Sony Z5 Premium Reviews

FEATURE

• GLASS ON METAL ON GLASS

• Very Fast, has a 4K Display
      The 4K display  or lack 

Key Features: 

• 5.5 inch touch sensitive 4K UHD Display (3840 x 2160) 
• 3 GB RAM 
• Quad-core, 1.5 GHz Processor 
• 23 MP, Phase Detection, Auto Focus, LED Flash 
• Non-removable, Li-ion 3430 mAh 
• Storage 32 GB 
• Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop) 
• Waterproof, dust tight 
• 4K Video Recording 
• Weight: 181g 
• Available in chrome, black and gold 

Design:

The Z5 Premium was one of the biggest mobiles of last year, packing a mighty 5.5-inch screen. It’s quite a handful, with a chunky and hefty 180g frame that’s bulkier than most 5.5 inchers from 2016. The OnePlus 3 and Huawei P9 Plus have similar the same size of screen into slimmer. The metal edging lends it a reassuringly solid finish, giving way to a glossy rear. The Xperia Z5 Premium is fully water resistant. You can kick back in the bath with a movie, with no worry about the phone slipping out of your grasp. The Z5 Premium also boasts quite powerful speakers which blast out reasonably clear audio at a respectable volume. And if you want to carry around a good-sized media collection, the 32GB of storage (which seems quite miserly compared with 64GB rivals) can be easily expanded with a microSD memory card. The mirror like effect is more subtle on the other colour choices, but it makes little difference when none are as easy to grip as the standard Z5. This also makes it a complete fingerprint magnet, which distracts you from its 'premium' status.

Display:

The display on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is its most impressive feature. Sony claims it is the first phone to feature an HDR 4K display, offering much richer colours than seen on previous handsets. With a staggering 800ppi resolution, the Xperia XZ Premium's 5.5in display is double the pixel count of the iPhone 7, which is not hard to believe when you see it in the flesh. The screen blew us away. Images are crystal clear and it is truly stunning to use, with both text and images looking sharp and touch operations being smooth between pages and apps. The Z5 Premium pumps out punchy colours Super Vivid mode active. Wide viewing angles and a strong maximum brightness mean that visibility is never an issue either, even when watching a movie with a partner. Android Nougat, which is a free update for Z5 Premium users and fully supports 4K. This means your phone will now render everything in 4K  making a huge difference to the overall look of the display. Viewing it from a normal viewing distance, and the crisp detail becomes significantly harder to pick out.

Camera:

The camera has had a decent boost from the previous Xperia Z3, with a new 23-megapixel sensor. I took it for a spin around Britain's capital and found it can take some great shots. The rear camera can shoot video in 4K resolution. Footage plays back smoothly and it's generally well-exposed, although the iPhone 6S Plus achieves richer colours in video. Phase detection autofocus is supposed to be faster than contrast autofocus and yet there are instances where the Xperia Z5 Premium takes awfully long to focus. On the front is a 5-megapixel camera which will snap some good selfies outside in the sunlight, but suffers from image noise in low-light situations. Night shots appear clear when viewed zoomed-out, but they don’t stand up to pixel-level scrutiny anywhere near as those taken with the Samsung Galaxy S6 family of phones. The Xperia Z5 Premium comes with a 5-megapixel camera on the front that captures decent selfies ideal for posting on Facebook and the likes. As for images clicked, these are pretty good. It certainly isn't a bad camera phone; it just doesn't better the standards set by the Xperia Z5. Photos clicked in tricky light were good, but low light photos are a step down from the Xperia Z5 which is a little surprising. Images clicked in low light were disappointing for a phone that costs so much. 

Performance:

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, paired 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, making it quite a powerhouse. The chip is just as impressive in the real world as it is on paper, and we found the device very nippy, with no lag whatsoever, even when playing and recording 4K video. Xperia Z Premium is the fingerprint scanner. was the big power button on the side. ts main use is for unlocking your phone quickly and easily. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with the same custom interface used in the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact. The look is quite different to vanilla Android. Software can only do so much and in non-optimal lighting conditions you'll soon find some less clear areas on your photos. The Xperia Z5 Premium runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop-based Xperia UI which is Sony's custom skin. It's a heavily customised take on Android but we don't mind it. Even though most of the things have received a fresh coat of paint Sony style the user interface is polished. The phone runs warm on all occasions whether you are playing games, clicking photos, browsing the web or simply navigating through the UI for extended durations. Random app crashing was a common sight in the Xperia Z3+. We did not encounter any such issue with the Xperia Z5 Premium. It did get alarmingly hot while shooting 4K video. A positive thing about the Xperia Z5 Premium is its ability to cool down quickly. The phone comes with dual front-facing speakers which offer satisfactory audio output. They get loud, but there's a definite lack of punch there Phone calls made with the Xperia Z5 Premium are of acceptable quality and we did not see any call drops issues in our review unit. The phone supports 4G LTE on both SIMs.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• 4K display
• Waterproof design
• Expandable storage
• Decent battery life
• Clean user experience

Cons:

• Camera speed and low-light quality doesn't match best Expensive
• 4K display not much use
• Screen-on battery life worse than previous years

Battery:

Battery life is another area where the Z5 Premium falls to the competition. The battery hasn’t shown any signs of growing old and losing charge, but we can just about get a day of use before the phone dies. Meanwhile the likes of the OnePlus 3 and Huawei P9 can go for around 36 hours before they need a battery boost. the Z5 Compact managing an even more impressive 13h 21m. It's also pretty poor compared to other phablets. It holds its charge quite well in standby mode, so simply slumbering untouched in your jeans won't drain the juice. Even with moderate use music or podcasts on your commute, a bit of light texting, calling and emailing throughout the day and snapping a few shots of that beautiful sunset as you leave the office  you should have some power left when you go to bed. As with all smartphones though, you'll want to give it a full charge every night. 

Verdict:

High performance Android phone that you can safely use in the rain the Z5 Premium when I can get a gorgeous, powerful phone with a stunning screen and awesome camera in the form of the Galaxy S6 Edge. The software and audio quality are convincing and the camera shoots great pictures and videos with ease. That the display doesn’t always use 4K quality, and instead sometimes switches back to full HD, can be forgiven, as the change in quality is largely unnoticeable.The Xperia Z5 that costs a fair bit more with the only gain being a larger, but still 1080p, display. The Xperia Z5 Premium looks more like a novelty statement than a phone for the mass market. Sure, it's a clear sign of things to come in the future, but beyond that it's just one of those shiny things you see in the market. Really no excuse for such poor battery life. After all, it has been a long running strength when it comes to Sony smartphones.