Sony launches Xperia XZ2 in India, but who can afford it at this price?

Sony is releasing a beefed-up version of the Sony Xperia XZ2 in India next month, according to Gadgets360. Judging from the specs, it seems to be a beast of a phone. Too bad it likely won’t sell because of Sony’s asking price for the device.

That price is reportedly a whopping 72,990 Rs. (~$1,062). This makes it even more expensive than the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium launched here in the United States earlier this month, which is selling for $999.

In India, the most successful smartphone brands are those who offer powerful mid-range and budget devices that deliver as many premium features as possible while still having low prices. That’s one of the main reasons why Xiaomi was able to trounce global smartphone leader Samsung in the country earlier this year.

Needless to say, this new Sony Xperia XZ2 is not priced affordably, and therefore is likely to only appeal to very wealthy people in India, which is a tiny portion of the population.

This Indian Xperia XZ2 also seems to be a kind of hybrid between the original Xperia XZ2 released in April and the XZ2 Premium that launched this month. Although this Indian variant has the 6GB of RAM that the Premium variant has, it only has the single-camera setup and the 3,180mAh battery of the “vanilla” variant.

Sony is also adding a new feature to this Indian version: 4K HDR video recording. Sony says this is the world’s first smartphone with the feature.

This mixing of variant features is pretty confusing. However, does it really matter? No one can afford these phones anyway.

The Indian Sony Xperia XZ2 will hit store shelves on August 1 exclusively in the Liquid Black color.

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