Sony Xperia XZ review!
Sony is following a weird pattern of flagship releases this year. While the Xperia X performance is the official 2016 Sony flagship, they've released another phone called XZ with slightly superior hardware, making it the new flagship!? Anyway, let's take a look at Sony's new premium offering, in this Xperia XZ review.
Design: This follows the same old awaited out design that we saw from the earlier Z lineup. But you can see several layers in the phone so it's not exactly a unibody design. It still feels slippery and super premium just like every other flagship out there😅, so I'm not complaining.
On the right side theres a flat power key/ fingerprint sensor. The same one that we have seen ever since the Z5 premium. On the bottom there's a headphone jack and a usb type C port. On right side below the power button, there's the volume rocker, in the same awkward place: lower end of the right frame. I still don't know why the volume buttons are located so low in the frame. Following down the right side, there's the excellent camera launch / shutter key, which I feel every smartphone should have. On the left there's a sim tray. There's a dual sim variant too and both variants have microSD expansion.
The phone is 8.1 mm thick and weighs 161 gm. The fit and finish of the phone is very good and you will be pleased with the build quality.
Display: Sony is playing it safe this time. There's no 4K display like the Xperia Z5, instead they've given just a 5.2' 1080p IPS LCD panel. I was pleasantly surprised at the brightness of this display. You can read the display comfortably outdoors under moderate sunshine. Being an IPS panel, it offers excellent viewing angles and provides rich tone of colors. This is absolutely one if the better panels that I've seen in the market.
Performance: The Xperia XZ has slightly optimised hardware as compared to the X performance. It runs on a refined version of the powerful Snapdragon 820 quad core processor clocked at 2.15 GHz and 3 GB of DDR4 RAM alongside the Adreno 530 GPU. Despite the lesser RAM compared to something like double the size on the Oneplus 3, the XZ has no problems multitaskimg back and forth. The refined Xperia UI running on Android 6.0, has struck a perfect balance between stock Android feel and great set of features. There's 32 GB of storage expandable upto 256 GB.
The side mounted fingerprint sensor is just as good as on the previous devices. It's fast and easy to setup, unlocks your phone instantly. A very convenient place for a security feature and it's nice, once you get used to it.
Camera: This is where the new tech kicks in. The sensor on the back is 23 mp with f/2.0 aperture and laser autofocus. This new sensor has 5 axis optical image stabilization! As I mentioned earlier in my blog, it dies make the video really smooth, but it's not noticeably better than the common 2 or 3 axis stabilization. What I'm saying is that all other flagships are pretty much the same as the XZ, which takes a slight advantage via newer hardware. The images take from the camera are quite crisp. The new autofocus is certainly faster than the previous hybrid AF in the Z5, with white balance and exposure, well handled.
The front camera is a large 13 mp sensor and can take some great selfies. It's capable of 1080p video recording at 30 fps. Sony has, once again, managed to holds it's own standard in the optics department.
Battery: The Xperia XZ has a 2900 mAh battery. Though it seems smaller than other flagship units, it surprisingly lasts through the day, giving out 4 hrs of screen on time. There's support for quickcharge too, so no worries. You'll be fully charged within 2 hrs.
Price: The Xperia XZ retails for about $600 or 40,000 INR. It may turn down some users who would go for better specs at lesser prices. But for those of us who appreciate Sony's effort and take pride in owning their products, this is undoubtedly the best of Sony out there, yet.
Design: This follows the same old awaited out design that we saw from the earlier Z lineup. But you can see several layers in the phone so it's not exactly a unibody design. It still feels slippery and super premium just like every other flagship out there😅, so I'm not complaining.
On the right side theres a flat power key/ fingerprint sensor. The same one that we have seen ever since the Z5 premium. On the bottom there's a headphone jack and a usb type C port. On right side below the power button, there's the volume rocker, in the same awkward place: lower end of the right frame. I still don't know why the volume buttons are located so low in the frame. Following down the right side, there's the excellent camera launch / shutter key, which I feel every smartphone should have. On the left there's a sim tray. There's a dual sim variant too and both variants have microSD expansion.
The phone is 8.1 mm thick and weighs 161 gm. The fit and finish of the phone is very good and you will be pleased with the build quality.
Display: Sony is playing it safe this time. There's no 4K display like the Xperia Z5, instead they've given just a 5.2' 1080p IPS LCD panel. I was pleasantly surprised at the brightness of this display. You can read the display comfortably outdoors under moderate sunshine. Being an IPS panel, it offers excellent viewing angles and provides rich tone of colors. This is absolutely one if the better panels that I've seen in the market.
Performance: The Xperia XZ has slightly optimised hardware as compared to the X performance. It runs on a refined version of the powerful Snapdragon 820 quad core processor clocked at 2.15 GHz and 3 GB of DDR4 RAM alongside the Adreno 530 GPU. Despite the lesser RAM compared to something like double the size on the Oneplus 3, the XZ has no problems multitaskimg back and forth. The refined Xperia UI running on Android 6.0, has struck a perfect balance between stock Android feel and great set of features. There's 32 GB of storage expandable upto 256 GB.
The side mounted fingerprint sensor is just as good as on the previous devices. It's fast and easy to setup, unlocks your phone instantly. A very convenient place for a security feature and it's nice, once you get used to it.
Camera: This is where the new tech kicks in. The sensor on the back is 23 mp with f/2.0 aperture and laser autofocus. This new sensor has 5 axis optical image stabilization! As I mentioned earlier in my blog, it dies make the video really smooth, but it's not noticeably better than the common 2 or 3 axis stabilization. What I'm saying is that all other flagships are pretty much the same as the XZ, which takes a slight advantage via newer hardware. The images take from the camera are quite crisp. The new autofocus is certainly faster than the previous hybrid AF in the Z5, with white balance and exposure, well handled.
The front camera is a large 13 mp sensor and can take some great selfies. It's capable of 1080p video recording at 30 fps. Sony has, once again, managed to holds it's own standard in the optics department.
Battery: The Xperia XZ has a 2900 mAh battery. Though it seems smaller than other flagship units, it surprisingly lasts through the day, giving out 4 hrs of screen on time. There's support for quickcharge too, so no worries. You'll be fully charged within 2 hrs.
Price: The Xperia XZ retails for about $600 or 40,000 INR. It may turn down some users who would go for better specs at lesser prices. But for those of us who appreciate Sony's effort and take pride in owning their products, this is undoubtedly the best of Sony out there, yet.