With only a time-period of roughly six months, Sony comes up with a newer addition to their flagship Z series each time. But why is it named Z3+ instead of something like the Z4? Is it truly the next-gen successor to the previously released Z3? Or is it just an upgrade? Let's have a look.

From the outside, the Z3+ is almost the same as its predecessor. However, there are some minor modifications, like, moving the front camera from the right to the left side, and some other design tweaks. It is lighter though. The screen size is kept the same as well with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 and a pixel density of 428 ppi. Yes, four pixels added per inch. That is technically an upgrade, right?

The real difference is seen under the hood. The Z3+ runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset (as opposed to the Snapdragon 801 running the Z3) as well as adding four more cores in the CPU. It now has a Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A57 processor. The GPU is upgraded as well from Adreno 330 to an Adreno 430. So the beauty is actually a beast from the inside when it comes to performance. Internal memory has been given 32 GB as a standard with 3 gigs of RAM, which can easily and quite smoothly run the new Android v6.0 Marshmallow (which is planned to hit the device via an OTA update).

The 20.7 megapixel primary camera, however, continues to survive once again, making its way on the Z3+. Three strikes should be enough for this sensor. It has an aperture of f/2.0 and an LED flash that would help in low-light conditions. It also records videos in 4K at 30 frames per second and slow-motion ones in 720p at 120 frames per second, which is a flagship standard these days. The front-facing camera, however, finally gets the much-needed upgrade. It now bags a 5.1 megapixel sensor at an aperture of f/2.4, bringing Sony right back in the selfie game.

The battery gets downgraded again, this time it is a 2930 mAh one. But Sony has tried to compensate it by adding Quick Charge 2.0 in all versions of the device (as opposed to only the Japanese variant having this feature on the Z3). It charges the device 60% in 30 minutes, so it's not a bad deal here as well. So the Xperia Z3+ can surely be called as an upgrade to the previously released Z3, leaving the mystery of its name still unsolved.