Sony puts on a display with its new phone
Sony’s new mobile puts on quite a display
It feels like Sony has been away for a while. However, earlier this year it promised us a new flagship phone. Now available in Ireland, the Xperia XZ Premium is trying to secure its place among the big-name premium smartphones. Available in two colours, ‘luminous chrome’ and the more discreet ‘deepsea black’, it has a good specification, with 4GB of Ram and 64GB of memory. Powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor, which offers speedy performance, it has plenty of power to run Android 7.1 Nougat and future versions.
This is a big phone, with an unusual – almost elongated – shape. It’s light at only 191g and is almost unnoticeable in a jacket pocket. Sony has also placed a small fingerprint reader on the side of the phone to instantly unlock it, ensuring convenient access.
The phone is IP68 rated, which means it’s dust and water resistant up to depths of a metre in fresh water. The screen is a large 5.5 inch 4K HDR display with tough Gorilla Glass.
It uses Triluminos Display, a technology developed by Sony – and found in its latest high-end Bravia TVs – which enhances colour and clarity on a mobile screen. The display really is the stand-out feature. The resolution is superb and the TV pedigree of Sony is obvious when you watch a film or 4K content from Netflix or YouTube.
Battery life is good and will easily last a day – I found myself having more than 20% battery left at bedtime. The phone supports QuickCharge 3.0 which charges the phone four times faster than standard, so it’s easy to top up with a 10-minute charge before leaving home. However, for long journeys or holiday flights there is also a stamina mode that stretches battery life to the last.
The XZ Premium has an impressive 19 megapixel camera. It has HDR, image stabilisation and face detection, while the wonderful slow-motion feature is more impressive than competing phones from Apple or Samsung.
The definition of the super-slow motion recordings is stunning and it was the camera feature I had the most fun with.
Its laser focus is impressive and subjects come into focus almost instantly. It makes filming moving objects easy and lets you capture great footage on days out. Sony has included a dedicated camera button and it works like a digital camera button, letting you focus and then snap the picture.
The phone picks up fingerprints enthusiastically and I found myself wiping it down daily. Also, the Sim tray is fiddly but at least it’s a once-off process. The few downsides are forgivable, though. The premium smartphone market is competitive but if you shoot lots of video or watch films and TV on the go, it’s hard to top this Sony flagship.