Paul Morris·

Owned A Sony Xperia Smartphone? The Company Might Owe You Up To $300 In A Lawsuit Settlement

If you are one of the few individuals in the United States staying loyal to the Sony Xperia smartphone brand you may be pleased to learn that the Japanese company could owe you up to $300 thanks to a recent settlement ruling.

Sony’s smartphones have generally been well received by those who have taken the opportunity to purchase one, but it seems that those consumers may have fallen victim to advertising which hasn’t exactly been based on integrity and honesty. If you purchased a Xperia handset on the back of televised commercials, then you would have been forgiven for thinking that you could dive deep into the river with your handset to capture the wonders of the world underwater.

The devices were always marketed with information which gave an accurate IP rating, such as the Xperia Z1 which came assigned with IP58, but the commercials made it look as though the handsets were impervious to water at all depths, and capable of being thrust into any liquid-based situation. To show why that simply isn’t the case, the aforementioned IP58 rating of Xperia Z1 meant that the hardware was able to withstand strong water jets and very temporary submersion in water. That rating means if you dropped the phone in a sink of water or the toilet, and quickly pulled it back out, then you should be safe.

However, the commercials painted an extremely different picture with models deep-diving into the water with the company continually referencing its handsets as “waterproof.”

Device owners who found themselves with broken devices eventually got fed up and opened up a class-action lawsuit against Sony. Rather than continuing to fight the lawsuit, Sony has agreed to bring an end to the litigation by agreeing to repay device owners up to 50% of the hardware’s MSRP.

For higher end devices that means some owners could receive as much as $300 back in the settlement. The class-action settlement covers a total of 24 Sony devices, with those who have been affected able to find out more about the claims process at xperiawaterproofsettlement.com. Sony has also agreed to extend manufacturers warranties for devices still under warranty by an additional twelve months. Those out of warranty will get a new 6-month extension.

All eligible Xperia models can be seen listed below.

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