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.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. They were announced on September 7, 2016, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco by Apple CEO Tim Cook, and released on September 16, 2016, succeeding the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as the current flagship devices in the iPhone series. Apple also released the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in numerous worldwide countries throughout September and October 2016.
The iPhone 7's overall design is similar to the iPhone 6S, but introduces new color options, water and dust resistance, a new capacitive, static home key, and removes the 3.5 mm headphone jack. The device's internal hardware also received upgrades, including a heterogeneous quad-core system-on-chip with improved system and graphics performance, and upgraded 12 megapixel rear-facing cameras with optical image stabilization on all models and an additional telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus model to provide enhanced zoom capabilities.
Reception of the iPhone 7 was mixed. Although reviewers noted the improvements to the camera, especially the dual rear camera on the Plus model, they also stated that the iPhone 7 did not make significant changes to the display or build quality, where competing flagship smartphones surpassed the quality of the iPhone 7. Many reviews highlighted the controversial lack of a 3.5 mm headphone jack, with reactions ranging from "user-hostile and stupid" to "positive step forward for the mobile industry"
