Sony Xperia XZ Premium
A FLAGSHIP PHONE WITH A 4KING INCREDIBLE SCREEN.
WHILE SONY’S XPERIA Z5 Premium had the distinction of being the first smartphone in the world to boast a 4K display, outside of viewing photos and video content, that Ultra HD screen only ran at 1080p in order to save battery, making it ultimately a bit of a waste. With Sony’s latest flagship, the Xperia XZ Premium, the company’s revisiting 4K, and once again, we’re still getting upscaled 1080p content most of the time. While this might be a little disappointing from a videophile’s perspective, it does beg the question: does it really matter for everyone else? In our eyes, text and web pages don’t really benefit much from Ultra HD — at least not when viewed on the XZ’s display. We’d have preferred for the resolution to downscale to QHD (matching other current flagships) instead of Full HD.
Its 5.46-inch UHD LCD screen is truly stunning when pushed to its full potential with 4K movies and stills, further improved thanks to the inclusion of HDR support. Moreover, it’s got a whopping pixel density of 807ppi (the Samsung Galaxy S8’s Infinity Display manages just 570ppi), and it offers exceptional brightness and clarity, with HDR adding a noticeable increase in colour depth, particularly in HDR movies and images — that’s not super surprising, given it’s using the same Triluminos display technology that powers Sony’s excellent 4K Bravia TVs.
That display is especially magnificent when used to view pictures or video taken with the XZ Premium’s impressive 19MP primary camera. It’s got a dedicated shutter button (which you can half-press to initiate laser autofocus) and is also capable of shooting 720p video footage at a ridiculously leisurely 960fps, allowing you to record your own Guy Ritchiestyle adventures. Of course, you can also record 4K footage at up to 30fps, too.
The XZ Premium is impressive in terms of general specs, too, with 4GB of RAM, the latest Snapdragon 835 processor, 64GB of onboard storage (and microSD expansion support up to 256GB), a 3,230mAh battery, an IP68-certified water resistant build, and Sony’s unique side-mounted fingerprint scanner. In the GeekBench 4 general-performance test, the phone managed a multi-core score of 6,424 — an excellent result that puts it very close to the Galaxy S8.
The XZ Premium comes with a 3,230mAh non-removable battery packed inside its 7.9mm-thick body and comfortably lasted us a day on a single charge. The handset also supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, which Sony reckons replenishes the battery four times faster than a standard charger — in our experience, it took around 90 minutes to go from near-empty to 100%.
If there’s one drawback, it’s the huge bezels that distract from the amazing screen in front of you. Sony doesn’t make any meaningful use of the space either (though there are some front-facing speakers tucked in there), opting to place the fingerprint scanner on the side of the handset and use on-screen buttons instead of touch-capacitive ones at the bottom.
Still, it’s hard to deny that this is a seriously slick phone with a jaw-dropping screen. 4K on a screen this size might not ultimately be worth more than bragging rights, and content doesn’t always display at 2160p, but load some 4K HDR footage from YouTube on there and we guarantee your friends will get extremely jealous of what this phone is capable of. If you’re a passionate 4K/HDR fan, this is the phone to beat. If not, you’ll probably be more than content with the QHD screens you get on rival Android flagships.
ITS 5.46-INCH UHD LCD SCREEN IS TRULY STUNNING WHEN PUSHED TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL WITH 4K MOVIES AND STILLS, FURTHER IMPROVED THANKS TO THE INCLUSION OF HDR SUPPORT.