T-Mobile welcomes Sony's newest flagship smartphone to its turf – gearing up for the Sony Xperia Z3 U.S. release date, featuring waterproof specs.

"T-Mobile is lining up a killer hardware portfolio for fall with a selection that gives customers every opportunity to find the perfect device. That's why today, T-Mobile announced that Sony's Xperia Z3 will be joining the Un-carrier's selection of high-end smartphones, available online and in participating T-Mobile stores, this fall," according to the T-Mobile blog.

The full retail price of the handset is $630, while a 24-month contract will have a monthly fee of $26.25.

Pre-order started yesterday, Oct. 15.

Sony Xperia Z3's specs feature a 5.2-inch full HD display, 20.7 MP rear-facing camera, 2.2 MP front-facing camera, 3 GB RAM and 2.5 GHz processing speed.

The handset runs Android 4.4 KitKat, and there is no confirmation yet when it will be receiving Android Lollipop updates.

Arguably, 2014 is the year where mobile technology has really upped its ante and welcomed killer smartphones.

With Apple back at the driver seat with the immensely successful iPhone 6 launch and sales, the battle for second place remains to be blurry.

LG has the "perfect smartphone" LG G3, Motorola introduces the unique Moto X (2014), HTC with a variety of HTC One M8 running Android and Windows Phone, Samsung is launching its new line of Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge, Sony also has the formidable Xperia brand, and Google has recently unwrapped Nexus 6.

Perhaps, Xperia's slight edge would be its "waterproof" branding, that speaks about durability and longevity.

Verizon will start selling Sony Xperia Z3v on Oct. 23.