Hands-on: The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a Snapdragon 835 SoC and a 5.5-inch 4K HDR screen
We had a closer look at the 2017 Sony flagship, and had a chance to clarify some points about both new and existing features.
Note: This article was first published on Feb 28, 2017, and updated with new availability and pricing information.
We've had the opportunity to try out the Sony Xperia XZ Premium at MWC 2017, which led to some insights in the new features and hardware that were covered in our earlier piece here.
Heavy-hitting hardware
In a nutshell, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is an exciting reveal as it's one of the first phones to carry the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Previously, it was believed that Samsung hoarded the Snapdragon 835 chips for their next flagship phone, yet it was Sony (out of all possible smartphone makers) to be the next in line with this SoC that's capable of 1Gbps downlink speeds.
Besides the timely performance advantage, the Xperia XZ Premium packs two more highlights. First, it's the 4K HDR display at 2,160 x 3,840 pixels resolution (806ppi) - the industry's first flagship smartphone that not only packs a 4K screen but is also able to render HDR content. According to Sony, the technology was adopted from their Bravia television sets, but it's modified to accommodate the mobile platform. Sony Mobile is working with Amazon Prime Video to bring compatible content to the device. To ensure that Amazon's 4K HDR content reproduction and delivery would be seamless, Sony engineers went to Seattle to work with Amazon, on-site.
The other highlight is the revamped camera system that now features Motion Eye, a super slow-motion video capture feature that compromises of footage shot at 960 FPS at 720p resolution. We will deconstruct this on the next page after we touch on the phone's aesthetics.
Users who are familiar with the chrome-colored Xperia Z5 Premium would find the new Xperia XZ Premium phones familiar. This 2017 flagship is available in Luminous Chrome and Deepsea Black options. The metallic Chrome variant felt expensive and foreboding, while the Deepsea Black was elegant yet distant. The enigmatic appeal of the phone was undermined by how easily and quickly it greases up from fingerprints.
The 5.5-inch screen device measures 156 x 77 x 7.9mm, with the fingerprint sensor built into its power button (like its predecessors). However, the similarities stop there, as Sony compared the new phone's performance and capabilities against the 2016 flagship, Xperia XZ, instead. For instance, water-resistance is rated at IP65/68, and that's identical to the Xperia XZ's rating (the rating's clarification can be found in the previous flagship's review article).
Unfortunately, only the single-SIM variant was available at the show floor.
Sony assured that the Xperia XZ Premium phones coming to Singapore will be the dual-SIM variants in 4G/3G configuration. You can forgo having a second SIM for a microSD card, even though the phone already comes with UFS 2.1 rated internal storage with 64GB capacity. The phone uses a USB Type-C port configured with USB Gen 3.1 transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. It will also have 4GB RAM.
The next page talks about the Xperia XZ Premium's camera prowess.
The array to the right of the lens is its Triple Image Sensing technology.
Motion Eye and Predictive Capture
The Xperia XZ Premium is capable of creating super slow-motion moments that are shot at 960 frames per second (fps) within your regular footage. Sony dubs that feature as Motion Eye. In essence, your 720p video recording will have a tiny little icon which you can tap on, and the next 0.182 seconds of your footage will be recorded at 960 fps. You can press that Motion Eye button multiple times in the same recording. Once you are done shooting, the footage plays normally. However, during the Motion Eye segments, the phone will stretch those 0.182 seconds (Motion Eye segments) across six seconds at 30 fps instead. The end result is a regular footage with dramatic, super slow-motion segments within. Here's a preview of this feature as tested on the Xperia XZs (which also supports this same feature as on the XZ Premium):-
This feature was previously available on the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 IV and RX100 V premium compact cameras. Sony pays homage to the Motion Eye feature with a metallic ring design that wraps around the rim of the rear lens.
Predictive Capture provides up to four full-resolution still images that were taken around one second prior to the user hitting the shutter button. The camera will analyze the speed of the subject to decide on the final number of images. This feature is only available when photographing in Auto Mode.
All these features are possible because of the memory stacked Exmor RS sensor that backs the 19-megapixel rear camera. This memory stacked sensor enables it to transfer the image scan and data from the top of the sensor to the DRAM at 5x the usual speed (25Gbps). From the DRAM to the processor, however, is still at typical 5Gbps.
Despite shrinking the shooter's resolution from 23-megapixels resolution to 19-megapixels, Sony still managed to increase the pixel size of the sensor by 19% (bringing it to 1.22µm). The sensor now captures 19% more light, resulting in up to 50% less noise when compared to the Xperia XZ. The 2017 flagship still uses its predecessor's Triple Image Sensing technology (we've explained what Triple Image Sensing is here). The combination of these factors enables less distortion when taking still images of fast-moving subjects.
It's worth noting that the rear camera shoots at 17-megapixels (16:9 ratio) by default, and camera settings allow the user to bring the resolution up to 19-megapixels (4:3 ratio). Sony uses the Xperia XZ's front-camera system on their 2017 Xperia XZ Premium smartphones.
The phone packs 3,230mAh battery capacity, and its Smart Stamina Mode now uses machine learning software called Xperia Learning Engine. Simply put, the machine learning abilities will enable the phone to optimize your battery based on its usage patterns and behavior.
Availability
The Sony Xperia XZ Premium hasn't been officially priced, but Sony assures that it will be "competitive". The phone will be available from late-Spring 2017 onwards.
Updated on 25th May, 2017: The Xperia XZ Premium will officially retail at S$1,098 on 10th June 2017. The pre-order period begins on 26th May.
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