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The Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact are coming to the US

The Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact are coming to the US

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Unlocked flagship Sony phones for the first time in over a year

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Sony's latest flagship phone, and its smaller sibling, will finally be sold in the US starting next month. The Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Compact will be the first Sony phones sold in the United States since Sony's Z3.

The Z5 has just about everything you'd expect from a flagship smartphone. The 5.2-inch phone has a Snapdragon 810 processor alongside 3GB of RAM, a microSD slot, and a substantial 2,900 mAh battery. It also has a 23-megapixel rear-facing camera, which can produce some pretty great photos. The back of the phone is covered in frosted glass, though, so it's not the kind of phone you want to casually toss around — because it will break. But it is waterproof, which is nice.

Great phones with big batteries

The Z5 Compact is quite similar, and should please fans of sub-5.0-inch smartphones. It doesn't have a 1080p display (the Compact instead comes with a 720p panel), but it has a comparatively big battery (2,700 mAh) that got us, for all intents and purposes, two days of use off of a single charge. The smaller phone has the same big 23-megapixel image sensor, and it's also waterproof.

Sony nearly released the Xperia Z4v stateside last fall, but Verizon pulled the plug at the last minute. But Sony's been making the Z line of phones since 2013, and the Z5 and Z5 Compact represent the most refined version of them yet, so maybe the wait has been worth it. Both phones will be available unlocked (but will only support GSM networks) starting on February 7th. The Xperia Z5 will run $599.99, and the Z5 Compact will be available for $499.99. There's no word yet on whether the bigger, 4K screen-equipped Z5 Premium is waiting in the wings.

Update January 14th, 4:20PM ET: Sony has informed us that the US version of the Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact will not include a fingerprint sensor. This article has been changed to reflect this.