MWC means new fl agship phones and Sony
is no exception. You might still be waiting
for the Xperia Z6 but you might want to let
that go and get to know the Xperia XZ Premium.
It might be less than six months since Sony
launched the original XZ but we have a new one
already. Whether you want to call it the secondgeneration
model or not is up to you, but the XZ
Premium is the fi rm’s new fl agship smartphone for
2017. The fi rm also announced the XZs in Barcelona
though this smaller and more mid-range model
won’t be coming to Europe.
MWC: Sony
Xperia XZ Premium
AA36 PAGES.indd 33 09/03/2017 10:45
34 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 36
A key thing we don’t know at the moment is the
Xperia XZ Premium price but we can tell you that it
will arrive in ‘Spring’. The XZ launched at £539 so
you can expect this phone to be more expensive,
quite possibly over £600.
Note: The Xperia XZ Premium we saw ahead
of MWC didn’t have fi nal working software, so
we’re limited on what we can say.
Design
Like the Z5 range, the XZ Premium is a bigger
version of the XZ which some higher specs (see
below). It uses a similar ‘Loop Surface’ design
which aims to mimic a seamless tube of glass. The
main thing is the very rounded side which feel nice
and we also like the bevelled metal top and bottom.
As if it makes any di erence, the phone is a
tiny 0.2mm thinner at 7.9mm but is a fair amount
heavier at 195g – this is mainly due to a larger
AA36 PAGES.indd 34 09/03/2017 10:45
ISSUE 36 • ANDROID ADVISOR 35
screen and bigger battery which might be a
trade-o you’re fi ne with.
The XZ Premium is IP68 rated like many previous
Sony phones which is necessary to compete
with rival fl agships and does include a 3.5mm
headphone jack which is becoming less common.
Sony has decided, quite literally to mirror, the
style of the Z5 Premium. Both colour options,
Deepsea Black and Luminous Chrome, are
highly refl ective and get grubby as soon as you
pick the device up. It’s shame there isn’t a matt
version for those who aren’t keen on this look
– in our experience with the Z5 Premium, that’s
a lot of people.
Hardware
One of the main things the XZ Premium borrows
from the Z5 Premium is the large 5.5in screen
with a 4K resolution. That means the device is
bigger than the original as mentioned earlier. In
our review of the Z5 Premium we concluded that
you don’t really need a 4K screen on a phone,
but the XZ Premium has an additional feature
that might tempt you.
It supports 4K HDR like many TVs and lends
technology from Sony’s Bravia range. Sony says
HDR provides better colour, contrast and detail.
However, you’ll only be able to take advantage of
this with selected titles on Amazon Prime Video like
The Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle.
While the screen is certainly brighter and
more colourful compared to the Z5 Premium,
the display when utilising HDR can look a little
bit over the top because of the intense colours.
AA36 PAGES.indd 35 09/03/2017 10:45
36 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 36
(Note that it’s di cult to capture the di erence in
a photography). Despite rumours of Qualcomm’s
latest chip being reserved for the Samsung Galaxy
S8, Sony has put it inside the Xperia XZ Premium.
The Snapdragon 835 uses a 10nm process and
should o er better performance and battery life.
We haven’t been able to use the phone enough
to comment on either yet but Sony only goes as
far as to say ‘reliable all day battery life’.
It’s good to 64GB of storage as standard and
Sony continues to o er a microSD card slot so
you can add more. The XZ Premium comes with
a healthy 4GB of RAM.
Plenty of specs from its predecessor remain
including the fi ngerprint scanner, USB-C (now v3.1),
NFC, Bluetooth 4.2. The larger device means the
battery capacity is higher at 3230mAh – not quite
as big as the Z5 Premium though.
It’s the camera that Sony is really pushing here,
aside from the 4K HDR screen. The resolution
has dropped to 19Mp but the fi rm has some
interesting innovations here in what it calls the
‘Motion Eye’ camera.
You might be surprised that the resolution
has dropped but pixels are 19 percent larger
compared to the XZ so that will help in low light.
The XZ Premium is the world’s fi rst phone to o er
super slow motion video at a whopping 960fps.
We tried this on the XZs and the e ect is pretty
spectacular, but it can’t record for long so timing
it right is extremely di cult.
Another handy feature is predictive capture
where the phone detects motion and takes four
photos before you’ve even hit the shutter button.
AA36 PAGES.indd 36 09/03/2017 10:45
ISSUE 36 • ANDROID ADVISOR 37
We haven’t been able to try this yet and while
it sounds great, we wonder how quickly it will
fi ll the storage because of things like people
getting into position for a photo, and so on.
We’ll put it through its paces when we get
a fi nal sample. The front camera remains at
13Mp with an f/2 aperture and 22mm lens.
There’s not much we can say about software
at the moment but the entire 2017 range
including the XZ Premium will come with
Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Sony’s
usual interface. We do know it will support PS4
Remote Play like previous smartphones.
Verdict
We’ve not had enough time with the XZ Premium
to give a verdict yet. We also need the price so
come back soon. Chris Martin
Specifi cations
• 5.5in 4K HDR Triluminous display
• Android 7.01 Nougat
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB storage, expandable via microSD
• USB-C
• Bluetooth 4.2
• NFC
• Dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi
• 3230mAh battery
• 19Mp Motion Eye rear-facing camera
• 13Mp front-facing camera
• 156x77x7.9mm
• 195g
is no exception. You might still be waiting
for the Xperia Z6 but you might want to let
that go and get to know the Xperia XZ Premium.
It might be less than six months since Sony
launched the original XZ but we have a new one
already. Whether you want to call it the secondgeneration
model or not is up to you, but the XZ
Premium is the fi rm’s new fl agship smartphone for
2017. The fi rm also announced the XZs in Barcelona
though this smaller and more mid-range model
won’t be coming to Europe.
MWC: Sony
Xperia XZ Premium
AA36 PAGES.indd 33 09/03/2017 10:45
34 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 36
A key thing we don’t know at the moment is the
Xperia XZ Premium price but we can tell you that it
will arrive in ‘Spring’. The XZ launched at £539 so
you can expect this phone to be more expensive,
quite possibly over £600.
Note: The Xperia XZ Premium we saw ahead
of MWC didn’t have fi nal working software, so
we’re limited on what we can say.
Design
Like the Z5 range, the XZ Premium is a bigger
version of the XZ which some higher specs (see
below). It uses a similar ‘Loop Surface’ design
which aims to mimic a seamless tube of glass. The
main thing is the very rounded side which feel nice
and we also like the bevelled metal top and bottom.
As if it makes any di erence, the phone is a
tiny 0.2mm thinner at 7.9mm but is a fair amount
heavier at 195g – this is mainly due to a larger
AA36 PAGES.indd 34 09/03/2017 10:45
ISSUE 36 • ANDROID ADVISOR 35
screen and bigger battery which might be a
trade-o you’re fi ne with.
The XZ Premium is IP68 rated like many previous
Sony phones which is necessary to compete
with rival fl agships and does include a 3.5mm
headphone jack which is becoming less common.
Sony has decided, quite literally to mirror, the
style of the Z5 Premium. Both colour options,
Deepsea Black and Luminous Chrome, are
highly refl ective and get grubby as soon as you
pick the device up. It’s shame there isn’t a matt
version for those who aren’t keen on this look
– in our experience with the Z5 Premium, that’s
a lot of people.
Hardware
One of the main things the XZ Premium borrows
from the Z5 Premium is the large 5.5in screen
with a 4K resolution. That means the device is
bigger than the original as mentioned earlier. In
our review of the Z5 Premium we concluded that
you don’t really need a 4K screen on a phone,
but the XZ Premium has an additional feature
that might tempt you.
It supports 4K HDR like many TVs and lends
technology from Sony’s Bravia range. Sony says
HDR provides better colour, contrast and detail.
However, you’ll only be able to take advantage of
this with selected titles on Amazon Prime Video like
The Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle.
While the screen is certainly brighter and
more colourful compared to the Z5 Premium,
the display when utilising HDR can look a little
bit over the top because of the intense colours.
AA36 PAGES.indd 35 09/03/2017 10:45
36 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 36
(Note that it’s di cult to capture the di erence in
a photography). Despite rumours of Qualcomm’s
latest chip being reserved for the Samsung Galaxy
S8, Sony has put it inside the Xperia XZ Premium.
The Snapdragon 835 uses a 10nm process and
should o er better performance and battery life.
We haven’t been able to use the phone enough
to comment on either yet but Sony only goes as
far as to say ‘reliable all day battery life’.
It’s good to 64GB of storage as standard and
Sony continues to o er a microSD card slot so
you can add more. The XZ Premium comes with
a healthy 4GB of RAM.
Plenty of specs from its predecessor remain
including the fi ngerprint scanner, USB-C (now v3.1),
NFC, Bluetooth 4.2. The larger device means the
battery capacity is higher at 3230mAh – not quite
as big as the Z5 Premium though.
It’s the camera that Sony is really pushing here,
aside from the 4K HDR screen. The resolution
has dropped to 19Mp but the fi rm has some
interesting innovations here in what it calls the
‘Motion Eye’ camera.
You might be surprised that the resolution
has dropped but pixels are 19 percent larger
compared to the XZ so that will help in low light.
The XZ Premium is the world’s fi rst phone to o er
super slow motion video at a whopping 960fps.
We tried this on the XZs and the e ect is pretty
spectacular, but it can’t record for long so timing
it right is extremely di cult.
Another handy feature is predictive capture
where the phone detects motion and takes four
photos before you’ve even hit the shutter button.
AA36 PAGES.indd 36 09/03/2017 10:45
ISSUE 36 • ANDROID ADVISOR 37
We haven’t been able to try this yet and while
it sounds great, we wonder how quickly it will
fi ll the storage because of things like people
getting into position for a photo, and so on.
We’ll put it through its paces when we get
a fi nal sample. The front camera remains at
13Mp with an f/2 aperture and 22mm lens.
There’s not much we can say about software
at the moment but the entire 2017 range
including the XZ Premium will come with
Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Sony’s
usual interface. We do know it will support PS4
Remote Play like previous smartphones.
Verdict
We’ve not had enough time with the XZ Premium
to give a verdict yet. We also need the price so
come back soon. Chris Martin
Specifi cations
• 5.5in 4K HDR Triluminous display
• Android 7.01 Nougat
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB storage, expandable via microSD
• USB-C
• Bluetooth 4.2
• NFC
• Dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi
• 3230mAh battery
• 19Mp Motion Eye rear-facing camera
• 13Mp front-facing camera
• 156x77x7.9mm
• 195g
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