Sony’s Xperia Z3 lets you play PS4 games on your smartphone

Sony-loving PlayStation 4 owners have some fancy new toys to covet, with the announcement that the company’s freshly announced Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact all support the gaming console’s Remote Play feature. You can effectively turn your Xperia Z3 into an untethered monitor. Remote Play already works astoundingly well with Sony’s PlayStation Vita, but the Xperia support promises an upgrade. While the Vita works well as a wonderfully self-contained remote controller + monitor combo, the Xperia devices require the use of the PS4′s DualShock 4 controller.

If you’ve ever wanted to play a console game on your phone, you’re in luck. Today, Sony announced two new Xperia smartphones with the ability to use the PS4′s Remote Play feature. Of course, you won’t be expected to swipe and tap to simulate a controller on a touchscreen. Instead, Sony is shipping a device that will attach your phone to a full-fledged DualShock 4. With that in mind, this might just be the best mobile game streaming device we’ve ever seen. The 5.2-inch Xperia Z3 and 4.6-inch Xperia Z3 Compact will both support Remote Play and Sony’s Game Control Mount attachment. Geek.com’s Russell Holly got a hands-on demo this morning, and he was able to give me some insight into the device itself. Apparently, the PlayStation app is featured prominently on the main screen, and still offers the same functionality we’ve come to expect over the last year of its existence. A Sony representative explained that the Remote Play performance will be identical to the experience on the Vita, so you can expect most games to function well provided that you have a decent WiFi connection.