Today, we got to learn that the
Sony Xperia Z5 and
Z5 Compact are officially
coming to the US next month. That was the good news! And here's the bad news. The smartphones will come sans fingerprint security. We don't know for sure what made Sony put their finger on the "remove the reader" trigger, but for one reason or another, it the company has confirmed to The Verge that the newest Xperia flagships won't have fingerprint scanners in the USA.
However, retailers such as Expansys are selling the international unlocked variants of the Xperia Z5, Z5 Compact, and Z5 Premium (the latter doesn't seem to be officially coming to the US) unlocked, with fingerprint scanners, and full network compatibility. The smartphones officially sold by Sony lack fingerprint readers and only work on AT&T and T-Mobile. Weird!
Rather than on the back or the lower bezel, which is the case with most competing smartphones, the Z5 and Z5 Compact have their fingerprint readers built inside their power buttons, located on the right side. In
our review of the Z5, we thought the gizmo worked pretty decent, but its positioning and overall design are less than ideal. Same goes for the Xperia Z5 Compact.
Sony's decision is certainly strange, for fingerprint readers are now common among high profile smartphones released in the United States. The reasoning behind it isn't immediately clear, but it seems pretty certain that the omission will make the Z5 and Z5 Compact less competitive in the US market. Sony Mobile's American presence is already limited at best, with its hi-end smartphones only being picked up by T-Mobile, and only occasionally.
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