Month ago Sony has closed Xperia Z line by releasing first Xperia X series smartphone. Everyone thought that for quite some time it’ll be the latest Sony’s flagman you can get in the market. Well, it was until week ago, when company made a huge surprise announcing another X series flagman called Xperia XZ. There’s no doubt that Sony fans having Xperia X may feel a bit deceived after this move.
However, every new phone will now be part of the Xperia X line, no matter it’s a budget, mid range or high end device. But it’s all not about the model name, it’s about quality and exclusive features. So lets take a deeper look at this new flagman.
Apparently, Sony is going to keep their boxy design making only slight changes to every second model. As this one comes with a bit rounded edges, which enable the phone to sit in your hand comfortably. Since Xperia Z series, all Sony devices was the ones that feels good to hold. That’s because of that continuous and solid design, delivering a premium feel.
Xperia XZ has more rounded corners and sides, connecting 5.2 inch display with a new kind of metal material on the back of the phone. Sony calls it “Alkaleido”, although you won’t notice anything radically different about it. Holding in the hand it feels much the same as the metal on previous Sony handsets and still picks up your fingerprints. Top and bottom edges are slightly flattened to keep the phone more resistant to any unexpected impact. Latest Sony flagman is equipped with 3.5mm audio jack on the top and USB Type-C charging port on the bottom.
Rear camera has 23MP sensor, which is the same as on many recent Sony phones, such as Xperia Z5 Premium. The only real change that we found is laser autofocus feature, helping to take steady shots of moving subjects. Thanks to this new improvement, autofocus becomes faster and more accurate. Main camera also supports 4K video recording, but sadly the display on this smartphone is only Full HD, so it wont show captured resolution in its best.
On the front, there’s a 13MP highly improved selfie shooter, making sufficiently great photos with the quality you usually don’t expect from the front camera. Most of the competitors can’t even get close to it and this is where Xperia XZ gets the big point.
Talking about the performance, new device is powered by Snapdragon 820 chipset that cooperates with 3GB of RAM. It’s one of the best chipsets on the market right now. Phone comes with 32 and 64GB internal storage. If that’s not enough, it can be expanded using microSD card slot that supports up to 256GB.
Gamers will approve, that one of the biggest advantages having Xperia series phone is PlayStation services and remote connection support. It’s a great feature allowing you enjoy PlayStation platform games on mobile screen or use your smartphone as a remote controller for PS3 or PS4 consoles.
The last, but not the least great thing where Xperia devices stand out for is IP68 dust proof and water resistant certificate. Using this phone on a rainy day or taking a call in a shower shouldn’t bother you any more.
However, there’s one thing we’ve missed on this model. It’s FM radio feature that stood in most of Xperia series smartphones. Yes, there are lots of internet radio services that everyone can use, but that’s not an option if you’re in the place where’s no internet connection.
Xperia XZ will be available in Europe for €620. We gave all the facts, so it’s you to decide if the price is right.
Technical specifications
• Network:
2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900;
3G HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100;
4G LTE 700/800/850/1700/1800/1900/2100/2300/2600;
• Dimensions 146 x 72 x 8.1mm, weight 161g
• 5.2 inches 16M colors IPS LCD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and ∼424 ppi pixel density, Corning Gorilla Glass
• Up to 10 fingers touch screen control
• Processor Quad-core (2×2.15 GHz Kryo and 2×1.6 GHz Kryo) with Adreno 530 GPU
• 3GB RAM
• 32/64GB internal memory
• MicroSD card support up to 256GB
• 23MP rear camera with face detection autofocus, touch focus, panorama, LED flash, HDR, video recording 2160@30fps, 1080@60fps, 720@120fps
• Front camera 13MP, video recording 1080@30fps, HDR function
• Bluetooth v4.2 with A2DP
• NFC (Near Field Communication)
• Android Lollipop 6.0.1 operating system, upgradable to Nougat 7.0
• Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer, fingerprint sensor, proximity sensor, color spectrum
• IP68 certified – dust proof and water resistant over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes
• Non-removable Li-Ion 2900mAh battery with quick charging function
• Available colors: mineral black, platinum, forest blue, deep pink
