Sony’s latest flagship is light in the hand and very aggressively priced for a premium handset.
Sony has been busy this year in handset terms, announcing the X series phones back at Mobile World congress before formally launching them in Australia back in June. It then followed up with the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact which it announced at the IFA trade show in Berlin. It’s just announced immediate pre-order availability for the Xperia XZ phone, with retail availability from 20 October 2016. Outright pricing is set at $999, which makes it the lowest official outright cost "premium" phone on the market. It will also be offered by Telstra on a contract basis over 24 months with plan pricing starting at $80 per month.
Sony Xperia XZ: Design
Like most manufacturers, Sony has settled on a design that looks distinctly "Xperia", so spotting its phones amongst the crowd is an easy task. For the Xperia XZ it’s slightly smoothed out the curves and added a very pleasing dark blue colour variant to the mix, alongside a regular black colour. It's worth noting that if you want the Blue colour, you'll have to get it directly from Sony itself; Telstra will only stock the black variant, and the same is true for outright sales through JB Hi-Fi.
What’s genuinely surprising here is how light the Xperia XZ is in the hand. Maybe it’s the curved sides, and maybe it’s the slim design, but in any case the first impression of the phone is that it’s a pleasure to hold and use. Like recent Xperia designs there’s a dual power button and fingerprint sensor in the side, as well as a front facing NFC chip. The volume buttons run down the side below the fingerprint sensor, but it’s otherwise a button-free experience, with Android controls running purely from software.
Upsides: Why you’d want the Sony Xperia XZ
The price is right: The premium space in Australia right now is occupied with phones that cost over $1000, in some cases markedly so. That’s not the path that Sony’s chosen to tread with the Xperia XZ, which will sell at $999 outright. It’s likely we’ll see even steeper discounts from the direct importers, and that price point also means that the other Xperia X series phones should see price cuts as well.
Solid camera optics: Sony manufactures many of the optics found in smartphones, so this is something it totally should be able to ace. The Xperia XZ features a 23MP three element lens at the rear with five axis stabilisation that Sony says should lead to sharper focus in less time and improved lower light performance. We’ve only been able to briefly test the Xperia XZ’s camera performance so far, but so far it’s looking very good indeed.
Longer battery life: Sony’s made a lot of noise this year about its adaptive charging technology which learns your battery usage habits and adjusts how the phone charges when it’s plugged into the mains. This isn’t just about faster charging, although the Xperia XZ does support Qualcomm’s rapid charging, but more about maintaining a suitable battery profile to ensure that the internally sealed battery lasts as long as possible before needing replacement.
Water resistance: While Samsung and Apple have come to the water resistance party, Sony’s (largely) been here all along, and the Xperia XZ is no different. No, you can’t take it on your next exploration of the Marianas trench, but for everyday splashes and accidental drops it should be able to survive nicely.
Downsides: Why you might not want the Sony Xperia XZ
Might not be Sony’s "best": It’s a little hard working out Sony’s thinking when it comes to premium phones. The Xperia XZ is meant to replace the Xperia X Performance on the top of the Sony premium phone tree, and in some aspects, such as 4K video recording, it does just that. But last year’s Xperia Z5 Premium had 4K recording and a 4K display as well where the Xperia XZ has just a Full HD display. It’s hard not to think that Sony’s got all the puzzle pieces but isn’t quite putting all of them into play.
No dual camera: Huawei’s done it with the Huawei P9, LG with the LG G5 and Apple with the iPhone 7 Plus, but Sony hasn’t. It makes the optics for many phones, so quite why it hasn’t caught the dual optics trend is a little mystifying.
Front facing NFC: The Xperia X series phones have all had NFC chips that are front facing, with a small sticker on the front to remind you of this fact. It's not a deal breaker, but if you use Android Pay or other NFC apps it can be annoying as some readers will only detect if you drop your phone face first on it, at which point watching the transaction verify is impossible.
Sony Xperia XZ: Early Impressions
The Xperia XZ is a great looking device, and from our limited testing so far it just might live up to Sony’s camera hype as well. The price is also attractive with so many premium phones easily breaking the $1,000 barrier. That being said, our first impression is that this is a nice phone, but it might not be a great phone, which is what you’d arguably want out of a premium phone at this point in time. Stay tuned for our full review of the Sony Xperia XZ.
Sony Xperia X: Specifications
Sony
Xperia XZ
OS
Android 6.0
Screen size
5.2in
Resolution
1920x1080
Storage
32GB
Weight
161g
Processor
Snapdragon 820
Rear camera
21MP
Front camera
13MP
Battery
2900mAh