The Sony Xperia XZ is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by Sony. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public along with the Xperia X Compact at a press conference held at the annual IFA event last September 1, 2016. The Xperia XZ was first released in Taiwan on September 30, 2016, with worldwide sales starting with the United Arab Emirates on October 1 and the United States the following day; its home country Japan just starting sales last November 2, 2016.
The device serves as the true successor of the Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z series as a whole, and Sony's latest flagship after the Xperia Z5 Premium. The Xperia X Performance was thought by many to be the successor of the Xperia Z5 as it was often mistaken before, but that wasn't the case. Nonetheless, the Xperia XZ is also the successor of the Xperia X Performance and the second flagship in the Xperia X series.
It is also one of the first smartphone manufactured by Sony to utilize the USB Type-C connectivity for charging and data transfer. Compared to its predecessors, the rear camera of the Xperia XZ now has laser autofocus, a first for Sony, built-in alongside the hybrid contrast/phase detection autofocus also found on the previous flagship. It also the first Sony device to sport an RGBC-IR color sensor to assist the image sensor in capturing accurate colors, temperature and white balance and the first smartphone to feature a five-axis sensor-shift image stabilization system for capturing blur-free photos and videos.