and also whether the firm is willing to spend enough to market them.<\/p>\n

\"SonyThe Xperia XZ2’s 5.7in screen can show video in HDR colour<\/span><\/figure>\n

“The rumble tech is a bit of a gimmick,” commented Ben Stanton from the consultancy Canalys.<\/p>\n

“I’ve tried it. It does make gaming more immersive, but I don’t think it works very well in a video context.<\/p>\n

“And I don’t think it adds the value that consumers are looking for in a smartphone these days”<\/p>\n

CCS Insight’s Ben Wood added that he thought the phone’s new industrial design was a major improvement on the past, but that he also had doubts about the new flagship’s prospects.<\/p>\n

“Success often comes down to marketing dollars and brand,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Taking on Apple and Samsung requires eye-watering investment that Sony is always going to struggle with.”<\/p>\n

Higher-def slow-mo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The XZ2’s other new features centre on its camera.<\/p>\n

Last year’s model was the first phone to be able to stretch out 0.2 seconds’ worth of action to create six seconds of footage, in 720p resolution.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Samsung made much fanfare of adding a similar feature to its new phones on Sunday.<\/p>\n

But Sony has now trumped that by delivering its 960 frames-per-second footage in 1080p – twice the resolution that its South Korean competitor offers.<\/p>\n

It said it had achieved this by using a customised version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chip that features its own image signal processor technology.<\/p>\n

\"SamsungSamsung executive DJ Koh introduced the Galaxy S9 at Mobile World Congress this week<\/span><\/figure>\n

The potential problem for the firm, however, is that early reports indicate Samsung’s version is much easier to use.<\/p>\n

“Sony hasn’t done much to tweak the user interface since last year’s model, where it was pretty poorly executed and very difficult to capture the key moment,” said Mr Stanton.<\/p>\n

“And Samsung has done some brilliant work with AI and image recognition to capture the fast moments as they happen – it’s actually learned from Sony’s mistakes to launch something better, even though technically it’s not to as high a standard.”<\/p>\n

Another new camera technology in the XZ2 is the ability to record 4K videos in both a high dynamic range format – meaning images should appear more vibrant and realistic when played back on a compatible screen – as well as in 10-bit colour.<\/p>\n

\"XZ2Sony is also releasing a “compact” version of the XZ2 phone with a smaller display but otherwise similar specifications<\/span><\/figure>\n

The latter feat means that users will be able to tweak the colour of the resulting footage with less risk of causing banding and other visual artifacts.<\/p>\n

While this is likely to only appeal to a relatively small number of film-makers, it is significant as the firm has yet to offer the facility to many of its high-end cameras.<\/p>\n

‘Not for sale’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sony’s mobile division was the only part of the company to report a loss in its last financial quarter and there has been speculation that the business might be shut down or sold off.<\/p>\n

The firm is about to change its chief executive, and the new boss – Kenichiro Yoshida – was previously responsible for selling off its Vaio PC business and cutting the budget of the mobile division.<\/p>\n

Sony has, however, denied that it is actively considering spinning off or shutting down the unit.<\/p>\n

\"SonyThe new phone can take 3D selfies of its user’s face<\/span><\/figure>\n

“As you can see from our announcements and presence at Mobile World Congress, we are fully committed to the mobile sector,” marketing chief Hideyuki Furumi told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“As long as Sony remains committed to the electronics business, mobile will be of strategic significance due to its R&D prospects for delivering numerous cutting-edge technologies such as 5G networks, the internet-of-things and 3D-sensing.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sony’s latest top-end smartphone vibrates in time with movie and TV action scenes and video games. The Xperia XZ2’s rumble tech adapts a feature originally developed for the firm’s PlayStation controllers. It also records “super-slow-mo” videos at a higher resolution than Samsung’s Galaxy S9. Sony has, however, pioneered other phone innovations in the past – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":404528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/404528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}