Sony Xperia XZ Premium review

 Introduction

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a gorgeous 4K display. Better yet, a 4K HDR display! The latest Snapdragon 835 chipset is pulling the strings and delivering lightning-fast LTE while the Adreno 540 is firing up millions of pixels in a heartbeat. With or without the mirror finish, this is one of the classiest designs around and waterproof, too.

A brand-new 19MP main camera does stunning slow-mo videos at 960fps. There is a 13MP autofocus selfie camera, true stereo speakers and one of the best skins around, the minimalist but feature-rich Xperia launcher

All that sounds great but we can't miss the fact that while others stretched their screens as much as possible - to the point of them literally spilling over the bezel-less sides - Sony chose to cram extra pixels for a 4K display. While others punched extra holes to fit dual-camera setups, Sony was busy adding an extra memory buffer layer in a high-res sensor for striking slow-mo videos. One thing is clear - Sony is on a different roadmap than everybody else but that doesn't mean their phone is any worse than the rest. Let's check out the specs.

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Sony Xperia XZ Premium key features

Body: Aluminum on top and bottom, curved polycarbonate sides, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, IP68 waterproofing

Screen: 5.5" Triluminos display, 4K resolution (2,160 x 3,840px), HDR video support

OS: Android OS v7.1.1 Nougat with the Xperia launcher and Sony multimedia apps

Chipset: Snapdragon 835 chipset: octa-core Kryo 280 CPU (4x2.46GHz +4x1.9GHz); Adreno 540 GPU; 4GB of RAM

Camera: 19MP Sony IMX400 camera, f/2.0 lens, predictive hybrid laser/phase detection/contrast AF, IR sensor for white balance, LED flash, dedicated hardware shutter key;

Video recording: 4K video recording @30fps, 1080p @60fps, 720p @960fps, Steady Shot

Selfie: 13MP front-facing autofocus camera with 1080p@30fps video

Storage: 32GB/64GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot

SIM: Single and dual-SIM models (DualSIM uses a hybrid slot shared with the microSD card)

Connectivity: 1Gbps LTE; Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo, Bluetooth v5.0; NFC, USB-C port with USB 3.1 support, 3.5mm headphone jack

Audio: Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic; 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res audio

Battery: 3,230mAh non-removable battery, QuickCharge 3.0 support, Qnovo adaptive charging, Battery Care smart charging

Misc: Fingerprint sensor (market dependent), stereo speakers

Main shortcomings

Fingerprint recognition not available in the US

Defaults to FullHD screen resolution for anything other than native 4K content

Battery capacity is not stellar

It's no secret that only native 4K content can put those eight million pixels to good use, but the good news is that more and more of that content is becoming available.

What's not available, in the US at least, is fingerprint scanning. No, not even the company flagship is getting away with it, and that's a spot on Sony's reputation stateside. There is little anybody can do about it, up to Sony to sort it or move on.

A full disclosure is due: we've never been big fans of the Premium moniker ever since the Z5 Premium came about. It's about as creative and meaningful as Deluxe in a phone's name (we're looking at you Asus!) Let's hope the industry doesn't get to Executive and Superior somewhere down the line. But we digress.

What we can promise is that we won't be holding the name against the XZ Premium. What we're really interested in seeing is whether the phone will make good where it counts.

With that said, the look and feel are a big part of what makes or breaks the smartphone user experience and we are ready to get on with the physical. We hope you are too. Let's go.

Design

Back to them bezels... Are they the space around one of the best screens in business or the worst eyesore for a flagship? Everyone's entitled to an opinion but we do think the Xperia XZ Premium's one of the best-looking phones around. We spent plenty of time with the phone and the experience has been a pleasure - both handling it and simply looking at it. The Loop Surface design has been polished to perfection this year and the sharp (literally!) contrast of the smooth surface and the metal edges on the top and bottom makes for a great feeling in the hand.

Don't let the Loop Surface name fool you, though. The front and rear are made of flat pieces of Gorilla Glass 5, one of the sturdiest solutions in the market, but they don't wrap around the phone. They almost seamlessly transition into the curved polycarbonate sides but it's by no means glass all around.

Sony successfully matched the sides to the front and rear and it's near impossible to spot a gap on the Deepsea Black model.

Made of plastic, the sides are also better at absorbing shock, which is more practical than premium but we don't mind at all.

The top and bottom sides of the chassis are made entirely of metal. They are flat and diamond-cut along the edge to form a reflecting facet. The surface of the facets is double anodized, which makes the finish more durable, and contributes to some light-bending effects.

With the XZ Premium, Sony once again delivered on the Xperia flagship legacy. The phone is dust-and waterproof (IP68), and has stereo speakers - signature features of the Xperia flagships. There are no caps on any of the ports but the SIM slot.

    

Sony Xperia XZ Premium in Luminous Chrome

Overall, what the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 shed in bezels, the Sony gained. Its top and bottom bezels are of iPhone Plus proportions, the sides - similarly ample. Even the old Z5 Premium was smaller in all directions, lighter and yet with a bigger battery.

Even more questionable is Sony's choice to gloss the front bezels of the Luminous Chrome model - the Z5 Premium had the decency to keep the front all-black. The mirrored front in the XZ Premium reflects all your surroundings, which can be quite distracting when you use the phone as it pulls attention away from the screen. These distractions are not as prominent on the Pink and Black paintjobs, it is only the Chrome one that's like that.

While the Xperia XZ Premium has gained some weight, we don't mind the extra 30g. The phone feels so sturdy as if it's cut out from a single block of aluminum and it feels great in hand. Sure, the all-glossy surface is a fingerprint nightmare, but for what it lacks in practicality, the Xperia XZ Premium more than makes up for in looks.

What we would have appreciated though is a slightly bigger battery. The 3,230mAh cell is less than what the Z5 Premium had, but we have our fingers crossed for the new Snapdragon 835 to make up for that.

Device overview

Now that we are done with all "Mirror, Mirror" questions, we can approach the Xperia XZ Premium from a more practical angle. Above the impressive 4K display is the first speaker/earpiece, flanked by the selfie camera and a couple of sensors. At the far left you can also spot the tiny status LED.

The second speaker of the stereo speaker setup is below the screen. Sony claims the new speakers are 41% louder than the Xperia XZ's and well balanced unlike the hybrid solutions found on the iPhone 7, Huawei P10 Plus and the likes. We did enjoy the way music sounds on these speakers but they are not as loud as we would have liked.

There is only one removable bit on the Xperia XZ Premium and that's the nano-SIM and microSD compartment. It's a single tray that would eject both the SIM and the memory card, and the phone will restart immediately. Even worse, once you put a new SIM card and return the tray, the Xperia XZ Premium will restart a second time. Really, what year is it? 90% of all phones we get for review around here never need to restart when we hot swap a SIM card.

The right side has the volume rocker, the power/lock key, and the two-step camera shutter. Everywhere but the US, the power key's surface also doubles as fingerprint scanner and its sensor is very fast and accurate, though not always-on so it won't wake the phone up

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The audio jack is on top of the Xperia XZ Premium alongside the secondary microphone. The primary mic is at the bottom nearby the USB Type-C port.