For whatever reason, justified or not, it has become common practice to sometimes have variations of the same device model for different countries. While majority of those differences are usually related to network support, it seems that Sony is making quite a substantial difference in its latest Xperia Z1 flagship exclusively for Japan.

After a series of unintentional and intentional leaks, the Sony Xperia Z1, previously nicknamed as “Honami”, was finally unveiled at the IFA trade show early last September. The 5-inch smartphone sports the usual specs of a current generation high-end device but it’s selling point, aside from its impressive full HD BRAVIA display, is it’s 20.7 megapixel rear camera. You can brush up on the Xperia Z1’s features in our hands-on piece here.

Based on a leaked brochure, Sony is seemingly planning something special for its home market. The Xperia Z1 will apparently have an IR blaster for TV remote control, as well as support for the NOTTV smartphone-only TV station. These features might not be such a big deal outside of TV-loving Japan, except for the fact that the smartphone will also ship with 32 GB of internal storage. In contrast, the version we got to try only had 16 GB out of the box.

On one hand, it might make sense for Sony to focus its TV remote control features in its strongest market, but on the other hand, it should probably start shipping IR blasters on its devices in line with its push to get its TVs into every home. And while the Xperia Z1 does have a microSD slot, it would definitely be nice to have a bigger storage capacity without havng to fumble with tiny data cards.

VIA: Xperia Blog

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