Assuming you have a decent job, buying a smartphone with bleeding edge hardware specifications is easy. But no matter how much money you have, buying a flagship Android phone that’s easy to use in one hand is simply impossible … at least it will be for the next 10 days. Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo has finally announced when the 4.3 inch Sony Xperia Z1F is going to launch: December 19th.
So why should you care about this phone? Snapdragon 800, 2 GB of RAM, 20 megapixel camera, and a screen that’s just 4.3 inches on the diagonal. No, it’s not 1080p, it’s “only” 720p, but come on, this thing is a dream device for those who have been sitting on the sidelines of the size race, pumping their fists in the air with feelings of discontent and disappointment. Now for the big question: Will this phone launch outside Sony’s home country of Japan? I honestly don’t know. Sony hasn’t said yes, but they haven’t said no, either. The Consumer Electronics Show is less than a month away, and that’s usually where Sony announces new smartphones, so if any announcement about US and European availability is going to happen, it’s going to be there. Will other companies try to take a page out of Sony’s book and build “small” flagship phones? The world can only hope. If the rumors about Samsung’s 500+ pixel per inch Galaxy S5 are true, then that means you can fit a 1080p panel on a 4.4 inch piece of glass. That would be perfect, but you and I both know such a screen will never get mass produced.
