The Xperia XZ oozes class. Debuting an intelligent battery-charging innovation, an exotic, premium-feeling metal construction, and a dramatically upgraded camera, this is the phone that could see Sony back on the top spot.
Sometimes it’s tricky to notice what’s been upgraded in a new smartphone. This time around, though, there’s plenty to get excited about:
- 23-megapixel camera with improved image processing
- Laser autofocus and 2.6 times larger image sensor
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset
- IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating
- USB Type-C & intelligent battery charging
- 5.2in Full HD screen
Already sold on the Xperia XZ? It will be available to buy in the latter half of September and, yes, it will be running Android Marshmallow out of the box.
Design
Sony has given the Xperia XZ a serious makeover. Taking the soft, smooth curves and cut-off edges on the previous generation, Sony has sliced and diced the XZ to give it a far sleeker, sharper new silhouette. Personally, I’m a real fan of the new look.
Fancy something a bit smaller? Then check out the Sony Xperia X Compact here
ALKALEIDO! No, I haven't lost my mind. Sony’s latest flagship, the Xperia XZ, doesn’t just mark the debut of a whole host of new features and cutting-edge hardware, but it’s also the first phone that the company has made from “high purity ALKALEIDO” metal. Weirdly, the silky softness means that it doesn’t feel metallic in your hands, yet doesn’t feel like cheap plastic either. The big news? It’s available in Mineral Black, Platinum and Forest Blue – colours which apparently were inspired by the sea, sky and forest.
Having had an iPhone 6s and a Huawei P9 in my pocket over the past year, it’s refreshing to have a physical camera button again. More handsets need to offer this, as it makes it so much easier to grab impulsive quick-fire snaps while you’re out and about. And if you’re worried that the camera app won’t fire up quickly enough, you shouldn’t be: the Xperia XZ goes from standby mode to snapping a 23-megapixel image in a low-light setting in 0.6 seconds. Boom.
Camera
Sony’s smartphone cameras have always been up there with the best, and this phone is no different. The Xperia XZ has introduced a new laser autofocus and an image sensor that’s 2.6 times larger than its predecessor. I got to test out the difference in speed and performance – between the X and XZ – in a controlled low-light experiment. The result was something you’d expect from smartphones that were six years apart rather than just six months. It’s not just dramatically faster, either – the quality of the low-light image was more than twice as good. I can’t wait to see how this phone fares in our seriously tough photography tests.
Battery and performance
Sony is claiming some big advances in the battery department. Inside the XZ there’s a 2,900mAh battery – bigger than the Xperia X’s 2,620mAh battery, and 100mAh smaller than the Galaxy S7’s – but what’s really interesting is Sony’s new charging technology.
Apparently, one of the biggest culprits of battery health is keeping your phone charged at 100% for long periods of time. To combat this the Xperia XZ has a charging feature that learns your nightly charging patterns and adjusts its charging behaviour to suit your schedule. For example, if you regularly go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 7am, the Xperia XZ will charge your phone up to 90% and leave the final 10% to just before 7am. The idea is to minimise the amount of time your battery spends connected to a charger at 100%.
While the Sony Xperia X let the side down with its 1.8GHz Snapdragon 650 chipset, the Xperia XZ has gone straight to the top of Qualcomm’s range. The new flagship has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (hooray!) which should theoretically put it on a par with the Samsung Galaxy S7. First impressions are that this phone feels every bit as slick and fluid as the finest flagships I’ve had in my pocket.
Screen
Sony is a fully paid-up member of the smartphone screen arms race. In fact, it destroyed much of the competition with the more-than-a-bit-bonkers 4K-screened Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, which was announced at IFA last year. That kind of pixel count proved to have huge downsides though – it eats batteries for breakfast, and gaming performance takes a dip even on the fanciest of flagship hardware.
Sony makes no apologies for the Z5 Premium’s screen, but it’s interesting to see that its new flagship hasn’t bothered to carry on with the 4K screen. Instead, it’s taken the pragmatic option of opting for a 5.2in Full HD 1080p screen. That decision has allowed Sony to shave 530mAh from the last year’s Z5 Premium without compromising on battery life – but I can’t help wishing Sony hadn’t shrunk the battery at all. The combination of a sensible screen with a phablet battery might have been spectacular.
Verdict
Yet again, Sony has come up with a flagship phone that ticks all the right boxes. With a healthy dose of style, a great camera, vivid screen, a high-end chipset and a big battery, the Xperia XZ has well and truly whet my appetite.
Time will tell if it’s good enough to win Sony the market share its smartphones deserve. But if you’re in the market for a new phone in the next few months, there’s every likelihood that Sony will be giving Samsung’s Galaxy S7 something to worry about.