Sony xperia x z premium review. Sony Xperia xz Premium - unique, stylish, able to attract

World's first smartphone with 4K HDR display and 960 fps slow motion

Last spring in Barcelona, ​​the international GSM association at the annual Global Mobile Awards (Glomo Awards) announced that new flagship The Sony Xperia XZ Premium won the Best New Smartphones and Mobile Devices at MWC 2017 category. And that's not the only accolade received by the press and critical acclaimed Sony Xperia XZ Premium during the show. In this regard, the President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications, Hiroki Totoki, said: "Xperia XZ Premium is the most technically outstanding smartphone we have ever created." At a minimum, the Xperia XZ Premium was the world's first smartphone with a 4K HDR display (5.5″), and the device also implemented a new Motion Eye camera capable of recording videos at 960 frames per second and playing them in slow motion, in four times slower than other smartphones. Finally, the new Japanese flagship arrived in Russia and became available in official retail.

Key Features of Sony Xperia XZ Premium (G8142)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998), 4 Kryo cores @1.9/2.4 GHz
• GPU Adreno 540
• Operating system Android 7.1.1
• Touch display IPS 5.5″, 3840 × 2160, 801 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB, internal memory 64 GB
• Support Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• microSD support up to 256 GB
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• WCDMA/HSPA+ networks (850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz)
• FDD LTE Cat.16 networks
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz) MIMO
• bluetooth 5.0
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• USB 3.1 Type-C, USB OTG
• Main camera 19 MP, autofocus, f/2.0, 4K video
• Front camera 13 MP, f/2.0
• Proximity, lighting, pressure sensors, magnetic field, accelerometer, gyroscope, step counter
• 960fps Super Slow Motion Video
• Dust and moisture protection IPS65/68
• Battery 3230 mAh
• Dimensions 156×77×7.9 mm
• Weight 191 g

Appearance and usability

Sony Mobile remains true to tradition, this applies to both the appearance of its smartphones and the software shell. The design of the novelty uses the same already familiar principle of Loop Surface (circular surface): the metal frame, bending, with its curved edges, goes to all panels - front, back and side. The frame itself is made of metal polished to a mirror finish, it is echoed by two Gorilla Glass 5 glass panels. As a result, we have one of the most slippery and easily soiled smartphones, perhaps only Xiaomi Mi Mix can compare with it.

At the same time, the design and design are really impressive: a mirror-like body with sharp corners and flat end panels looks at least impressive, and maybe even status. Another thing is that all this magnificence runs counter to ergonomics and comfort: sharp corners take up an unacceptable amount of extra space in your pocket and dig into your hips, and shiny surfaces, of course, are instantly covered with fingerprints.

It cannot be said that the glass panels themselves are very slippery, but no one usually holds a smartphone for them. But the polished and varnished sides of the convex metal frame are extremely slippery, so the smartphone is quite difficult to lift from the table.

As for the materials and build quality, here, of course, there can be no complaints, Sony is always in order with this. But about the dimensions it is worth saying a few words. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a 5.5-inch screen, which is not that big by today's standards, but in terms of body size it is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S8+ with a significantly larger screen (6.2″).

The frame around the screen looks too wide, especially the top and bottom segments, which are 17 mm high, and there are not even touch buttons at the bottom. A lot of space is empty, and the only explanation for such indents is the stereo speakers placed above and below in the frontal plane.

The glass of the panel has barely noticeable roundings at the transition to the end faces, but only on the sides. There is an event LED above the screen.

The back panel here is also real glass, it's not plastic, but the same Gorilla Glass 5 glass as the front. The camera module is single, not dual. The camera does not protrude beyond the surface, the back panel is absolutely flat.

All hardware buttons are located on the right side. The one that is responsible for power and lock has a built-in fingerprint scanner, it is easy to grope blindly, it is convenient to use. Another button responsible for volume control, on the contrary, is quite smooth, slippery, small, sticking out of the case a little. It's hard to find her blindly. There is a third, very small and barely noticeable, it is traditionally responsible for working with the camera for Sony.

The card slot here is hybrid: you can install two Nano-SIM SIM cards or replace one of them with a memory card. Sony typically releases two variants of each model, single and dual SIM, and the Xperia XZ Premium is no exception. Only there are not one, but two drawers, and they are covered with a convenient lid that does not need to be squeezed out with a paper clip. All Sony smartphones automatically reboot as soon as the sled with cards is removed from the case, regardless of whether there are any cards in there at all.

The smartphone is waterproof according to the IP65/IP68 standard. The standard suggests that the device can spend up to half an hour under water, but Sony forbids this, mentioning only protection from rain splashes or from an accidentally spilled glass.

On the top end there is an audio output for headphones (3.5 mm), as well as an auxiliary microphone.

The bottom end is given over to the main conversational microphone and the universal USB Type-C connector that supports USB OTG connection.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is available in three color options: Luminous Chrome, Deepsea Black, and Bronze Pink. We tested the “regular” black version, but apparently, Sony is betting on pink bronze. Designer Satoshi Aoyagi commented: “We wanted to find a shade that felt warm and at the same time exemplifies premium design and functionality. A bronze metallic sheen adds depth to the color of the front and back of the phone, while the top and bottom bezels add extra sparkle thanks to diamond cut processing.

Screen

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium features an IPS display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass. Triluminos, X-Reality for mobile and Dynamic Contrast Enhancer technologies are used. The screen dimensions are 68 × 121 mm with a diagonal of 5.5 inches. In this case, the resolution is 3840 × 2160, the dot density here is very high, about 801 ppi. It is the world's first smartphone with a 4K HDR display.

The frame around the screen is wide by modern standards, more than 4 mm on the sides and 17 mm on top and bottom. Together with the sharp corners of the case itself, all this looks rather cumbersome.

The display brightness can be adjusted manually or set to automatic settings based on the operation of the ambient light sensor. The AnTuTu test diagnoses support for 10 simultaneous multitouch touches. The screen supports operation with gloves.

Detailed examination using measuring instruments held the editor of the sections "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are slightly better than the screen of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens of both devices (Sony Xperia XZ Premium, as you can easily determine, is on the right, then they can be distinguished by size):

Both screens are dark, but the Sony screen is still slightly darker (its brightness in the photo is 107 versus 117 for the Nexus 7). The tripling of reflected objects on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the outer glass (it is also a touch sensor) and the matrix surface (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (very effective, even better than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, its maximum value was about 460 cd / m², and the minimum - 4.7 cd / m². The maximum value is high, and given the excellent anti-reflective properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at an acceptable level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness control, with which the user can try to set the required brightness level under the current conditions. We slightly increased the brightness in complete darkness and found that in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 12 cd / m², in an artificially lit office (approximately 550 lux) sets it to 190 cd / m², in a very bright environment (corresponds to clear lighting). during the day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 460 cd/m². The result satisfied us. It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. Significant backlight modulation appears only at a very low brightness level, but its frequency is high, about 2.3 kHz, so even in this case there is no visible screen flicker.

This screen uses an IPS type matrix. Micrographs show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

However, the subpixels themselves are arranged unconventionally: typical columns run in the horizontal direction, but in each of the columns the subpixel triads are shifted vertically by one subpixel, first up and down three columns later. Note that we have already seen a similar arrangement of subpixels in the case of Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. As a result, the ratio of horizontal columns to vertical triads is 3 to 2, the actual vertical resolution is 1/3 less than horizontal (hereinafter, we mean the landscape orientation of the screen). That is, the pixels (RGB triads) on the screen are actually only 3840x1440, not 3840x2160.

Additional tests have shown that not every application is able to display an image in this conditional 4K resolution. For example, all tested third-party applications believe that the screen has a resolution of Full HD, that is, 1920 by 1080 pixels, and the image is displayed in this resolution, and the smartphone itself scales the picture to the true screen resolution. Only Sony's own Image Demonstrator (application Album) displays a picture in 4K resolution. The second exception is video output using hardware decoding. Let's consider the features of such a conclusion on the example of vertical and horizontal worlds with black stripes one pixel thick through a white gap also one pixel. The original test image is available at this link, the world is in the center. Here is her fragment:

Everything is fine with vertical (on the left side) stripes: clear, pixel by pixel. With horizontal ones (on the right side), everything is worse, since dark gaps are only one subpixel thick and visually the world is seen simply as a gray field. In addition, some kind of mess is displayed at the bottom and top of the horizontal world instead of stripes - apparently, this is a conversion error in the resolution of a strange matrix. However, formally black and white resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels is still implemented.

The screen has good viewing angles without hue inversion and without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen. For comparison, here is a photo in which the same images are displayed on the Nexus 7 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium screens, while the screen brightness is initially set to about 200 cd / m² (white field in full screen), and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 TO.

Perpendicular to the plane of the screens is a white field:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And a test picture:

The colors on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium screen are oversaturated, skin tones are shifted to the red, and the color balance is noticeably different from the standard. Also, as shown by additional tests, the color contrast is slightly increased.

Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, the contrast has remained at a good level.

And the white box:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (at least 5 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, the brightness drop is slightly less (brightness in photos is 232 versus 226 for Nexus 7). The black field, when deviated diagonally, is not highlighted very strongly and acquires a purple hue. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same for the screens!):

And from another angle:

The black box on the Nexus 7 is still a little darker at the corners. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is excellent:

Contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 960:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 24 ms (11 ms on + 13 ms off). The transition between 25% and 75% grayscale (according to the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 34 ms. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with equal intervals over the numerical value of the gray tint did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function turned out to be 2.31, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates little from the power dependence:

We did not find the presence of dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image, which is very good.

By default, the color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:

If the image on the screen of this smartphone still seems to someone not “bright” and “colorful” enough, then in the screen settings you can turn on Extreme brightness mode.

The result is shown below:

Saturation and color contrast are even higher. The color gamut in this mode almost completely covers the Adobe RGB gamut.

Let's look at the spectra:

They are typical of Sony's top mobile devices. Apparently, this screen uses LEDs with a blue emitter and a green and red phosphor (usually a blue emitter and a yellow phosphor), which, in combination with special matrix light filters, allows you to get a wide color gamut. Yes, and in the red phosphor, apparently, the so-called quantum dots are used. Unfortunately, as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have an unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photos above.

However, not everything is so bad, in the mode Professional coverage is adjusted to sRGB borders:

Let's look at the spectra:

It can be seen that in this mode the color components are mixed with each other, which makes it possible to reduce the color gamut. Let's look at the test image in this mode:

So much better! Hence the advice: having a smartphone at your disposal, be sure to select the mode Professional, only in this mode you can view photos and watch movies obtained from most sources available to a simple user.

By default, the balance of shades on the gray scale is slightly compromised, since the color temperature is higher than the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the black body spectrum (ΔE), although not very large, changes noticeably from hue to hue. But at least the variation in color temperature is small. (The dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This smartphone has the ability to correct the color balance by adjusting the intensities of the three primary colors.

Which is what we tried to do; the result is data signed as Corr. on the charts above. As a result, we corrected the color temperature and at least lowered ΔE in the bright area. This is a good result, but the brightness (as well as the contrast) has decreased from 460 to 415 cd/m².

Let's summarize. The brightness adjustment range of this screen is wide, anti-glare properties are excellent, which allows you to comfortably use your smartphone both on a sunny day outside and in complete darkness. It is acceptable to use the mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages also include a very effective oleophobic coating, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, moderate black lightening when the gaze deviates from the perpendicular to the screen surface, and excellent black field uniformity. By default, the color balance is not the best, but the presence of appropriate adjustments allows you to correct it to an acceptable level, albeit at the expense of some decrease in brightness (and contrast). Taking into account the importance of the characteristics for this particular class of devices (and the most important thing is the visibility of information in a wide range of external conditions), the screen quality can be considered very high. If compared with Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, then we can conclude that Sony has carried out effective work on the bugs, the new smartphone finally has a high-quality sRGB mode and has eradicated dynamic brightness adjustment depending on the nature of the displayed image. We've been waiting for this since 2014 when the Sony Xperia Z2 hit the market. Better late than never!

cameras

The front module has a 1 / 3.06 ″ Exmor RS sensor with a resolution of 13 MP, as well as a 22 mm wide-angle lens with f / 2.0 aperture without its own flash and autofocus. The maximum light sensitivity of the matrix is ​​​​ISO 6400, there is the same five-axis SteadyShot stabilization with Intelligent Active Mode as in the main camera. The quality of shooting is generally good: the image is bright, sharp and detailed. However, as can be seen from the examples, the matrix still fails to organically expose both dark and light areas at the same time, the sky is completely brightened even with even daylight.

For the main camera, Sony has saved a new exclusive module that other manufacturers will not get yet. It uses a 1/2.3″ Exmor RS mobile sensor with a 1.22µm pixel size. The 25mm wide-angle G Lens has an f/2.0 aperture. The maximum light sensitivity of the matrix is ​​ISO 12800, but only ISO 3200 can be set manually. The main feature of the new Motion Eye camera is its own fast memory, which made it possible to shoot Super slow motion video at 960 fps. True, there are notable limitations. Firstly, the ultra-slow mode is available only at 720p resolution, and in it the picture quality, of course, leaves much to be desired. Secondly, you can't just start shooting video in this mode, you can only activate it for a few seconds during normal shooting, and the result will be presented as insets in a standard video. That is, you either have to meticulously catch the moment, which is sometimes not easy, or just cut pieces of slo-mo into a longer scene. You can’t manually select areas after shooting on the resulting video, what happened, it happened.

Otherwise, we are well aware of the camera’s capabilities: there is a predictive hybrid autofocus and five-axis proprietary SteadyShot stabilization with two modes, the most “smart” of which (Intelligent Active Mode) is better not to use - everything “floats”, the shape of objects in the frame is noticeably distorted. The standard SteadyShot mode works much better.

Manual settings, as usual, allow you to set the shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, white balance, and choose the focus option. True, if you use the side button, the camera always turns on in auto mode. But in automatic mode, she can take a few frames even before the user presses the shutter button (Predictive Capture).

The camera can shoot video at a maximum resolution of 4K, but this mode is selected separately in the menu. There is also a shooting mode at 60 fps, the usual Full HD @30 fps, as well as the mentioned slow motion. Unlike Huawei smartphones, here both 4K video and 60 fps use the H.264 codec, not H.265. The camera does a good job of capturing video. Focusing does not fail, there are no jerks, no artifacts either, the image is bright and detailed. Sound recording is made at a decent level, the noise reduction system also copes with its tasks.

• Video #1 (111 MB, 3840× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)
• Clip #2 (34 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)
• Roll #3 (40 MB, 1920× [email protected] fps, H.264, AAC)

	Good sharpness across the frame.
	Good detail in the middle of the frame, but large areas of blur are noticeable on the sides.
	The camera does a good job with macro photography.
	The text is well done.
	Good detail in the background. There are still many areas of blur.
	Detailing is not bad only in the middle part of the frame.

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench according to our methodology.

The camera turned out to be quite good, but this time the language does not turn around to call it a flagship. Some strange software processing, which is more inherent in the middle segment of cameras, immediately catches your eye. There are huge areas of blur, completely unjustified. Of course, we know that Sony has a habit of refining cameras by the time they go on sale, but it's hard to say that these areas will disappear just yet. In the center of the frame, the detail is at a very good level, but in its current form the camera can only be recommended for documentary shooting.

The laboratory bench confirms good resolution in the center of the frame, but only in good light. However, the edge of the frame is also not so bad. But the camera flash is very weak. Let's hope that with the updates the camera will be able to curb its noise and geometric distortion.

This time, we didn't show the resolution in the 12MP shooting mode on the graphs, because it doesn't differ from 20MP in any way, except for the image size. If earlier in the 8 MP mode the camera used a sensor area of ​​about 16 MP, then shrinking the image and increasing the relative resolution, now it does not use such tricks, so geometry distortion and sharpness at the edges do not improve. However, even simply reducing the image size to 12 megapixels will increase the relative resolution and detail, that is, use the same area more efficiently, so it makes sense to shoot at a lower resolution. However, this is true for almost all smartphone cameras.

Telephone part and communications

The smartphone, thanks to the new SoC, received a modem that theoretically supports data transfer at speeds up to 1 Gb / s in LTE Cat.16 networks. In the urban area of ​​the Moscow region, the device behaves confidently, does not lose connection in places of uncertain reception, and quickly restores the connection. Bluetooth 5.0 is also supported, both Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) are MIMO 2×2, there is NFC with Mifare Classic support, so the device works with a travel document application. You can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The quality of reception in Wi-Fi networks also does not cause any complaints. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode. The data transfer rate between a computer and a smartphone using a cable via USB 3.1 Type-C ports is about 25 MB / s.

There are no complaints about the operation of the navigation module, it can work with GPS (with A-GPS), domestic Glonass, and Chinese Beidou. The first satellites during a cold start are detected within tens of seconds. The smartphone is equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the digital compass of navigation programs usually functions.

Software and multimedia

As a software platform, the Android OS of the latest version 7.1.1 is used with a proprietary shell, which, with the update, has become the closest to the stock version of Android, as per appearance, as well as internal structure. Now Sony smartphones inside resemble pure Google phones more than any of the competitors. Gone was the side-sliding panel in the launcher's program menu, mini-applications disappeared, and the notification shade, dialer, and open programs menu began to look and function the same as in pure Android.

Also familiar is the set of pre-installed programs that have passed from model to model over the years (Movie Creator, Sketch, AVG antivirus). SwiftKey is now the default keyboard on all Sony smartphones.

To play music, the device uses its own player with a familiar set of settings: the user is traditionally given the choice between manual adjustment and automatic optimization of all sound parameters using the comprehensive ClearAudio + function. The smartphone can play tracks in High-Resolution Audio quality, low-quality tracks are pulled using Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE HX) technology. The set includes several more sound technologies, you can read more about all this on the sound technologies used in all modern top-end smartphones of the manufacturer.

The sound of the main speaker is rich and clear enough, not as loud as possible, but bassy, ​​a little deaf. As usual, two speakers are used, located on the top and bottom of the front panel, they work in conjunction with S-Force Front Surround surround sound technology.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 needs no introduction. This is Qualcomm's flagship SoC and one of the most powerful mobile platforms in the world right now. It is much more powerful than its predecessor Snapdragon 821 and is noticeably ahead of Huawei's flagship HiSilicon Kirin 960 solution in all respects. It also has no equal in the MediaTek portfolio. Only the top-end Samsung Exynos 8895 platform, on which the latest Korean flagships Galaxy S8 and S8 + operate, can compare with the Snapdragon 835. They outperform Qualcomm's SoCs in comprehensive tests, but in graphics tests, the Qualcomm platform is simply unmatched.

In any case, this SoC provides the system with confident performance and in real scenarios allows the smartphone to cope with all tasks without exception. All games we have tested, including Modern Combat 5, Mortal Kombat X and others, go without the slightest slowdown at maximum settings. Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a very productive device, which has a significant "margin of safety" for future updates.

Testing in comprehensive AnTuTu and GeekBench tests:

For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from different segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).

	Sony Xperia XZ Premium (Qualcomm Snapdragon 835)	LG G6 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 821)	Huawei P10 Plus (HiSilicon Kirin 960)	Meizu Pro 6 Plus (Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa)	Samsung Galaxy S8+ (Samsung Exynos 8895 Octa)
3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot (more is better)	3236	2409	1666	1869	2628
GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (Onscreen, fps)	42	12	10	13	19
GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (1080p Offscreen, fps)	41	24	17	24	36
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (Onscreen, fps)	60	38	39	52	57
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (1080p Offscreen, fps)	112	61	55	71	103

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

AndroBench memory performance test results:

thermal images

Below is a thermal image rear surface obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

Heating is strongly localized on the left side of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 38 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is not very much.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since to process modern options Due to processor cores alone, it is most often impossible. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.

Further testing of video playback performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We could not check the theoretically possible support for adapters for outputting images to an external device due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type-C port, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files to the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)" Red marks indicate possible problems associated with playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion for displaying frames, the quality of video playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and in most cases without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1080p (1920 by 1080 pixels), the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly on the border of the screen. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: all gradations are displayed in the shadows and in the highlights. Recall that when watching movies, you need to select the mode Professional in screen settings.

Battery life

The non-removable battery installed in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium does not have the largest capacity of 3230 mAh - you could certainly fit more in a large and heavy case. Moreover, the smartphone has a powerful hot SoC and a large screen area with a very high resolution. All this leads to increased power consumption of the system and, as a result, to rather modest autonomy results for such a battery.

Testing has traditionally been conducted at normal power levels without power saving features. Naturally, there is a proprietary Smart Stamina energy-saving mode, and the already familiar Qnovo Adaptive Charging adaptive charging technology is responsible for a more gentle attitude to battery charging.

Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme) at the minimum comfortable level of brightness (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) with auto scrolling lasted until the battery was completely discharged for a little more than 15 hours, and with continuous viewing of video in high quality (720p ) with the same level of brightness through a home Wi-Fi network, the device does not even reach 10 hours. At the same time, in the 3D games mode, the smartphone can work for quite a long time, more than 7.5 hours, that is, it turns out that the device “sags” only in the video viewing mode.

The smartphone on the Qualcomm platform naturally supports the proprietary Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, but in practice we could not verify this, since the test sample arrived without a bundled network adapter. From a conventional charger with a maximum output current of 1.5 A, the device is charged for 3 hours with a current of 1.4 A at a voltage of 5 V. The smartphone does not support wireless charging.

Outcome

The device has been presented in Russian retail since the beginning of summer, the official cost of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is 55 thousand rubles. The price is maximum, and everything should be perfect for products in this price segment, because the competitors are the most powerful and popular modern models, such as Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, LG G6. What does the new Japanese flagship have? The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a decent camera with an unusual, if not essential, super slow motion function, one of the most powerful mobile platforms in the world with the widest communication capabilities. A noticeable plus is the presence of moisture protection, in the new season it is also provided with top-end smartphones from Samsung, Apple and LG. The screen has the highest resolution and, for once, an ideal profile system that allows you to display either a bright and colorful or a standard sRGB picture. The combination of the most powerful SoC and a bright screen with an average battery capacity leads to the fact that the hero of the review does not have the highest autonomy among modern flagships. The devices of Samsung, LG and Huawei certainly do better with this. As a result, it turns out that in some ways the hero of the review is inferior to his competitors, but in some ways he is on the same level with them, but the Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone certainly has its own zest that can attract the attention of fans of this brand.

Separately, it is worth saying a few words about the proprietary slow motion mode at 960 frames per second. There are a bunch of beautiful and cute examples of how to use this mode on the net:

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But I would like to talk about the disadvantages and limitations. Immediately, we note that the interface for shooting slow-motion video is very non-obvious. Despite a lot of hints, it’s quite difficult to guess right off the bat that the smartphone will record a video in normal mode, during which you need to press the button again to activate slow motion.

Moreover, this segment turns out to be really small, only a small fraction of the movement can be captured, after which the buffer overflows.

Another distinctive feature there is a high demand for lighting. The slightest deterioration in lighting conditions leads to a dramatic deterioration in the quality of an already small frame area. This is not a stone in the Sony garden, you just can’t deceive physics, and it’s simply unrealistic to shove super-fast optics into a smartphone that could provide an acceptable ISO value in low light, coupled with the required shutter speed of 1/960 seconds.

We must remember this and not try to pass off a smartphone as a super-fast camera. This bonus is nice, but due to the peculiarities of technology, the scope of real application is limited.

Comparison with competitors Sony Xperia XZ Premium

The flagship of a well-known company and competitors needs no less eminent ones. Let's see what other manufacturers can offer us.

Parameter	Sony Xperia XZ Premium	Samsung Galaxy S8+	Apple iPhone 7 Plus	HTC U11
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835	Samsung Exynos 8895	Apple A10 Fusion	Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Core configuration	4 x 2.45 GHz + 4 x 1.90 GHz, Kryo 280	4 x 2.3 GHz + 4 x 1.7 GHz, M2+A53	4 x 2.34 GHz + 4x? GHz, Hurricane + Zephyr	4 x 2.45 GHz + 4 x 1.90 GHz, Kryo 280
GPU	Adreno 540	Mali-G71 MP20	PowerVR 7XT series	Adreno 540
RAM, GB	4	4	3	4 / 6
Number of SIM cards	1/2	1/2	1	1/2
Screen	5.46" IPS 4K, 3840 x 2160	6.2" sAMOLED, 2960x1440	5.5" IPS, Full HD, 1920x1080	5.5" IPS, WQHD, 2560 x 1440
Camera resolution, Mpix	19.0 + 13.0	12.0 + 8.0	12.0 + 12.0	12.0 + 16.0
Battery capacity, mAh	3 230	3 500	2 900	3 000
Built-in memory, GB	64	64 / 128	32 / 64 / 128	64 / 128
Presence of a microSD slot	There is	There is	Not	Not
Dimensions, mm	156.0 x 77.0 x 7.9	159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1	158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3	153.9 x 75.9 x 7.9
Weight, g	195	173	188	169
price, rub.	~49 000 / ~55 000	45 000 – 65 000	45 000 – 60 000	45 000 – 50 000

Unlike LG, Samsung released two versions of the flagship at once. And Samsung Galaxy S8 + can compete with Sony Xperia XZ Premium, while LG G6, despite the large diagonal, can be attributed more to compact solutions.

The Korean flagship compared to the Japanese offers about the same set of functions, but in a more fashionable, modern shell. Of the obvious advantages, it is worth noting the presence of a version with a more capacious built-in drive and 6 GB of RAM, as well as good autonomy.

If you need a smartphone with a retro design from the 2015s, you can advise Apple iPhone 7 Plus: it still has the same huge bezels around the screen and is ready to offer a good hardware platform, coupled with a specific OS.

HTC U11 was not as bad as many expected. Yes, it lacks a 3.5 mm port and looks like a giant lollipop, but the advanced single-chip system, 6 GB of RAM and a fairly fast shell make this “dark horse” a rather interesting device.

There should have been an LG V30 and a new Nokia flagship, but since they are still missing for many reasons, there is nothing to discuss here.

Conclusion

At MWC17 and a little later, the main market players released their flagships, praising the bezel-less design, elongated displays, dual cameras and so on. At that moment, Sony and HTC's new products looked strange: both manufacturers went their own way and pretended not to pay attention to industry trends. Despite this, Sony's major flagship has been acclaimed by users and received many warm reviews. It's hard to tell if this is a success without sales statistics, but judging by the number of offers, the demand is not that great.

At one time, Sony smartphones overtook demand for many years, offering waterproofing and directional stereo speakers a few years ago, thereby forming a kind of contingent around them that appreciates original design, traditions and values ​​of the company. But since the days of the Sony Xperia Z3+, progress has slowed down a lot, and the Sony Xperia XZ Premium has been unable to offer something new to the market, only increasing the gap from the daring Chinese manufacturers.

The trump cards of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium were advertised as a 4K screen and super slow motion. The problem is that these benefits are very difficult to realize. The 4K screen barely uses its full resolution and can only open up if the VR industry becomes widespread, which does not guarantee the relevance of the model at that time, as it already happened with the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. The situation could be improved by an inexpensive virtual reality helmet that would be specifically designed for the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, coupled with the ability to use it as a monitor for PC and PS4, but we do not see such a device.

Approximately the same situation with slow motion. At the show, this feature was promoted so much that many perceived the Sony Xperia XZ Premium as a “camera phone”. Albeit with one camera, but still. In practice, the slow-motion mode turned out to be not so easy to master, and the scope of application is noticeably limited due to high lighting requirements. In other respects, the photo capabilities of the flagship remained the same, without offering a radical improvement in picture quality.

As a result, we get good smartphone, but only in isolation from price and positioning. There are several “buts” for all the advantages, which make the advantages of the new product not obvious to potential buyers who study the “Premium” prefix and plastic sidewalls. The question “What is the premium something?”, I believe, will sound often.

Pros of Sony Xperia XZ Premium:

• High quality stereo speakers;
• Moisture resistance according to IP65/68;
• Support for two SIM cards and memory cards;
• Great as a gaming smartphone;
• High-quality battery with increased resource (Sony + Qnovo);
• High quality front camera with AF support;
• Convenient and fast fingerprint scanner on the sidewall.

Smartphone cons:

• The potential of the 4K screen is not revealed;
• Combined SIM card slot;
• The design of the flagship has not been updated for a long time;
• 4 GB of RAM looks like a compromise at this price;
• The main problems of the camera are not fixed (no OIS, strong noise reduction, optics).

May not suit:

• The case is rather slippery;
• Slow motion has received a number of severe restrictions;
• Mirror coloring is impractical;
• Weight and dimensions.

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Stanislav Bobrov aka ARGUMENT_600

We are grateful to:

• To the Russian representative office of Sony for providing the Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone for review.

Verdict

• The 4K display is stunning;
• Excellent camera;
• Long time battery life;

• Not the most premium design;
• Inconvenient SIM card tray;
• Lack of 4K content reduces the effectiveness of the screen;

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a true flagship smartphone. It boasts a market-leading 4K display, high-end performance under the hood, and Sony's professional photography heritage, including Slow-Motion, among other things.

On paper, the XZ Premium offering is stunning - but the feature-packed spec sheet doesn't always reflect the top-notch experience we've come to expect from flagship smartphones.

Sony is still a bit behind in the design rut as the company struggles to impose competition from Apple and Samsung, while LG, Huawei and Motorola continue to impose serious competition.

The Xperia XZ Premium is a chance for Sony to regain its foothold in the smartphone market, did it succeed or not? Sony Xperia XZ Premium review more…

Sony Xperia XZ Premium: Price and release date

• PriceXperiaXZPremium $800 (from 46,000 rubles);
• On sale in Russia from June 2, as well as throughout Europe;

It probably comes as no surprise that this is not a cheap phone. Pricing Sony Xperia XZ Premium can not be called otherwise than as "premium", the smartphone will come to Russia from 46,000 rubles, which will allow it to rub shoulders with the iPhone 7 Plus in terms of cost.

Pre-orders for the phone are already open, but as for the start of sales of Sony Xperia XZ Premium in Russia, June 2nd.

We are still awaiting information about the start of sales in other markets around the world.

Design

• Glass, metal and plastic are not the most premium designs;
• Side-mounted fingerprint scanner - useful;
• Inconvenient slotSIM;

The latest Sony smartphone may carry the prefix "Premium", but in nature the situation is different. When it comes to the design of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, the phone leaves a lot to be desired compared to flagship competitors.

Gorilla Glass on the front and back provides some tough protection to say the least, but the sides of the phone are made of plastic, and that's exactly the kind of material you feel when you hold the phone in your hands.

And it's terrible, since the thin plastic frame makes the smartphone feel cheaper than it really is. You don't want to see anything like that on a phone that you pay that kind of money for. Flat front and back panel mean it doesn't fit as neatly into the hand as some curved smartphones on the market.

The glass panels in our review remained a magnet for fingerprints - just like on the Galaxy S8 and the black iPhone 7 - so the flagship will constantly get dirty.

You'll also find a substantial bezel around the display, which pushes the XZ Premium's dimensions to 156 x 77 x 7.9mm, making it taller and wider than the Samsung Galaxy S8, phones that boast larger screens than the Premium.

This bezel allows you to position the front speakers as well as provide space to comfortably grip your smartphone in landscape mode while gaming or watching videos without your fingers blocking the screen.

The power button on the right side of the smartphone fits very comfortably under thumb when you hold the device in your right hand. The effect is enhanced by an in-key fingerprint scanner that allows you to unlock your smartphone without entering a PIN, pattern or password.

During the review process, we found that it unlocked very quickly most of the time, but sometimes it was necessary to repeat the procedure in order for the scanner to parse the print.

The top and bottom sides of the XZ Premium are metal, we'd like to see the metal frame continue on the sides of the phone as well, as that would help the overall design of the phone. There's a USB-C port at the base of the phone, while on the top you'll find a headphone jack - which will please those who watched in horror as Motorola and Apple get rid of it on their phones.

Other positive features of the Xpreia XZ Premium include IP68 certification, that is, protection against water and dust, which allows you to bathe your smartphone in a bathtub or under a shower, but the phone will not be able to accompany a diver. IP68 promises protection when immersed in fresh water to a depth of 1 meter.

Somewhat disappointing is the SIM slot and microSD tray. The plastic cover feels flimsy, plus it only offers room for a microSD card. A separate SIM tray (which is under the same shutter) requires the use of a special tool.

For most users, this is an operation that will only have to be done a couple of times, but the plastic flap feels like it could be a weak link in the waterproofing area if you change the MicroSD regularly.

Presented alongside its peers, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium doesn't offer the same sophistication as other flagships - and even more affordable phones like the OnePlus 3T and Honor 8.

Display

• 5.46" 4K displayHDR
• Bye designXZPremium does not stand out, the screen plays in a different league;

Derived from the Xperia Z5 Premium, the new XZ Premium is Sony's second smartphone to boast a 4K Bravia TV display - and in most markets it's the only smartphone to offer that resolution.

4K equates to a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, which on a 5.46-inch screen offers a mind-blowing pixel density of 807 ppi. To pave the way, the Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8 offers 570 ppi, while the LG G6 can only offer 564 PPI.

You won't find a sharper screen on any other smartphone and, unlike its 4K predecessor, you actually get full resolution all the time. The Z5 Premium only offered full 4K resolution when you were watching a video at that resolution, while the Xperia XZ Premium offers 3840 x 2160 pixels all the time, from home screen and browser to app store and social media profile.

There is no option in settings to reduce the screen resolution to save power and improve battery life like QHD on the Galaxy S8.

But with the Xperia XZ Premium, however, we didn't find it necessary to lower the resolution at any given time, as battery life is top notch, but we'll discuss that later in the review.

The screen panel uses LCD technology, providing crisp, clear images; it's not quite the same as the bright AMOLED displays you'll find on the Galaxy S8, Moto Z, and OnePlus 3T, but Triluminos technology does improve colors significantly compared to LCD panels. This is the screen you want to stare at.

It also feels small, especially now that the 5.7-inch LG G6 and 5.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S8 have entered the market, opening up new screen sizes for 2017.

However, if you haven't been able to use these smartphones before, you'll still find that the Xperia XZ Premium offers plenty of room - especially if you're upgrading from a 2-year-old smartphone.

While it's certainly nice to have 4K resolution on a phone, the reality is that you won't notice much difference from the QHD panels you get with the Galaxy S8, LG G6 and .

Run 4K content on the Xperia XZ Premium and you're in for the best visual experience you can get on a smartphone - but you'll find 4K content not at all easily accessible.

Sony says the XZ Premium is a smartphone equipped for the future, as the amount of 4K content will only increase over time - but in this moment QHD panels are enough.

Interface and reliability

• OverlayAndroid is easy to use;
• Lots of unnecessary pre-installed applications;

Sony has already tidied up its user interface over the past year or so, which means you get a cleaner and more streamlined experience on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium screen.

Under the Sony interface hides Android 7.0 Nougat, the latest mobile operating system Google, for the most part, it's pretty good for those who are switching from another Android smartphone.

Even if you plan to switch from iPhone, Android and iOS have become much more similar to each other in recent years, so the interface becomes easier to master if your choice falls on the Xperia XZ Premium.

Sony's habit of flooding smartphones with pre-installed apps hasn't gone away. Xperia XZ Premium includes standard google apps, but the Japanese firm is also adding about ten more applications.

Some of them are useful, including the Livelog fitness app and the Movie Creator video editing app, while email, music, album, and video only duplicate the core features of Gmail, Play Music, Photos, and Play Movies.

There are also Sony What New and Xperia Lounge apps that promote content, downloads, apps and games, as well as a small amount of sports news.

On the plus side, you can turn off most of these apps if you decide you won't be using them - a long press is all you need to start an "X" that will pop up next to the icon to hide the apps.

We found the XZ Premium to be reliable, there were rarely orientation problems - fixed by closing all applications in the multitasking bar and reopening - the rest of the time we did not find any problems.

Music, movies and games

• 4K content is hard to find but looks amazing;
• The games are impressive;
• Great sound;

With tons of performance under the hood, dual front facing speakers, high definition audio and 4K HDR support, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a serious multimedia machine.

If you have access to 4K HDR video content, the Xperia XZ Premium is impressive. We watched several videos and were shocked by the picture of the screen.

People on the screen look like they are sitting on the other side of the glass, as if you were looking through a window and not at the screen of a smartphone. This is a wonderful visual experience that must be seen to be believed.

The problem is that it's not easy to see. That's because the Xperia XZ Premium doesn't make it easy to find 4K HDR video.

We hoped that by the time the phone was released, the manufacturer would offer an app or video content store that could unlock the potential of the phone's screen.

However, there were no obvious solutions, so we used Sony's preinstalled Xperia Lounge app, namely the new video section, to see if it could offer us any help.

However, the "What's New?" essentially a simple app, store and download center for apps, themes and wallpapers, at the same Xperia time The Lounge does not offer movies or series, with a focus on entertainment and sports news instead.

The Videos app is extremely confusing, however, it allows you to select the cable TV service we used at home and also offers a full program guide, but there are no links to amazing 4K content.

Google Play Movies & TV won't help as it doesn't offer 4K HDR video for mobile phones so we were forced to head over to the Amazon Prime Video app. Sony offers its own section on the website that offers 4K HDR for the XZ Premium - but it didn't work at the time of review.

We tried to stream and download episodes of The Grand Tour and Read Oaks locally (at the highest quality available), but the maximum resolution we got was 1080p.

We were forced to switch to YouTube, which offers a great selection of 4K HDR content and, as we said, 4K looks fantastic on a phone - but it's not movies or TV shows.

Sony needs to make 4K HDR content easily accessible to users, otherwise no one will be able to take advantage of the gorgeous display that makes up a significant portion of the Xperia XZ Premium's price tag.

Games, fortunately, are much more accessible. The chipset and 4GB of RAM will help ensure that the Xperia XZ Premium can handle whatever you run on your phone - with settings set to max.

Additional bezels above and below the display offer a platform to comfortably hold your smartphone in landscape mode – perfect for handheld use without forcing you to cover the screen with your fingers.

The front-facing stereo speakers are another strong point, they direct video towards you rather than into the palm of your hand.

These speakers are also useful when you want to listen to music on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, as they fill the room with sound, although the quality is not the highest.

Plug in a pair of headphones and the XZ Premium can make a difference thanks to audio amplification technology and automatic headphone audio optimization that adjusts the sound output according to the type of headphones you connect.

There's good news for fans of wireless headphones and speakers, Sony is improving audio output via Bluetooth.

It's not the same quality you get with a 3.5mm wired connection, but it's a big improvement over the general standard.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium offers great sound through headphones, both wired and wireless, so if you're a big music fan, you should check out the phone.

Performance

• Fast and smooth operating performance;
• Programs open quickly;
• Multitasking is great;

As we have already hinted, the performance of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is great. The Snapdragon 835 chip and 4GB of RAM add up together and easily match the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6.

What's a little odd, though, is that the fact that the XZ Premium from our review doesn't allow you to download apps for testing means we couldn't offer any benchmarks to compare it to other flagships on the market.

We contacted Sony about this and the company sent us another XZ Premium that allowed us to download Geekbench 4 - so we can offer results as soon as possible.

Not that you need to worry about it, apps load quickly, Android runs smoothly and the Xperia XZ Premium will easily run multiple apps at the same time, allowing you to switch between them with ease.

Battery life

• You can easily work all day on a single charge;
• Support fast charging and power saving modes;

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium comes with a 3230 mAh non-removable battery inside its 7.9-inch body.

It's not the most generous offer - the LG G6, for example, offers 3,600 mAh - but that's more than the 3,000 mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy S8, so it's not all bad.

Battery capacity isn't everything, which is good news when it comes to things that really matter. The XZ Premium easily lasts all day on a single charge, with between 15% and 20% battery remaining by night, even after a moderate amount of use.

What does moderate use during the day mean? That's a few hours of Spotify video streaming, about 40 minutes of TV series, a few phone calls, messages, and some social networks, a flurry of e-mails and a web browser, and an hour or two of games.

As a rule, we removed the review Xperia XZ Premium from charging at 6:30, and charged between 23:00 and 00:00.

If you cut back on games and videos throughout the day, you can expect 20% charge by the end of the day - which is pretty good for a modern flagship phone battery.

Sure, you can't get away from charging the XZ Premium every night, but we've never felt the need to rush to the charger in the middle of the day.

The weak point of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium battery was a 90-minute test with Full HD video, in which we turned the brightness to the maximum, left the synchronization in the background and Wi-Fi available.

After an hour and a half of video playback, the XZ Premium's battery lost about 32% of its charge - a significant blow no doubt, but this is caused by a voracious 4K display.

If you're planning on watching a 4K HDR movie on your phone, you'll need to make sure you have a power source handy.

Sooner or later, there is a situation where the smartphone is close to full discharge and, fortunately, the XZ Premium has a few tricks up its sleeve to help you in such a situation.

First, it supports Quick Charge 3.0, which charges the battery four times faster than a standard charger - so if you're going to be leaving the house at night, quick charging will help you significantly charge your battery in a short period of time.

You need Quick Charge 3.0 with a supported charger to take advantage of the maximum speed, it comes in the box, just remember to take it with you if you need to charge out of the house.

This is useful if you're close to a power outlet, but the Xperia XZ Premium also comes with two power saving modes to help you get the most out of your remaining charge.

Stamina Mode extends battery life by reducing background data circulation and screen brightness, as well as disabling some features. The mode turns on when the battery drops below the default 15%, but you can manually override this setting if you want to turn it on sooner.

And if you're really struggling to extend your battery life, you can switch Stamina Mode to Ultra Mode, which essentially turns your smartphone into a regular phone, limiting it to nine essential apps with a simplified interface to make the most of your last battery percentages. .

This is the last option we used in a situation of acute shortage of the charger, but it's a good option, just in case.

Camera

• Slow Motion capabilities are impressive;
• The main camera captures a sea of ​​details;

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has an excellent camera. It comes with a 19MP Sony sensor that showcases HDR, face detection, electronic image stabilization (EIS), predictive phase detection with laser autofocus.

In short, this is a well-equipped camera that, before we get into a detailed review, can offer super-slow video capture, at a mind-boggling 960fps. For comparison, Slow Motion on the iPhone 7 (and Plus) and Samsung Galaxy S8 is recorded at 240 frames per second.

This means that XZ Premium promises you incredible slow motion, and if you can capture the right moment in Slow Motion, the results are seriously impressive.

There are three different Slow Motion modes to choose from. Entry-level slow motion records at 120 frames per second, but has the added benefit of applying a slow motion effect after the video is recorded.

This means you can pinpoint when you want to slow motion after the actual shooting, very handy when you can't switch to Slow Motion on live TV.

The other two modes, super slow (single frame) and slow motion, require you to switch to 960 fps while recording - you can't slow down part of the video during video playback afterwards.

Super slow motion is very easy as all you have to do is press the shutter button and the XZ Premium will capture five seconds at 960fps. This means that you don't get normal video recording speed on either side of a "slow" clip, but you can probably get the slowest result.

Slow motion mode offers a much more complete package. Highlight it and click on record, the video will be recorded in 720p, but you will see an additional button on the screen - press it at any time during the recording and XZ Premium will return the recording to normal speed.

It can be tricky to start Slow Motion at the right moment, so we recommend sticking to Super Slow Motion in one clip.

Slow Motion writes at 720p, so image detail can suffer - especially in low light and indoors, where results tend to be grainy. Step outside, however, and in good light, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium delivers some of the best slow motion footage available on the market.

Moving away from slow recording and back to the camera itself, you get a solid mobile sensor that performs well most of the time, even when the camera is switched to Sony's Intelligent Auto Mode.

In this mode, the camera adapts to the lighting of the environment you're in, delivering well-exposed shots, while laser autofocus delivers fine detail while minimizing blur.

Moving objects won't hurt your photo either, thanks to Sony's predictive phase detection, meaning the camera can follow the target to make sure it stays in focus. We tried taking pictures of our cats and the XZ Premium kept track of them.

And while Sony is also one of the few manufacturers that still includes a dedicated physical camera button on flagship smartphones, the XZ Premium's two-stage shutter release lets you focus the camera by half-pressing the shutter button and then pressing it all the way down to take a picture.

It's a handy solution that makes shooting easier, as the Xpreia XZ Premium's large size makes the on-screen shutter hard to reach when holding the smartphone with one hand. You can also hold down the shutter button at any time to launch the camera app.

If you're looking for even more detailed control over your photography, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium offers a manual mode that lets you fine-tune focus, exposure, white balance, and shutter speed.

The focus control is particularly useful and easy to use, offering precise focus of your attention - whether in the foreground or background - with a simple on-screen slider.

For those looking for something a little more fun, you can head over to the camera section, where you'll find balanced 4K and Panorama video recording, along with Sony's Zanier AR Effect app. This is a somewhat silly but very fun app.

The photos taken by the Sony Xperia XZ Premium camera are amazing, Sony has significantly improved post-processing, which slowed down photography on previous devices.

The photos are full of detail and color, although we found them not as vibrant as those on the Samsung Galaxy S8 cameras - which easily edge out the XZ Premium when it comes to point-and-shoot photography.

Spend some time with a Sony camera and hone your Super Slow Motion skills and you'll love what the Xperia XZ Premium has to offer in the photography department.

The Sony Xpreia XZ Premium camera captures a sea of ​​details. Look at the whiskers and fur of the cat.

You can shoot very close to get great detail.

Switch to manual mode where you can control the focus point. For example, foreground...

Or the background, which you can switch to using the slider on the screen.

Verdict

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a smartphone packed full of features, along with an impressive 4K display and huge performance under the hood, as well as a great camera and powerful battery, all the essential ingredients of a flagship smartphone.

The price is high, which means the Premium is in for some really tough competition from the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, HTC U11 and iPhone 7 Plus, and if you're looking for a phone that looks stylish without sacrificing performance, you'll find the Xperia XZ Premium nowhere near as impressive. against the backdrop of competitors.

It's not ugly by any means, but when you put it up against all-metal glass competitors, the chunky bezels and plastic panels frames lose unconditionally.

The 4K HDR screen is incredible when you find 4K content playing on a phone, but at the moment there are at least a handful of movies that offer this resolution.

If you're not addicted to 4K, you'll be much more pleased with the QHD (2K) content on the screens you get with flagship Android smartphones.

Who is Xperia XZ Premium for?

If you are looking for a smartphone in the market high class, Sony Xperia XZ Premium should match your tastes. It has everything you want when you pay big bucks for technology, including a 4K display and a camera with Slow Motion modes and 2-speed shutter release that will be enough to impress your friends.

Design and style depend on perspective, and while Sony's more industrial design language doesn't dazzle you like Samsung's Infinity Display showcasing the Galaxy S8's seamless design, it has a significant following that loves Sony's boxy approach.

If your current flagship smartphone is over two years old, there are plenty of features in the Xperia XZ Premium that will make the smartphone a satisfying upgrade.

However, those currently sporting 2016 flagships are far less incentivized to buy due to the mediocre updates to Sony's new smartphone.

Should you buy the Sony Xperia XZ Premium?

If you're a die-hard Sony fan, the new Xperia XZ Premium is the smartphone you've been waiting for. If you enter this camp, buy XZ Premium. You will not regret.

It offers a display, camera, performance and battery life that make it one of the best flagships on the market. best smartphone Sony you can only buy.

However, if you're not committed to a particular manufacturer, you may want to consider other options in that price range before you take the plunge.

If you choose the Xperia XZ Premium you won't be disappointed as you get great value for money and we really recommend the Super Slow Motion feature - it's a lot of fun.

The Xperia XZ Premium isn't the only feature-packed flagship on the market, here's a trio of high-end competitors that will guarantee Sony a hard time in the market.

Samsung Galaxy S8

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is currently in our editors' opinion and any smartphone will succumb to its 5.8-inch Infinity display, futuristic design, and supremely capable camera.

In direct comparison, there isn't much difference in performance, battery life, or cameras between these phones, but Samsung easily trumps Sony when it comes to screen and design.

That is, of course, if you are not a fan of 4K HDR - if you are one of them, then the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is your phone.

The Galaxy S8 beats Sony to offer a more complete overall package, but the Xperia XZ Premium isn't far behind.

More: .

LGG6

The LG G6 offers a larger display than the XZ Premium (5.7-inch vs. 5.46-inch), but also a lower resolution, 2K instead of 4K on the Sony panel.

Its slim bezels mean the G6 is similar in size to the Sony, it also offers a more premium metal and glass finish - there are no plastic elements in sight.

And while it's not as powerful, you'll find two cameras on the back. One is a standard 13MP sensor and the other is a 13MP wide-angle lens that lets you capture more in one shot.

HTCU11

The HTC U11 offers its own trick with "squeeze" sides that let you launch apps and perform actions - like taking photos - without touching the screen.

This is a new way to use the smartphone, however, squeezing seems to be a limited feature and more like a gimmick, the function will not help the smartphone stand out.

The top-notch glass and metal design looks great even when serving as a fingerprint magnet, and as HTC's flagship, the U11 offers plenty of performance and an impressive camera on the back.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium offers everything you could expect when paying for a phone with a 4K panel and big camera, two standout winners at this party. It will delight Sony fans around the world.

Wonderful!

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium offers everything you could expect when paying for a phone with a 4K panel and big camera, two standout winners at this party. It will delight Sony fans around the world.

Camera review Xperia XZ Premium - the most advanced camera among the current premium smartphones in 2017.

Before a full review of the Xperia XZ Premium, it does not hurt to talk about the Sony flagship camera in a separate article.

The fact is that the Xperia XZ Premium camera is significantly different from the previous generation of Sony Xperia cameras. This is a real breakthrough for the Japanese company, a triumph of technological superiority.

• Image sensor: Sony IMX400,
• Resolution and physical dimensions: 19 MP, 1/2.3″, pixel size 1.22 microns
• Lens: 25mm G Lens, F2.0 aperture
• Features: Motion Eye technology, three-layer image sensor with built-in DRAM memory, 960 fps slow-mo video recording, predictive shooting, HDR, hybrid autofocus (phase + laser), RGB sensor, tracking autofocus.

Design and usability of the interface

The review of the Xperia XZ Premium camera will have to start with harsh but justified criticism.

Why the hell is the camera app from 2014 still being used in 2017?! Is it really so difficult and expensive to write a new application or at least clean up an old application with the release of the new IMX400 camera?!

The camera app is objectively outdated. Aside from the swipe up/down swiping through the shooting modes and the virtual shutter button, I can't name more convenient moments.

The settings are poorly implemented, a lot of items that are incomprehensible to an unprepared user, only “Tap to configure” is worth something. But behind this nonsense is the “Tap Exposure” function, which is turned off by default on the Xperia XZ Premium camera. Therefore, many reviewers who are poorly versed in the issue think that there is no tap exposure, there is only tracking autofocus.

And there are enough such “pleasant” little things in the Xperia XZ Premium camera application. For example, a relic of the past is shooting 4K video in a separate mini-application with its own interface. Only one question - WHY?! Really bombs from such absurdities.

Why am I hurting so much because of the camera app interface? It's simple - I have been using Huawei Mate 9 () for a long time with its dual camera and Leica software. There, the camera application is just a reference, and as you know, you get used to good things quickly.

However, if we ignore the quality UI and honestly ask ourselves the question - “can I use the Xperia camera application?”, The answer is yes. The Xperia XZ Premium camera can be understood and, having got the hang of it, used without any serious inconvenience.

In many situations, the mechanical two-position shutter button on the phone's body saves. In field conditions and when shooting on the go, this the best solution which can only be imagined.

Functionality

Thankfully, the Xperia XZ Premium's camera capabilities almost completely override its lagging interface. We analyze all the functions in order.

A photo

Super Auto Mode. In this photo mode, there is a minimum of features in the Xperia XZ Premium camera app. Everything is very ascetic, almost like in the iPhone camera.

You can turn on / off the flash, switch to the front camera and open the settings.

Manual (manual mode). At first glance, everything is the same, but an icon with sliders appears under the shutter button. This is the control of the manual mode, which, unfortunately, is very limited in the Xperia XZ Premium and other premium Sony smartphones. You can only change exposure compensation from -2.0 to +2.0, choose from 4 color temperature presets, focus distance and shutter speed.

Moreover, the maximum shutter speed of the Xperia XZ Premium is only 1 second, when, like the same Huawei flagships, you can set up to 30 seconds. It seems like a trifle, but when shooting at night on a tripod, the same Mate 9 will show a better result than the XZ Premium.

Video

In addition to the usual mode of shooting video in different resolutions and different frame rates, Sony Mobile developers have added a new button above the shutter release. By clicking on it, we get into the slow motion mode.

super slow motion. This mode was created specifically for shooting slow motion videos at 960 fps.

When the mode is activated, the image is seriously cropped, and the resolution is reduced to HD (1280 × 720), the noise becomes much larger, so such shooting is possible only with sufficient lighting.

The process can be configured as follows:

• Super slow motion. Shooting starts in HD resolution and 30 fps, and we choose slow-mo video fragments by ourselves by pressing the shutter button. Pressed - the phone filmed an excerpt, transferred it from the camera's memory to the phone's memory and is ready to take the next excerpt. Clips are only 0.18 seconds long, but at 30 fps they turn into 6-second clips.
• super slow(one passage). Pressing the shutter button does only one super slow motion clip.
• Slow motion. Video recording at 120 fps.

Camera Applications

Built-in camera apps include:

• AR effect
• Art
• sound photo
• Panorama
• Video 4K

All these applications are well known from premium Sony Xperia smartphones over the past 3-4 years. Nothing much has changed in the Xperia XZ Premium, except that the latest AR effects have been added and the h.265 codec has appeared in 4K mode.

Settings

The settings in the Xperia XZ Premium camera app are confusing and not always clear. Sony uses strange names known parameters why is not clear.

For example, in the photo settings there is an item “Tap to adjust”, behind which a banal tap exposure is hidden. By the way, it is turned off by default, instead of it there is “Object tracking” (tracking autofocus).

Because of this, untrained users think that there is no tap exposure in the cameras of the latest Xperia. It is, but for some reason, Sony Mobile engineers believe that it is more important for the user to use tracking autofocus than exposure.

How the Sony Xperia XZ Premium camera shoots

Interface design and settings are of course important, but much more important is how the Xperia XZ Premium camera shoots. At this point, I have collected all sorts of tests with the Sony flagship camera.

Photography

The most important parameter when choosing a camera phone, because most users take photos.

Xperia XZ Premium test shots.

Autofocus speed test when taking photos:

It was Sasha Zhuravlev's video that forced me to test autofocus, where he scolded the Xperia XZ Premium camera for not being able to focus normally when shooting indoors. On that video, everything is really very bad with focus, so I just could not help but conduct a couple of similar tests.

It turned out that Sasha did something wrong in the settings. in my tests, the Xperia XZ Premium's camera focuses quickly and flawlessly. The focus of the Xperia XZ Premium camera is tenacious and smart, it is easy to follow even objects in motion, not like when shooting static.

Video filming

A less important parameter for most users, but very important for those who like to shoot video on a smartphone. Such people are ready to sacrifice the quality of the photo, if only the video shooting was at the maximum level. Therefore, here I have collected all possible tests:

FHD 30 fps still video recording test:

FHD 30 fps video recording test in motion (stabilization test):

FHD 60 fps still recording test:

FHD 60 fps recording test in motion (stabilization test):

4K 30 fps still video recording test:

The best stabilization quality can only be achieved when recording at FHD 30 fps. In this mode, active smart SteadyShot works, like in Sony action cameras. At 60 fps, the quality of stabilization drops significantly.

Slow-mo video

960 fps slow-motion video recording is the main feature of the Xperia XZ Premium camera. And it's really cool stuff.

I would even say that this is fantastic for modern phones. Who would have thought that phones would learn to shoot the same slow-mo like expensive professional cameras so soon. And Sony was the first here.

It’s worth mentioning right away that you can use this shooting mode only in clear weather with a normal amount of light, otherwise there will be an indecent amount of noise. In the sun, they are also enough, but it does not matter, considering what cool things you can do at a speed of 960 fps.

Here is an example of what I was able to capture while talking with the Xperia XZ Premium. Not a masterpiece, but interesting:

Comparison of Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia X cameras

I think many Xperia enthusiasts will be interested to know how much the quality of the new Xperia XZ Premium camera based on the IMX400 sensor has improved compared to the previous Sony Xperia flagships based on the IMX300 (Xperia XZ, Xperia X, Xperia Z5 and others).

Especially for the curious, I took a series of comparative photos on Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia X. All pictures were taken in Super Auto mode with a resolution of 19 MP and 23 MP, respectively.

The comparison goes in series (1,2,3, etc.), in each series the first the picture belongs to Xperia X, and second Xperia XZ Premium.

In my opinion, the Xperia XZ Premium renders colors better and doesn't make mistakes with the white balance. Let me know in the comments which photo you like best.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium camera is not ideal, but a real breakthrough in the stagnant smartphone market. The Japanese company showed not just an advanced image sensor, but a real innovation. Built-in memory right in the camera and 960 fps super slow motion video are much cooler than banal dual cameras.

But there is something to scold the Xperia XZ Premium camera for. Sony Mobile was in a hurry and crammed the functionality of the new camera into an outdated interface.

Basically, the Xperia camera app hasn't really changed in over 3 years. Something needs to be done about this, and the sooner the better. Let's hope that with the release android updates 8.0 developers Sony will not forget about the new camera application.

Otherwise, the Xperia XZ Premium's camera definitely deserves respect. This is a top photo creation tool, with good video capabilities. Excellent electronic stabilization, slow-mo 960 fps - what else do you need?

Sony Xperia XZ Premium looks recognizable and moderately original. While many competitors are experimenting with additional or bezel-less screens, Sony continues to stick to its style.

First of all, the angular shape of the case, semicircular side ends, which become flat at the top and bottom, catch the eye. It is impossible not to note the huge bezels around the screen, but this has already become a kind of hallmark of Xperia flagships since the times. The only pity is that the touch buttons were not placed on them, but on the display, because of which the latter becomes somewhat smaller. stereo speakers are comfortably placed within the frames, but the feeling of unused space still does not leave.

The back of the smartphone is mesmerizing. In Shiny Chrome, it looks like a shiny, mirrored surface that you can look into to fix your hair or make-up. But this is not so practical - the phone attracts not only attention, but also small scratches.

On the left side end, you can see a plug, under which card slots are hidden. On the right, there are three buttons at once - a volume rocker, a power key and a classic shutter button. In portrait mode, pressing it is not very comfortable, but it will come in handy in the horizontal orientation of the phone. A fingerprint scanner is hidden in the power key. This arrangement can be called convenient - it's good that it is combined with the button that is used to unlock it. I am also glad that the 3.5 mm headphone jack has not disappeared anywhere and has remained with the phone.

Dimensions Sony Xperia XZ Premium: 156 × 77 × 8.1 mm, weight - 190 grams. As you can see, the smartphone is very large and quite comparable to a 5.9-inch phablet. In height and width, it slightly bypasses, but noticeably thicker, and weighs about the same. The phone lies well in the palm of your hand, but its corners slightly dig into the skin. You can control your smartphone with one hand, but it's not very convenient.

The build quality of the Xperia XZ Premium is high. It is assembled from metal and protected by Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides. True, the glass gets dirty and slips easily, and because of the convex ends, the phone is not very convenient to take from the table.

One of the main features of the line is protection against water, it has not gone away this time either. The Xperia XZ Premium is submersible and will survive if you accidentally or talk on it in the rain. But you should not specifically bathe your smartphone - the manufacturer forbids doing this under the threat of voiding the warranty.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is available in three colors: Shiny Chrome, Deep Black and Rose Bronze.

Screen - 4.6

Sony Xperia XZ Premium received a 5.46-inch high-quality ultra-clear screen. Last year it was the first phone with a 4K screen, and this year the XZ Premium is the first smartphone to support HDR video. But as in the case of its predecessor, this "pioneer" includes many reservations and formalities.

The display resolution is 3840 × 2160 pixels, the pixel density is simply fantastic - 807 per inch, which is even too much. True, the trick is that the phone's interface and most third-party software are rendered in Full HD resolution. Full 4K is used only in the corporate album, video player and only some applications. Perhaps the company has set its sights on virtual reality, but bad luck - so far, most do not support 4K.

The situation with support for the HDR standard HDR10 is also not easy. HDR10 support is expressed in high screen brightness (up to 547 nits), wide color gamut (up to 99% of Adobe RGB) and a matrix with a color depth of 10 bits, and not the usual 8. But HDR10 needs suitable video content, which is not easy to find . But if you have, then HDR support will come in handy - thanks to it, you can broadcast the gameplay from the console to the smartphone screen.

As for the image quality, it is quite high. Here and a wide range of brightness, from 5 to 547 nits, and a high contrast ratio of 1040:1. There are three color modes to choose from: Professional, Ultimate Brightness, and Standard. In the former, you get a fairly narrow 97% sRGB color gamut and very accurate color reproduction. Perhaps this is the most practical option, since most content is created under this standard. If you want to see unusually saturated colors, switch to the maximum brightness mode. In it, coverage expands to 99% of Adobe RGB, but at the same time color accuracy drops slightly. This option is suitable for viewing HDR content or if you are a designer who works with a wide color space. The "standard" option is somewhere in between. By the way, in all three modes, the color temperature turned out to be slightly too high, which is why the screen gets a slight blue tint. Fortunately, this can be fixed manually in the settings. Separately, we note the sensitive mode of operation with gloves, which will be useful in winter.

Finally, let's talk about a small drawback - the screen does not display dynamic scenes too smoothly, which is why the image flickers a little. Perhaps this is due to the non-switchable dynamic backlight system. To check this by eye, just look through the desktops. If at the same time you do not notice how the icons flicker, then this will not be a problem for you.

Cameras - 4.7

Sony Xperia XZ Premium received top-end 19 and 13 MP cameras, as well as the ability to shoot slow motion video at 960 frames per second. The smartphone shoots well during the day, but in poor lighting it begins to yield to competitors.

The device received the latest IMX400 module, which has a maximum resolution of 19 MP, f / 2.0 aperture, electronic optical stabilization, as well as phase tracking autofocus, supplemented by laser. When there is a lack of lighting, an LED flash comes to the rescue. Compared to , the number of megapixels has decreased, but the physical size of the matrix has remained the same (1 / 2.3 "), the pixel dimensions are 1.22 microns. You can complain about the lack of optical stabilization and, as always, flirting with a large number of pixels. It is curious that almost all competitors have gone the way of dual cameras ( , and so on), but not Sony. The company went their own way and added their own memory to the IMX400 module, which made it possible to increase the shooting speed up to an incredible 960 frames per second. For comparison, it is able to "slow down" only up to 240 frames per second.

As for the quality of the photo, during the day it is at a high level - with good color reproduction, correct and fast focusing, and high detail. It seems that the company even coped with the previously inherent unevenness in the frame. Sometimes only a part of the flowers looks a little more saturated than live. But the camera is not very good at shooting in low light. Apparently, the lack of optical stabilization and a large number of pixels are affecting - noise immediately appears.

The camera interface itself seemed uncomfortable to us. Switching between modes occurs either by pressing the small icons at the top of the screen, or by swiping to the side. The first is inconvenient, and the second leads to the fact that sometimes an accidental press changes from taking a photo to a video recording or vice versa. In "Super Auto" there are no restrictions on resolution or any parameters for a long time, but there is no separate icon for shooting HDR frames. HDR should turn on by itself when needed, but during the tests of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, this did not always happen. As a result, in such cases, overexposed or dark frames are born.

Video shooting is possible both in 4K (3840×2160) at 30 frames per second, and in HD (1280×720) at 960 frames per second. It's really impressive. The only problem is that you need good lighting, because even in a fairly bright room, such videos turn out to be “noisy”. It is better to shoot outdoors on a sunny day. There is also a time limit - you yourself choose which part of the video will be slowed down, but it will be literally a fraction of a second. You can’t extend the fragment, besides, the camera will need a timeout for a few seconds so that it “recovers” and can again shoot the next slow-motion fragment.

The front camera of the phone can be called excellent, it is well suited for selfies. It has a high resolution of 13 MP, a good f / 2.0 aperture and 1.12 micron pixels. The maximum video resolution is 1920×1080 pixels. But most importantly, there is autofocus, which will always allow you to get clear selfies. Throw in beautifying filters, a simple manual mode and HDR shooting, and we will see that the front camera of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is quite comparable to the main cameras of mainstream smartphones.

Photos from the camera Sony Xperia XZ Premium - 4.7

Sony Xperia XZ Premium HDR photo comparison

Photos from the front camera Sony Xperia XZ Premium - 4.7

Working with text - 5.0

Initially, the phone uses the SwiftKey keyboard. It offers many themes and supports continuous input (Swype), there is also a markup for additional characters. In addition, you can adjust the size of the keyboard, change the layout, or even move the entire screen.

Internet - 3.0

The Google Chrome browser is preinstalled on the phone. It can be called the standard option for many Android devices. Its main feature is synchronization with the desktop version. But mobile Chrome does not have a full reading mode or automatic text-fitting to the screen width.

Communications - 5.0

Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a large number of communication options and support for the latest technology. The smartphone received the following features:

• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA
• LTE, up to 1 Gbps/150 Mbps
• Bluetooth 5.0 LE, A2DP, aptX HD
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou
• NFC chip.

At the bottom there is a USB v3.1 Type-C connector with USB On-The-Go support for connecting peripherals such as . It would be possible to add only FM radio and infrared port, which are not here.

Two modifications of the device will go on sale: the G8141 version with the ability to install one nanoSIM and the Xperia XZ Premium Dual (G8142) with support for two nanoSIM cards. True, in the second case, the slot for the second will be combined with a memory card. Moreover, every time you open the tray cover, the phone goes into a lengthy reboot.

Multimedia - 4.4

Smartphone can be called multimedia. According to the test results, it turned out to be not the most “omnivorous”, but it provides high quality sound.

From music, the phone did not want to "befriend" AC3, from video - with RMVB, TS and some WMV videos. As for the sound, the phone does not have a very large volume margin, but it sounds high quality. The most interesting thing is that the smartphone has support for Hi-Res audio. Moreover, the audio player itself sees the tracks in " high resolution” and marks them with the letters HR. The sound quality for them becomes noticeably higher. So, for normal audio, the dynamic range was 85.5 dB, something about the average value. But in the case of Hi-Res audio, it jumps to 90.5 dB, and this already makes it one of the leaders in this parameter among.

The branded music player offers not only an equalizer with the ability to add bass, but also a number of sound effects such as surround sound in or out of the speakers, as well as a normalizer to equalize the volume of different songs.

The video player has an interesting feature - it allows you to enlarge the image directly while watching the video. This is especially impressive when watching 4K videos, when you start zooming in on the picture several times, and it still looks sharp. He also knows how to work with subtitles and play videos in the background when working with other applications.

Performance - 4.9

The performance of Sony Xperia XZ Premium can be called flagship high. Any games and applications are not a problem for him.

Xperia XZ Premium is one of the first smartphones to feature the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset (four cores at 2.45 GHz and four at 1.9 GHz) and Adreno 540 graphics. The amount of RAM is 4 GB. During the tests, the phone worked smoothly and easily pulled any tasks and applications. I did not like only the long boot time of the device itself when turned on, up to 50 seconds. The same last year is launched almost twice as fast. In addition, we checked whether the body of the device heats up during operation. It turned out that no - only up to 40.6 degrees on the display after half an hour in games. Warm but not hot.

In benchmarks, Sony Xperia XZ Premium received the following results:

• Geekbench 4 (CPU test) - 6152 points, about twice as high;
• Ice Storm Unlimited by 3DMark (graphics) - 39717, very high result, can only be compared with Xiaomi Mi6 on the same platform;
• AnTuTu 6 (mixed test) - 162729 points, almost a third higher than Huawei P10.

Battery - 3.6

Autonomy Xperia XZ Premium can be called ordinary. We only had enough smartphone for a day of active use. This is normal, but you always expect more from a flagship.

The manufacturer equipped the smartphone with a 3230 mAh non-removable battery. For comparison, the y is 3400 mAh and the y is 3060 mAh. In tests for autonomy, the phone showed the following results:

• Only 5 hours of video playback at maximum brightness and up to 7.5 hours if you reduce it to 200 nits. Even the iPhone 7 with a small battery lasted longer.
• 127 hours of music listening, comparable to . it good time, the screen off does the trick.
• About 4 hours in games, the time is slightly better than average.
• Half an hour of shooting Full HD video eats up 15% of the battery.

In general, if you do not play a lot and do not get carried away with viewing multimedia content, then the phone can last for a longer time, especially in tandem with the energy-efficient Stamina mode.

Note that the Xperia XZ Premium supports QuickCharge 3.0 fast charging, but it does not come with a suitable charger. And it is not clear whether they forgot to put it in, or saved on an important chip. By the way, the smartphone is fully charged in just over 2.5 hours.

Memory - 5.0

With super slow motion video, the Xperia XZ Premium requires a fast storage solution. Therefore, the device is equipped with 64 GB of internal memory with a write speed of up to 1.5 GB per second. Of these, about 50 GB is available to the user. In fact, those who like to shoot videos can easily fill such a volume. In this case, you can add up to 256 GB using a microSD card. It's funny, but the smartphone does not support hot-swapping of the card - as soon as you open the tray, the phone goes into reboot. Installation of applications on external memory is not provided. You are only offered to transfer music, video and photos to the card.

Peculiarities

The case of the smartphone is protected from moisture and dust according to the IP68 standard. Thanks to this, Xperia XZ Premium is able to spend up to half an hour under water at a depth of 1.5 meters. Also, the phone can shoot super slow motion video at 960 frames per second. Another important feature is a 4K display with support for HDR video. Fans of the PlayStation 4 game console will appreciate Remote Play - the ability to play the console remotely from a smartphone.

Responsible for the software part with a proprietary interface from Sony, in which you are offered your own keyboard, players, album, and even the Xperia Store.