Review: Sony Xperia XZ Needs More to Stand Among the Elite Phones
Sony’s latest Xperia flagship is good, but doesn’t match up with the other phones in the same price segment.
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Sony’s focus on mobile is appreciable, but things haven’t worked out in their favour for few years now. The company’s major push goes into the PlayStation gaming console, but they still continue to work on phones that they think can be a good Samsung/Apple alternative.
That’s where we get the newest Xperia flagship, called the Xperia XZ. This is Sony’s second so-called flagship phone in India after the not-so-impressive Xperia X made its way. For around Rs 49,990, Sony needs more to convince people in splurging on this phone, making it comparable to the best there is right now.
Pros:
- Bright, rich quality display
- Solid design construction
- Performance will never be an issue
- Detailed images in daylight
- Good battery life
Cons:
- Body prone to scratches
- Camera not so good in low-light
- Sluggish UI still a concern
- Other options in this price range
What’s Good?
Sony greatly benefits from its display prowess, much like how Samsung has done over the years. The Xperia XZ gets a 5.2-inch Full-HD 1080 pixels resolution display, that impresses us with its overall quality. Sony yet again opts against using 2K or 2560x1440 pixels display quality, but that difference will never be visible to the naked eye.
The richness quality in contrast aided by their Triluminous display tech, which has been a commonality between Sony’s phone and TVs for years now. Great viewing angles, the size is just about what I really prefer my phone to be.
When compared with the Xperia X, we just like the overall aluminium construction body of the Xperia XZ. The water and dust-resistant durability via IP68 is also back, which the Xperia X didn’t have.
What’s also good to see is that the Xperia XZ now gets the hardware prowess of a flagship. Packed with the Snapdragon 820 processor, paired with 3GB RAM and dual-SIM support is a step in the right direction from Sony.
The 23-megapixel snapper packed on the Xperia XZ is a definite force to reckon with, especially when clicking images in broad daylight. The image processing is quick, the auto-focus is true to Sony’s camera tradition, giving us quality images, in most of our tests.
The 2900mAh battery may not sound like a lot, but the battery efficiency did stand its ground during our usage. On an average, we were getting over 20 hours on a single charge, which came down to 13 hours when using the phone as a WiFi router. These are clearly not bad numbers from the Xperia XZ, and with quick charging on USB Type C, you’ll never run out of juice.
What’s Bad?
The design has its good as well as bad points. Even though the Xperia XZ gets an aluminium finish, we were surprised to see scratches on the device at the back. Not sure how many of you would prefer using a phone case with this phone.
The phone runs on Sony’s Xperia UI based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow version. We came across multiple pre-loaded apps from Sony that could not be deleted. The amount of bloatware on the phone is not cool, and we at least expect the brand to let users decide whether they want to use them or not. Sigh.
While the camera is decent in broad daylight, using the phone’s camera in low-light yet again delivers mixed results. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S7 or the recently launched Google Pixel, the Xperia XZ doesn’t stand a chance in the segment. The amount of light that passes through the phone’s camera spoils the image with prominent noise effect. Also, the focus time of the Xperia XZ comes down dramatically.
These issues are not expected from a phone that costs as much as Rs 50,000.
Why Buy It?
Sony Xperia XZ is much better than the Xperia X which was launched earlier this year. But that isn’t enough to suggest that most of you would opt for Sony’s latest Xperia flagship, especially when you have got the Galaxy S7, and even the iPhone 6S for that matter.
The Xperia XZ gets a sturdy finished body, with quality snapper that’s only good when it gets support from light sources. The battery life is good too, and nothing to complain about its performance. But that's not enough for us to suggest that the phone is a must buy.
Buying the phone might just make you ask this question, ‘Could have I done better at this price?’ The answer will be different for each one of you, but as far as we are concerned, we’d like you to pick the others in the segment over the Xperia XZ. That’s how things stand right now.
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