Sony Xperia XZ
£539 inc VAT sony.co.uk
The Xperia XZ is Sony’s latest flagship smartphone and comes with impressive tech, especially in the camera department.
Design
The phone has a 5.2in display and a metal body that is noticeably curvier than previous Xperia smartphones, making it more comfortable to hold. Although you can definitely see lines where materials meet (the small strip at the bottom on the
rear seems unnecessary), the phone feels nicer in the hand compared to last year’s Xperia Z5.
It’s a shame to see that hasn’t cut down on the bezels, so the XZ is big for a phone with a 5.2in screen. It’s mainly at the top and bottom where there’s a lot of empty space, although we appreciate it offers front-facing stereo speakers.
The rear of the Xperia XZ is made from what Sony calls “high purity alkaleido metal”, which gives the phone a shiny finish, though it is a little slippery to hold. While the shine is understated, when the back catches the light it lights up with a gorgeous hue. We’re fans of the three colour options: Forest Blue, Mineral Black and Platinum, with Forest Blue winning our top pick. It’s nice to see a company veer away from the standard silver, grey and gold variants.
It’s hard not to compare the new device with the Z5, which is both thinner and lighter (7.3mm and 154g). Sadly, the XZ is measures 8.1mm and weighs 161g, so it’s not the most slender of flagships.
Unlike most of Sony’s other recent X series phones, the XZ is waterproof. We’re glad the company has included this feature, especially with Apple adding it to the iPhone 7. It’s IP68 rated, so can be fully submerged up to a depth of 1.5m for 30 minutes. Despite the rating, Sony’s small print says not to submerge it completely under water and not to expose it to salt water, chlorinated water or drinks.
Features
Although the Xperia XZ comes a year on from the Z5, much of the specifications are similar to the
older device. For starters, the screen is still 5.2in and Full HD, which is the same as 2014’s Xperia Z2. It’s strange that Sony has made a 4K smartphone but not jumped to Quad HD. While the screen is perfectly good (extremely bright, crisp and vibrant), it’s nothing to get excited about, though the resolution does have an advantage when it comes to battery life. We would have liked to see a similar edge-to-edge design as seen on the Xperia XA, which costs less than half the price.
When it comes to the engine room, it’s good to see the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor running the show. What’s not so good is the 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is the same as 2015’s Xperia Z3+. You can, however, increase the storage to a whopping 256GB via the microSD card slot.
Much of this is adequate, expected even, from a high-end smartphone, but not enough to get consumers’ blood pumping. We’d have liked to see a Quad HD screen and more RAM, though there are some areas that don’t need changing. The fingerprint scanner, for example, is hidden within the power button and is one of the best we’ve seen. Other specifications, such as dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS and NFC, are all good to see, too.
Sony phones are always a good choice for music lovers and not just because of the firm’s Walkman app. iPhone 7 haters will be pleased to hear there is a headphone jack and the XZ supports 24-bit/192kHz audio playback, is compatible with the firm’s LDAC technology and has front-facing stereo speakers.
Sony has opted for the new reversible USB-C port for the XZ. It has a 2900mAh battery with ‘Qnovo Adaptive Charging’ technology, which the
firm claims will help to extend the battery life of the smartphone, and fast charging.
As mentioned earlier, the Full HD screen means that the phone doesn’t use as much power than some rivals. During testing, we found the XZ to be a top-notch performer and most users will get a couple of days from their handset without using Stamina mode.
Cameras
Sony is well known for fitting advanced camera technology into its flagship phones and the Xperia ZX is no different. On the surface, it’s the same as the Z5, with a 23Mp sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 24mm lens, phase detection autofocus and an LED flash. We like that Sony continues to offer a
dedicated camera/shutter button on the side, but what’s new here is triple image sensing technology. This consists of three sensors: an imaging sensor for movement, a laser autofocus sensor for measuring distance and an RGBC-IR sensor for accurate colour reproduction. It might not be a huge upgrade from the Z5, but ensures you take accurate, in-focus shots extremely quickly.
As we’ve come to expect from Sony, the image quality is very high, though It’s worth noting that the camera will shoot in 8Mp 16:9 by default, so you’ll need to head into the setting if you want the full 23Mp at 4:3. You can see the difference in our examples opposite and above.
The XZ also shoots 4K video at 30fps, though there’s no optical image stabilisation, which is a
shame. A bigger upgrade is found at the front with a 13Mp camera that has a 22mm wide-angle lens.
Software
The Xperia XZ runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is slightly surprising considering that Android N is available. Although the phone will be updated to Nougat, we don’t know exactly when.
The user interface is closer to stock Android than before, although you get Sony’s widgets and apps – most of which we think are valuable additions. The lack of customisation means you get a Nexus-like experience with the notification menu and recent apps displayed as Google has designed them. It’s nice that you can rearrange the quick settings and Google Now is a swipe away from the main home screen which is also beneficial.
Sony has made a few tweaks though, including its own lockscreen, settings menu and an extra panel in the app draw for suggested and recommended apps. As with previous Xperia phones, PlayStation users can benefit from PS Remote Play, which allows you to play games from the console on the phone.
There are some preinstalled apps, such as Facebook, Spotify, Lookout and Amazon Shopping, but you can uninstall these – along with some of Sony’s such as Xperia Lounge, Lifelog and PlayStation.
New features include Xperia Tips provides ‘non-intrusive, contextual tips to enhance your experience’ and while this will be useful for beginners we found them annoying. The XZ
also has a ‘smart cleaner’ which, like the Nextbit Robin, will deactivate apps you don’t use.
Verdict
Sony’s Xperia XZ is an attractive phone in design if you can get on with the angular style and while it’s cheaper than rivals such as the iPhone 7 and Google Pixel, you can get better value with some older phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7. While the hardware is decent, it’s very similar to the cheaper Xperia Z5. Chris Martin
Specifications
5.2in (1920x1080, 424ppi) full-HD display Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 Adreno 530 GPU 3GB RAM 32/64GB storage 23Mp main camera, LED flash 13Mp front camera 802.11ac; USB-C Bluetooth 4.2 4G LTE Cat 6 Nano-SIM; A-GPS with GLONASS NFC 2900mAh lithium-ion battery, non-removable 146x72x8.1mm 161g