"Rosso" red Sony Xperia XZ Premium now on sale in the US

Of all the possible colors for a smartphone, it always seems like we have to wait the longest for companies to release their devices in a nice shade of red. We’ve seen it with the HTC U11’s glistening Solar Red colorway that drifts between crimson and gold, and more recently with the Burgundy Red Samsung Galaxy S8.

Now Sony has jumped on the bright red bandwagon with a Sony Xperia XZ Premium model that’s as red as Santa’s coat and fittingly arrives just in time for the winter season. The striking color option, dubbed Rosso by Sony, which is red in Italian for those wondering, was previously exclusive to Japan, but it’s now available to US consumers via Amazon.

The phone is currently on sale for $599, comes unlocked and is compatible with GSM/LTE carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile. Of course, if the new red finish doesn’t strike your fancy, you can always pick it up in Luminous Chrome, Deepsea Black, or Bronze Pink.

Launched at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the Xperia XZ Premium is certainly no slouch in the specs department. It sports a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 and is powered by the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset, backed by 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage (expandable up to 256 GB).

It also has an impressive camera suite. Its 19 MP Motion Eye main camera lets users capture super slow motion video playback by recording at 960 fps. In addition, it’s one of the first handsets outside of the Google Pixel or Nexus ranges to enjoy the full Android 8.0 Oreo update.

On the downside, it still follows the same stale design language we’ve seen from Sony handsets for quite some time. The US model also doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. That being said, it’s still an impressive device and recent price drops have ruled out the biggest negative mark against the phone – it originally launched for a steep asking price of $799. Be sure to check out our full review for more thoughts.

What do you think of the Rosso Xperia XZ Premium? Has the blazing hot new finish piqued your interest? Let us know in the comments.