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The Sony Xperia ZL is coming the US, but it won’t be available on the cheap. Currently up for pre-order and being offered without the aid of any carrier subsidy, the counterpart to the Xperia Z will ship April 8th. Interested buyers can reserve theirs now for $759.99. At least shipping is free…
The Xperia ZL is an “ultra high end” handset featuring a 1080p 5-inch display, 13MP camera, and compact design. Still, good luck convincing anyone to drop down close to a grand up front on the phone. If you just have to have the latest from Sony, though, follow the link below to throw money at Sony.
[via Sony]
Ummm…. wow.
That price came out of left field…
Sony’s kinda pricing themselves out of competition.
If they made it $550 flat out, I think that would have been a contender, but not at over $700
If that price tag sticks here in Denmark, I could go for it! But probably going to be more like $900 :-/
$760?! And that’s before taxes. After taxes it’s $800+. Absolutely ridiculous. Leave it to Sony to over price themselves out of competition.
except in Delaware. No sales tax ;-)
Why doesn’t Delaware have taxes?
I’m so used to our 8.025 tax rate. Does California have an 11 cent tax because Google be charging me about 11 cents tax on Google Play purchases.
idk, Delaware just doesn’t have sales tax. it great! Don’t know how much money I’ve saved not paying sales tax.
Strange that you pay an 11% tax on the play store. No tax for me there either.
Aww, Sony… you were doing so good up to this point. Right at the end you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yes, they’re basically saying “if you were on the fence about a ZL, we’re going to make the decision easier: get an HTC One or Galaxy S4 instead.”
you have to wonder how much the z would cost if the zl is already over $700
This price will work for most international markets…. consumers in the USA won’t go for it though since in general they prefer to pay a small amount up front due to carrier subsidies (even though they end up paying a lot more with the obscene rates carriers in the USA charge). Nexus devices still seem like the way to go for the unsubsidized smartphone market..
Yep. Though comparing a $70 Sprint/ATT/Verizon plan to T-Mo’s $30 plan, the cost over two years is $40 x 24 months = $960. Add on the $200 you pay up front for a subsidized phone on those networks, and this phone is going to be $400 cheaper over the term of the contract than the HTC One or Galaxy S4.
except..as of yesterday, you can’t get a $30 T-mo plan. The lowest plan cost is now $50. so that would change the math to $20 x 24 months = $480 + $200 carrier subsidy would put it at $680. so contract plans now put at $60 below if you went contract-free.
and technically, if you terminated early with carrier, the most that you usually pay for ETF is $350 + $200 = $550. So a difference of $190. I wonder if it would be possible to buy it with subsidy at AT&T..cancel and pay the ETF then switch to T-mo contract-free. Its a shell game..I’d feel bad but the carriers are making tons of money hand-over-foot so its just a matter of beating them at their own game.
Damn, didn’t realize the plan was fazed out… though not surprising, since they’re getting ready to roll out LTE. Good thinking about eating the ETF, though.
And yeah, can’t feel bad for the carriers. We’re in that awful space right now between regulation and competition where the consumer is getting screwed. Need an upstart with a new business model.
Yeah, that’s the problem with the ETF concept…it doesn’t account for the huge range in phone prices. The new T-mobile plans make a lot of sense actually.
Shiiiiiiiiiiet
Who the F is spending more than 300 bucks on a new phone? Nomatter how “high end” it is. That is just silly.
a lot of people. the note 2 shows that people will pay $300 or more for a high end phone. and that’s subsidized. i was one of those people
Most people, but the carrier subsidy hides the cost of the phone in monthly payments. The cheapest decent phone you can buy today is the Nexus 4 for $350 (16gb) and throw it on a no contract $50 or $30 plan. See other posts for math.
I’m not surprised this is typical Sony product launch prices give it two months and when Sony don’t move any in the U.S. they will discontinue it and prices will drop.
You describe it in a way that sounds very sad for Sony…but there is a decent “business sense” explanation: If prices are too low, demand can outstrip supply. So, while production is ramped up, sell the early units at high prices to early adopters. After you have an acceptable inventory, lower the prices to more competitive levels.
I don’t know if production is even a problem for Sony…just saying that it’s pretty normal for early adopters to pay extra. That being said, it is sad that Sony isn’t being a better competitor…always slightly behind the curve.
It’s $574.74 for the C6506 LTE model (US) and $540.99 for the C6502 on ShopBLT. Usually retailers sell Sony product for 20% less than Sony’s msrp, although maybe not right away.
What a bummer. No VZW connectivity.
So basically $800+ for a phone on last year’s cpu with a so so 1080p screen from what I’ve read and watched.
I wish the htc one had been released with a 5″screen. Going to be a toss up come May between the one and the sgs4 for me and then the note 3 probably when it releases.
Dammit Sony. Just dammit. :(