Sony Xperia XZ Premium
A “Premium” smartphone from Sony !!
Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a device that Sony launched with the idea of reinvigorating it’s own existence in the market. But truth be told, given the kind of competition that Sony and it’s products have been facing in the market, it is tough to say whether the phone would nudge the image of the market in a positive direction — don’t get me wrong, it has a decent score card, but it just doesn’t grab one’s imagination at first sight.
The ZX Premium is the more “premium” of two smartphones released together earlier this year, with decent materials and new finish. The other one device is the Xperia XZs which is aimed at the mid-range belt of the smartphone market. We’ll be delving into the XZs separately.
Well, the one factor of the Xperia ZX Premium that could grab folks’ attention would be it’s 5.5 inch 4K Ultra HD, HDR display. Sony’s leaned into it’s proprietary display technology cabinet and brought out something that’s more in the Premium TV league and transplanted it into their new phablet!
The resolution on the device is a crazy 3,840×2160; want to hear something even more crazy? The pixel density on this display is (hold you breath a moment), 807 pixels per inch!
I’m going to be really interested to see how the market will react to this mind-boggling screen.
And it’s not just the specs of the display, there’s also a fair deal of software support — the display is adjusts things like the contrast, colours, and clarity to match whatever you’re doing on the phone, making it incredibly user-friendly, almost to the extent of being soothing to the eyes, despite the brilliantly colourful visuals.
Disappointingly, Sony have yet again stuck with the same basic design language that it’s been following for about 900 years now.
Internal horsepower wise, the phablet runs on the newest processing chip in the market, Snapdragon 835 chip with 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage (expandable by up to 2 TB), running Android 7.0, with the Xperia UI on top, and is powered by a 3,230mAh non-removable battery
Sony seems to have paid a lot of attention to the cameras on the Xperia XZ Premium. There’s a 19 megapixel 1/2.3 inch Exmor RS sensor with triple image sensing technology unit on the rear, which features 5-axis stabilization, and a ridiculously slow 960 FPS slow motion at HD (not Full HD, though)! The front has a 13 megapixel unit that’s definitely going to be a move up.
The cameras are also said to be superior at handling low-light against the competition.
While we’ll have to wait to test-drive this phone, yet even in theory, those numbers indicate that Sony isn’t messing around with the cameras on this one!
Back to the battery — another thing Sony is promoting on this phablet is the smart battery optimization set up on the phone. The set up prevents the phone from continuously charging when it is left plugged in overnight — which is a good thing, considering the non-removable battery architecture of the phone.
Sony has the phone running on the latest Android OS out there, which means that the device should be more or less good stable and speedy, despite minor tinkering with Android’s UI. The user interface is mostly stock Android with a few of Sony’s own features on top, so it won’t be likely to get too many complaints.
The single-SIM Sony Xperia XZ Premium is certainly going to be vying for the big spenders in the market this season, especially given the processor and the cameras it’s sporting. Other specs too, do a great job of promising potential buyers that the phone won’t disappoint you in any of the other areas either.
Something we must point out though: While Sony has not been a company to invest in VR or AR as such (even though its Xperia Touch does a little for AR), yet the specs on Xperia XZ Premium are almost perfect for those interested in these alternative realities; curiously Sony’s not branding the phablet as such.
The price of the phone has not yet been revealed but it can be expected to easily be north of USD 700 in the international market, which would make it land in the INR 48,000–50,000 bracket in India. The price might be a little high, but the internals kind of justify it. The problem is, most idle shoppers scouting store shelves won’t be able to spot this new phablet — because it doesn’t look very new. So Sony might just lose that opportunity for want of novelty. They should definitely have spent more time reimagining the look and visuals on this device.
Anyway, the Xperia XZ Premium can be expected to be out sometime in the first half of this year, and available on international sale soon after.
Originally published at chip-monks.com.
