Sony has announced its third flagship smartphone of the year at IFA 2018 in the Xperia XZ3. The device succeeds the Xperia XZ2 but sits under the Xperia XZ2 Premium and it brings with it a refreshed design with a curved OLED display.

The Xperia XZ3 has a 6-inch screen with a Quad HD+ resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 548ppi. Sony technologies including Triluminos and X-Reality are both on board the display and there is also a new feature called Side Sense thanks to the curved edges, which you can read about in our initial review. 

An aluminium core is sandwiched between 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 panels on both the front and rear, just like the Xperia XZ2 and the Xperia XZ3 is IP65/68 water and dust resistant.

Under the hood of the new flagship, there is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 platform, supported by 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and there is microSD support for storage expansion up to 512GB. There is also a slightly bigger battery than the previous model at 3330mAh.

Sony's single-lens 19-megapixel Motion Eye camera is present on the rear of the Xperia XZ3, while an improved 13-megapixel f/1.9 camera lens has been introduced to the front. The Xperia XZ3 also comes with Sony's Dynamic Vibration system, support for hi-resolution audio and stereo speakers with S-Force surround sound.

The Sony Xperia XZ3 will launch on Android Pie and it will be available from 5 October in four colours comprising Black, White/Silver, Forest Green and Bordeaux Red. It will cost £699.