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Sony Xperia XZ Premium Review

Name: Sony Xperia XZ Premium Review
Item: Sony Xperia XZ Premium
Rating: 8.7
Author: Damian M.

by Damian M. / May 16, 2017, 9:20 AM

Introduction

Sony has been among the more prolific smartphone manufacturers over the past few years. Throughout 2016, the Japanese manufacturer unveiled seven new smartphones, and at MWC this year, it introduced four more handsets. The top device in the latter bunch was the Xperia XZ Premium.

With the XZ Premium, Sony promises unparalleled experience thanks to its revolutionary camera tech, excellent 5.5-inch 4K display and Qualcomm's latest silicon – the Snapdragon 835. Let's see if it delivers.

Design

That's one big and gorgeous fingerprint magnet.

The XZ Premium is a beautiful phone. It comes with a 5.5” display in a rather bulky chassis, but still feels quite comfortable to hold. The body is mostly glass and metal, and it feels satisfyingly solid thanks to its size and weight. There's just one aspect to the Xperia XZ Premium's design that we're not too keen on, and that's its susceptibility to fingerprints, courtesy of its otherwise stunning mirror-like finish.

When it comes to the fingerprint scanner, it will be available outside the US only, as expected, and it's embedded in the power button on the right side. The same side of the phone also holds the volume rocker which is placed above the power button and is far more comfortable to use than those of the Xperia XZ and Xperia XZs.

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Front view
Side view

To see the phones in real size or compare them with other models, visit our Visual Phone Size Comparison page

Display

A very solid screen, despite being a bit blueish.

When it comes to the Sony Xperia XZ Premium's display, it's hard to find something not to like about it. It's a 5.5-inch 4K LCD panel, which makes it plenty crisp in all possible use cases. This includes games, video content, web browsing and what not. That being said, for videos and movies, the difference between a 4K display and a 1080p one would be barely noticeable, unless you really look for it. So, in case you're wondering what the benefits of the 4K panel are, they're most noticeable with VR content, where you will suffer far less quality loss. Bear in mind that Sony doesn't have its own VR platform for smartphones, but you may use the XZ with Google's Cardboard.

We have only one complaint about the panel – its colors are somewhat unrealistic. However, it does feature three display presets that you can choose from to change the way colors are shown – Standard, Super-vivid, and Professional Mode. The first is the default profile the phone comes with, the second obviously over-saturates all colors, and the third is meant to present you with the most realistic colors. That effect, however, is somewhat spoiled by the slight blueish hue of the screen. Thankfully, you can adjust the white balance as well, using the provided sliders under the Display option in the phone's settings, and completely get rid of any unwanted tints.

Display measurements and quality

	Maximum brightness Higher is better	Minimum brightness (nits) Lower is better	Contrast Higher is better	Color temperature (Kelvins)	Gamma	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
Sony Xperia XZ Premium	548 (Excellent)	5 (Excellent)	1:1239 (Good)	8104 (Poor)	2.15	4.49 (Average)	7.77 (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S8+	565 (Excellent)	1 (Excellent)	unmeasurable (Excellent)	6936 (Excellent)	2.14	5.06 (Average)	4.91 (Average)
LG G6	506 (Excellent)	4 (Excellent)	1:2164 (Excellent)	8639 (Poor)	2.12	5.68 (Average)	7.55 (Average)
Apple iPhone 7 Plus	672 (Excellent)	2 (Excellent)	1:1431 (Excellent)	6981 (Excellent)	2.2	3.11 (Good)	2.63 (Good)

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The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

These measurements are made using SpectraCal's CalMAN calibration software.

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89 Comments

1. Ordinary

Posts: 2454; Member since: Apr 23, 2015

Did anyone try VR on this phone?

posted on May 16, 2017, 9:27 AM 1

6. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

did it even support daydream?

posted on May 16, 2017, 9:34 AM 0

51. sgodsell

Posts: 7187; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

I have tried Cardboard apps on the Z5 premium. There is no screen door effect like you find on lower resolution displays. Daydream VR is not currently supported on the XZ premium.

posted on May 16, 2017, 5:20 PM 1

44. HomerS

Posts: 419; Member since: Sep 19, 2014

It doesnt support Daydream it doesnt have an OLED display.

posted on May 16, 2017, 2:51 PM 3

61. ecologer

Posts: 32; Member since: Jul 25, 2014

I'd also like to know more about its VR performance.

posted on May 17, 2017, 5:31 AM 0

71. Cat97

Posts: 1858; Member since: Mar 02, 2017

Its VR performance is ZERO :).

posted on May 17, 2017, 4:32 PM 0

69. Damian.M

Posts: 19; Member since: Nov 01, 2016

We did. Thanks to the Snapdragon 835 and the 4K display, it both runs and looks pretty good. Unfortunately, it's not Daydream-ready, so you're stuck with whatever runs on Cardboard, pretty much.

posted on May 17, 2017, 9:13 AM 3

2. pyradark

Posts: 895; Member since: Jun 10, 2012

what a surprise PA!! Good Job Sony for this awesome phone

posted on May 16, 2017, 9:29 AM 4

8. maherk

Posts: 6768; Member since: Feb 10, 2012

Ikr?!! Finally a fair score for a Sony device. Although I got the S8 and I'm loving it so far, the XZP is still my favorite phone of the year. It was just small stuff that I got used to have on my phone that kept with Samsung this year. I just hope reviewers will give this phone enough coverage for it to succeed, as Sony deserves it for the effort they brought with this one.

posted on May 16, 2017, 9:48 AM 13

37. Nathan_ingx

Posts: 4769; Member since: Mar 07, 2012

Tried S8 and S8+ yesterday, compared it to my OP3 and the size impressed me. And as I suspected, the fingerprint scanner will need time to get used to. It needs quite a travel. But Sony here, they did a marvelous job...I'm super stoked with the Super slow mo.

posted on May 16, 2017, 12:51 PM 0

58. aBoss

Posts: 164; Member since: Sep 15, 2014

yea this Sony Xperia XZ Premium is currently the greatest phone out right now. The only phone that may beat it is the Note 8 and thats only if it is coming with a removable battery as I doubt it will come with a 4k screen, 960p slow motion or the perfect fingerprint sensor placement like this Sony

posted on May 17, 2017, 3:59 AM 1

3. dubaiboy78

Posts: 442; Member since: Sep 19, 2014

Wow finally from iphonearena! Xz premium with Good grade!

posted on May 16, 2017, 9:29 AM 4

13. yann

Posts: 612; Member since: Jul 15, 2010

Yea. 8.7:is good, but look at the cons: 1. Fingerprint magnet - how the same problem is not a con in Galaxy S 8 phones reviews? 2. Super slow-motion can be hard to time right - this is unique feature and you complained about it? At least it's there - even for 0.2 sec(not as you wrote 0.15); 3. Cumbersome camera UI - in iPhone 4K video shooting is also different app(not in video settings) but you didn't complain about it? Also it depends from the point of view.

posted on May 16, 2017, 10:11 AM 12

15. maherk

Posts: 6768; Member since: Feb 10, 2012

To be fair to PA, everyone is talking about the slow mo feature and how you need lots of tries to get it right

posted on May 16, 2017, 10:39 AM 0

30. yann

Posts: 612; Member since: Jul 15, 2010

At least it had slow mo at 960fps. Others don't. It can't be a con.

posted on May 16, 2017, 12:07 PM 1

39. maherk

Posts: 6768; Member since: Feb 10, 2012

If you look closely, you'll notice how they have the 960fps feature as a pro, and that the process of taking one is a con ;)

posted on May 16, 2017, 1:05 PM 0

18. NoAllegiance unregistered

The more ridiculous cons, the better the phone as they couldn't find fault in other aspects.

posted on May 16, 2017, 11:06 AM 7

22. tyrion_lannister unregistered

Just because iPhone's camera UI is crap doesn't make the Xperia UI better. Sorry, but a camera UI that doesn't even allow HDR in auto mode, let alone auto HDR is a garbage UI.

posted on May 16, 2017, 11:25 AM 1

40. josephnero

Posts: 778; Member since: Nov 16, 2011

it has HDR in auto mode.it's just called baclkit scence genious.

posted on May 16, 2017, 1:12 PM 9

41. DanteTheGreat

Posts: 67; Member since: Jul 31, 2014

It has HDR in auto mode. Don't state falsehoods like they are facts.

posted on May 16, 2017, 1:57 PM 7

46. timaustin2000

Posts: 42; Member since: Feb 15, 2013

Eh? It has got HDR in Suprior Auto - it's on by default. They call it "Backlight" but it's HDR.

posted on May 16, 2017, 3:05 PM 5

54. kabiluddin

Posts: 275; Member since: Feb 28, 2015

@tyrion_lannister I'm not sorry to say that you are dumba**. Pretend to be known it all jacka** like you should eat $hit and shut up.

posted on May 17, 2017, 2:03 AM 3

81. AmashAziz

Posts: 2898; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

you're just jealous of him.................LOSER!

posted on May 22, 2017, 5:33 AM 0

52. Valinor

Posts: 174; Member since: Mar 26, 2013

Actually, the real big cons for me are: - audio output (how can they build great audio players but put crappy audio in their phones) - lowlight photos (saw some samples, they really really suck. All my life i've been buying sony cameras, love the photo quality.... but their phone photos can be so much better) -that bottom bezel.... at least add physical buttons to it. Now its just useless space while the onscreen buttons are also taking up space. I was about to pre-order but lowlight photos and good audio are really important for me.