Sony Xperia XZ

What is the Sony Xperia XZ Premium?

Update: Android 8.0 Oreo is now rolling out to Sony’s 4K phone. Along with the usual Android Oreo features, you will now benefit from the face-scanning app introduced with the Xperia XZ1.

This is Sony’s headline phone for 2017 and, as you’d expect,  it comes with all the top specifications. Like Sony’s previous flagship, the Z5 Premium, there’s a 5.5-inch screen with 4K resolution and HDR (with a caveat, mind), and a Snapdragon 835 processor that can give rival handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S8, HTC U11and LG G6 a run for their money.

But where Sony really wants to stand out is with its camera. The headline feature is its 960fps slow-motion capabilities for dramatic videos. This by far eclipses the slow-motion available on other handsets, which typically tops out at 240fps. Unfortunately, this alone isn’t enough to make the Xperia XZ Premium stand out in a competitive crowd.

Eagle Magpie

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Display

First to that caveat I’ve just mentioned. While the screen is technically a 3840 x 2160 resolution panel, the vast majority of the time you’ll be looking at an upscaled 1080p version of the Android operating system.

You might rightly be asking why this is the case – and the answer would be battery life. Rendering 4K resolution every waking minute would absolutely decimate battery life, so instead you’ll see native 4K resolution in certain instances: when watching native 4K resolution videos in the pre-installed Sony app, for example.

Support for 4K resolution alongside HDR (10-bit, to boot) is also meant to be available through Amazon Prime Video, but during testing I wasn’t served any suitable content. This was even after getting my hopes up when a notification popped up saying 4K HDR content was available and directing me through how to install the Amazon Prime Video app, which in itself is still a slightly involved process.

But even though the Prime Video app had a section dedicated to content in 4K and HDR, I could never get it to stream in anything but1080p and standard dynamic range. Trying to download the content for offline viewing wouldn’t let me save in 4K/HDR, even though the on-screen prompt offered me the choice of ‘Best’ quality where 1 hour of content would rack up more than 6GB of storage. Even when selecting this, content would still download at 1080p and actually only require a fraction over 1GB of storage space.

Diving into the settings menu and opting for ‘Best’ quality downloads without a prompt still didn’t force 4K downloads. Needless to say, it’s still not quite ready. Still, the almost ridiculous 807ppi pixel density of the screen made light work of showing off my own 4K, non-HDR content shot on a GoPro Hero 5 Black.

Wistfully watching back old holiday videos, the colours popped from the IPS Triluminos 5.5-inch display and videos looked sharp. As a phone that supports the HDR standard this means a high top-level brightness, which, even when not displaying HDR content, is still useful for visibility on a bright day outdoors.

Since Sony hasn’t departed from a more conventional 16:9 aspect ratio, the Xperia XZ Premium’s display doesn’t need to use black bars to display apps and videos properly, which is the case on the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Design

While other manufacturers have long moved on to curved edges and rounded corners, Sony has stuck with the same industrial design for its Xperia phones. Put this phone next to the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 or newly revealed HTC U11, and it feels like a relic.

The thick bezels – top and bottom – look dated now, especially next to the bezel-less Galaxy S8, and leave the Xperia XZ Premium feeling just plain boring. You’d be forgiven for not even realising that this is Sony’s latest flagship.

There’s a choice of Deepsea Black, which is the model I was sent in for review, and Luminous Chrome, which is super-shiny and reflective.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is probably one of the most uncomfortable phones I’ve held in some time, exacerbated by its large physical size. Attempt to use it one-handed, and you’ll find the corners dig into your palm awkwardly; the top of the screen will be unreachable for anyone without the largest of hands. Every time I reach into my pocket to grab the phone, my hand is met by a sharp corner.

Following a few weeks of use, I’ve come to realise that the actual construction of the phone leaves a lot to be desired.

Suitably premium materials have been used here, such as glass on the front and back, with Gorilla Glass 5 adding some robustness to the screen. However, under close inspection I can see lots of micro-scratches on the front and plenty more on the rear.

The glass rear is incredibly slippery. I’ve lost count of the times the phone has gradually slid off what I assumed was a horizontal surface. Even the slightest angle will cause the phone to slide.

My desk at home is one of those space-saving flip-up desks, which I assume isn’t perfectly level when flipped down; the phone has fallen off it countless times. I haven’t encountered such issues with any other handset I’ve used.

Train tray tables have also posed a problem; the phone even fell off the top of a cup on which I’d casually decided to rest it without any thought.

The Xperia XZ premium is also an extreme fingerprint magnet, looking smudged and greasy practically all the time – unless you obsessively wipe it down.

The edge of the phone is plastic, which is a sensible move in terms of rigidity, but it feels cheap. You’ll find a volume rocker along the right-hand side along with a recessed power button that houses a discreet fingerprint scanner in the style of Sony’s previous flagship phones.

It was generally quick to respond, although not quite as snappy as the fastest standard front or rear fingerprint scanners, perhaps due to having a much smaller surface area on which to take a reading. There isn’t much in it, though, and I didn’t experience any problems unlocking the phone – plus it does make for a more elegant approach.

If you like viewing at-a-glance information from your lockscreen, you might have to get used to pressing the volume button to wake the screen because pressing the power button with a registered finger will just unlock the phone, bypassing the lockscreen altogether.

Look to the bottom of the phone and you’ll find a USB-C port for charging with a 3.5mm jack on the top. There are two schools of thought here, and I’m of those who believe a headphone jack is better placed on the bottom of a handset, but at least wired headphones are an option here without an adapter.

The Xperia XZ Premium is at least IP68 rated, meaning it can withstand being submerged in water to depths of 1.5m for 30 minutes, which is always a welcome and useful feature.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Performance and Software

Performance was as good as you’d expect from a phone packed with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (expandable through microSD). These are undoubtedly flagship specs.

In our synthetic benchmarks, the scores were close to what we’d have predicted. In Geekbench 4, it managed 1920 (single-core) and 6492 (multi-core), which comfortably eclipsed the Snapdragon 821 in the LG G6, but was slightly behind the Exynos 8895 chip we saw in the Samsung Galaxy S8.

It was a similar experience with AnTuTu, which tests 3D performance right across to RAM speeds. The XZ Premium’s 172,689 is a seriously impressive score and only a fraction behind the Samsung Galaxy S8. There really isn’t a lot to separate these two juggernauts when it comes to performance.

Subjectively, when loading up games such as Asphalt or Super Mario Run, there are no issues with performance or dropped frames. I can comfortably say that performance isn’t an area where the XZ Premium is lacking. But then that’s what you’d expect from a flagship nowadays.

The XZ Premium runs the latest Android version 7.1.1 and it feels snappy and responsive. Sony hasn’t done much to the usual Android experience, save for pre-installing some apps such as its PlayStation and media apps. The app launcher scrolls horizontally, which takes some getting used to, but otherwise everything is as it should be.

A number of themes are available to download through the pre-installed Xperia Lounge app, which adds some variety to the usual Android experience. Not all of them are free, but you often receive notifications with free discount codes. Once you install one of the themes, Sony will offer to sell you a matching phone case, which takes some of the shine off the free offer.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Camera

The XZ Premium is the first phone to utilise Sony’s own ‘Motion Eye’ capture system, which draws on the company’s digital imaging know-how. Essentially, this equates to the first mobile stacked memory sensor to have dedicated DRAM, which should help with image processing speeds.

The stacked memory has other benefits, too, such as Predictive Capture, which buffers images when the sensor detects motion, capturing images immediately before and after you actually press the shutter button. You can then choose the best shot or save all of them.

For those who need their photos obsessively organised, you might find having multiple versions of your shots in your camera roll slightly annoying until you opt to choose a best shot.

I’m not entirely sure why Predictive Capture kicked in on this particular shot…

The new 1/2.3-inch sensor sees the megapixel count reduced to 19 megapixels from the 23-megapixel version used in the regular Xperia XZ, but the pixels themselves are now 19% bigger, improving low-light performance.

In keeping with the XZ Premium’s photography and video focus, there’s a dedicated shutter button, which also acts as a shortcut to the Camera app when long pressed. For a company known for some truly wonderful cameras, the shutter button is a slight disappointment.

Talk to any photographer and a satisfying actuation of a shutter button is an unappreciated element but rather important. The shutter button here is tiny and there’s little travel to it, so the usual half-press for focus feels undefined.

The live view of the camera sensor also acts strangely once you half-press the shutter button for autofocus, suddenly becoming juddery. It’s a little odd and disconcerting.

The Camera app can feel a little slow on occasion, and the autofocus from half-pressing the shutter button uses only the centre of the frame, rather than something more intelligent. Then there’s the lack of optical image stabilisation, instead making do with electronic image stabilisation.

In the end, the still image capture performance isn’t a patch on rivals and isn’t far beyond phones that cost less, such as the OnePlus 3T or Honor 8 Pro.

Colours are respectable with good sharpness

Noise is decently controlled

I did find highlights could occasionally be blown out due to over-exposure, however

Sometimes, images can also look a little flat and underwhelming

However, it’s the slow-motion video that’s the headline feature. To manage such high frame rate video – which by far eclipses rival handsets and even Sony’s own flagship 4K action camera the FDR-X3000 – it’s once again about the benefits of that memory-stacked sensor enabling it to capture images more rapidly.

But again, there are caveats. Jump into the slow-motion mode and the image is immediately cropped, putting you in a very tight field of view that can be difficult to manage, unless you have the space to reverse. There’s a loss of resolution as the Xperia XZ Premium can’t pull off its party trick at 4K resolution (quite understandably) and instead records at 720p.

The on-screen tutorial will tell you that once you begin recording at 30fps, you’ll need to press the shutter button again at the right time to begin capturing in super-slow motion. Since there’s no pre-buffer on the slow motion, you’ll need to be very precise when you begin slow-motion capture. You’ll naturally be inclined to go a little too soon for the first few attempts.

The other issue is that ample lighting is necessary for the camera to be able to achieve such a high frame rate without introducing noticeable noise and image degradation. Most videos I shot indoors were both extremely noisy and soft. One scenario Sony is pushing for slow-motion is capturing people’s pets, but there’s a reason the example videos are all shot under studio lighting or outdoors.

In terms of image quality, any footage I shot of my cats indoors was poor. Outdoor footage fared far better. You’re going to have to plan your slow-motion shots ahead of time and ensure you have sufficient lighting – which removes some of the appeal.

Nail both the timing and the lighting and there’s no doubting the dramatic impact of a good slow-motion video, though. But how often people will want to do this remains to be seen; it doesn’t feel like a good enough reason for which to buy a specific phone.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium – Battery Life and Sound

Sony promises ‘all-day battery life’ from the XZ Premium and, thankfully, that seems to be the case from the 3230mAh battery.

I’m a pretty compulsive user of social media, so that entails constantly refreshing Twitter and Instagram, with more sporadic use of Facebook. I also send and receive numerous messages on WhatsApp and Slack during the day. Picking the phone off charge around 7.30am, I typically saw about 10% of battery remaining by 11pm.

Streaming an hour of Netflix at 50% screen brightness for an hour loses you about 21% of battery life, which is a little high but not out of the ordinary considering the resolution of the screen and its maximum brightness. You can easily knock down the brightness and still have a comfortable viewing experience most of the time.

In addition, you can enlist the Stamina mode to eke out extra battery life by disabling background functions if you know you’re going to have a particularly strenuous day of phone use. A smart notification can even pop up to let you know that your battery will likely die before your next charge and asks if you want to enable the battery-saving function.

After a week or so of use, one neat thing I encountered was Sony’s ‘Battery Care’ mode. This intentionally reduces the amount of time it takes your phone to top up beyond 90%. The Xperia XZ Premium takes note of when you normally plug in your phone and then slows the charge rate until the time you usually take the phone off charge.

This allows it to more intelligently manage the battery life, slowing down its eventual degradation. It took a week of use before the phone decided it had my routine down and automatically turned on its Battery Care mode.

The loudspeaker on the XZ Premium is probably one of the better examples I’ve heard for a while by virtue of the fact that the pair of front-facing speakers push out a decent amount of volume, which goes a little way to excuse those garishly large bezels. Crank up the volume and you can feel the phone reverberate.

Should I buy the Sony Xperia XZ Premium?

The delay between announcing the Xperia XZ Premium at MWC and its eventual release in June hasn’t done the XZ Premium any favours. There’s an easy joke to be made here about Sony’s release schedule going in slow motion…

In light of rival flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 and HTC U11, it’s difficult to feel particularly excited by the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. It banks on the slow-motion video to draw people’s attention away from rivals – but for me, the feature isn’t compelling enough, with too many limitations in its implementation beyond the initial ‘wow factor’.

In addition, the design of the Xperia phones appears to be trapped in time; it looks drab next to other phones, and is made worse by how uncomfortable it is to hold and being as slippery as a fish.

At least the Xperia XZ Premium won’t leave you wanting when it comes to performance, with specifications befitting its flagship status – but beyond that, I’ve struggled to feel enamoured by it.

Verdict

The XZ Premium doesn’t lack for performance but its mediocre design and limited super-slow-motion video make it difficult to recommend over more impressive flagship rivals.

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