As people in the U.S. are still waiting to get their hands on Sony's latest smartphones - Xperia Z and Xperia ZL, Sony fans in India get an advantage.

Sony released its first smartphone with HD display in India with a price tag of Rs. 38,990, the phone will start shipping from March 12 in the country.

Famous Bollywood actor, Katrina Kaif alongside Dennis Van Schie, Corporate Vice President, Head of Sales & Marketing, Sony Mobile Communications, and Kenichiro Hibi, Managing Director, Sony India launched the Xperia Z device at a launch event.

"India is a high focus and high-growth market for Sony. The smartphone market in India hold very strong mid-term growth potential, with smartphone sales projected to be approximately 33 million units by FY13 in India. Our ultimate objective is to position Xperia amongst the top 3 smartphone brands in India," Van Schie said.

At the launch event of Xperia Z, Sony also confirmed the pricing and the availability of Xperia ZL in the Indian market.

Sony Xperia ZL will also be available from March 12 across the nation for Rs. 36,990. However, the device is available for Rs 1,000 less with online retailer, Flipkart.

On Flipkart, Xperia Z is available for preorders with the same price (Rs. 38,990) in all three colors - white, black and purple. Xperia ZL is available only in two colors - white and black. In the U.S. Xperia ZL is going to be available in three colors - white, black and red.

When it comes to the comparison of these two devices Xperia Z gains an upper hand with protection features like water and dust resistance. Another difference between the devices is the dimension.

While Xperia Z is just 7.9 mm thick weighing 146 grams, Xperia ZL comes 9.8 mm of thickness and 151 grams of weight.

Apart from these, both the devices sport a 5-inch full HD 1080x1920 pixels TFT display and 13-inch rear-facing camera.

Both the phones are powered by Qualcomm's 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor supported a 2 GB of RAM.

The phones run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box and come with Adreno 320 GPU from Qualcomm.