Sony Xperia XZ Premium review: The showstopper

12 May 2017
The Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a gorgeous 4K display. Better yet, a 4K HDR display! The latest Snapdragon 835 chipset is pulling the strings and delivering lightning-fast LTE while the Adreno 540 is firing up millions of pixels in a heartbeat. With or without the mirror finish, this is one of the classiest designs around and waterproof, too.

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  • AnonD-669339
  • c}a
  • 14 May 2017

anyone know when this will be available in the US? been looking and can't find a place to buy it!

    AnonD-643350, 14 May 2017Crystal clear explanation by a well informed photo shooter,... moreIt is after all called Eye cam, isnt it?
    Recreates almost what your eye sees. Thats why rgb sensor is there too.
    You can always make a "beauty" shot with some settings, adding HDR, using Instagram, etc ( tho I really dislike cameras that use hdr postprocess on auto), but turning an overprocessed filtered shot into its more natural state is harder thing to do.

    I dig why real photographers like to choose Sony for their daily driver phone

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      • AnonD-643350
      • ptX
      • 14 May 2017

      AnonD-186803, 14 May 2017I don't want to run every single image I ever take through ... moreCrystal clear explanation by a well informed photo shooter,appreciations on that,... Once I was reading an article from a high profile photographer, he mentioned something which you might like to hear it,he said SONY is the only company which is brave enough too present you with a natural photo which allows you to keep it as it is without any pre contrast and pre saturation or photoshop it hence other cameras try to render the photos in a way that you will like them so it's the thing ( a natural photo vs a beautiful photo) it's your call after all

        • S
        • Silverfox
        • 4Av
        • 14 May 2017

        AnonD-213493, 14 May 2017People yawning about Samsung will get more sales and it is ... moreToyota sells a ton more cars then BMW.

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          • AnonD-186803
          • 3ad
          • 14 May 2017

          ithehappy, 14 May 2017Everyone knows S8 takes oversharpened, oversaturated photos... moreI don't want to run every single image I ever take through a filter to remove the choices that Samsung has chosen to make for me: that's not what a camera is for.

          Subjectively you may like the results of the choices that Samsung has made on your behalf. To you that makes their images subjectively better. But objectively the purpose of a camera is to recreate the scene as you see it - the S8 DOES NOT DO THAT.

          It's a matter of choice: Samsung steals my choice of what I want to do with the images I take. Sony takes the scene as I see it and allows me to up the contrast and saturation afterwards, as camera's should. With the S8 you're ALWAYS fighting the software.

          I say again, you might like the choices that the S8 takes without permission but that's entirely up to you and completely subjective to your personal tastes. But a good camera doesn't dial anything: it recreats what you're looking at. Objectively, that's the purpose of a camera: to recreate the scene.

          On this point the XZP beats the S8 in all decent light scenarios (It's also far more detailed).

          I've just split screened the images taken for the S8 review and the images above: the S8 images are far, far too contrasty and comically saturated in comparison to the ones produced by the XZP.

          I can imagine walking through the screen into the scene on the XZP's shots. I'd have to turn into Elmer Fudd to do the same in some of the S8's.

          To correct that amount of automatic post processing (and I would: I have a new child to take pictures and video of - I want to preserve those memories correctly, not "prettily") would be an enormous ballache, considering I take a LOT of photos, as photography is a hobby of mine.

          So you like the over coloured, oversharp, over "pretty" guff the S8 puts out. That doesn't make it the better camera.

            AnonD-186803, 14 May 2017Are you even looking at the same pictures the rest of us ar... moreEveryone knows S8 takes oversharpened, oversaturated photos. But still those look better than this phone's. The exposure balance on this phone is ridiculous! You can never change improper exposure with editing, but you can tone down colours easy, and sharpness too. I hate the S8 on its own, but when I look at something really pathetic like this the S8 feels like a great camera. And this was in daylight only. Needless to the S8 will eat this phone in night time. The low light samples from this phone compared with phones like S7, S8, Pixel, HTC 10 and you name any here, look like VGA quality. Read the GSMA comment if you can, what they mentioned about the image quality in low light, or should I copy that for you? And in daytime page, it says great image quality, right, but where does it say these samples are amongst one of the best available of late? Sony has fixed their own issues in this phone, like corner softness and all those nuisances, they simply created their best camera phone, that doesn't mean this phone can even compete with other phones from last year, or even the phones from 2015! Sony's reputation about the cameras on their own phones have always been horrible, everyone knows that like e=mc2, so this phone is simply one of their best effort to iron out those problems of previous generations. But other OEMs are leagues ahead already, so maybe in five more years they can finally reach a place where their camera phones can actually compete with other OEMs' phones, but till then God help them.

            So please, save it for where its remotely even worth.

            This will be my last comment on this utterly stupid fanboy driven section. I will never call the Samsung and Apple fanboys the worst, NEVER. They have an excellent competitor here, I wasn't aware of that previously.

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              • AnonD-542706
              • pGV
              • 14 May 2017

              XZ premium is the king!! Kneel losers before your king !!

              The best quality display 4k hdr
              Best camera
              Best video and stabilitation
              Best quality sound.
              Best design.
              Best and speed upadates.
              Best slowmotion.
              Best performance.
              Best ui.
              Best navegation speed.
              Best design.
              Etc

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • IbE
                • 14 May 2017

                Awesome flagship Sony 2017!!!

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                  • AnonD-186803
                  • 3ad
                  • 14 May 2017

                  ithehappy, 13 May 2017But the XZP doesn't beat the S8 at all. The exposure is com... moreAre you even looking at the same pictures the rest of us are? The images in the review can be directly compared to the images in the review of the S8 and they're superior. The balance of colour and contrast is better. The dynamic range on the S8 is actually fairly flat - especially in extreme situations, as my own shooting backs up (A few pictures of trees against a blue sky came out with the trees over exposed with a nasty milky overlay). There's no question at all in my mind - an S8 owner until yesterday - that the XZP is the better cameraphone.

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                    • Inno
                    • GXp
                    • 14 May 2017

                    AnonD-213493, 14 May 2017People yawning about Samsung will get more sales and it is ... moreHAIL!!!

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                      • AnonD-213493
                      • t@G
                      • 14 May 2017

                      People yawning about Samsung will get more sales and it is a good device because it get more sales bla blaa .. More sales doesn't defines how good a cell phone is
                      Don't forget crappie brand like Oppo and Vivo are one of the current top selling brands in term of sales.. So, samesung fan boys arguemet is invalid.. Where as top brands like Sony, Motorola, LG are not in good sales but they produces the best phones in the market..
                      Where as brands like Oppo, Vivo and Samsung relies on the marketing to sell their products ..lmao
                      ANYWAYS
                      All hail king Sony

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • nmM
                        • 14 May 2017

                        rakesh0991, 14 May 2017385 comments in a review shows that sony still gets so much... moreWouldn't really call it love.

                          Tann Hauser, 14 May 2017Yup, you are right. IMO, XZ Premium has unbeliavable q... moreFirst time one could actually agree with you.

                          The phone indeed has an "unbelievable" camera.

                          ROFLMAO

                            Where is antutu ? Anyone knows? And i want to camera compare xzp vs s8 in low light...replay fast

                              385 comments in a review shows that sony still gets so much love....people want practical high end smartphones...

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • fjU
                                • 14 May 2017

                                Anonymous, 14 May 2017Still the sound-chip (for headphones usage) isn't flagship-... moreAnd the talk time is a whopping 6 hours less than the S8 and same with video playback, also 6 hours less. No way round that.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • nmM
                                  • 14 May 2017

                                  Tann Hauser, 14 May 2017Yup, you are right. IMO, XZ Premium has unbeliavable q... moreStill the sound-chip (for headphones usage) isn't flagship-worthy on this phone.

                                    AnonD-668972, 14 May 2017Hi nice writers and good debaters, are you willing to break... moreI am 100% with you my friend.But if you notice, most of these poor haters coming here to bash are mostly doing it in Sony flagships.I have no idea of why this is happening.They are coming here to bash the device and call it trash but they spend so much of their times to comment for such a "trash" device.Fanboys are just pathetic.

                                      AnonD-668972, 14 May 2017Hi nice writers and good debaters, are you willing to break... moreYup, you are right.
                                      IMO,
                                      XZ Premium has unbeliavable quality camera be it daylight or lowlight, be it main or front one, superb 4k hdr screen, extremely well optimized UI that performs fastest, great and most complete feature rich sound system, and a decent batterylife of 8hr 15min SoT under heavy usage, and with added qnovo that prolongs its endurance level upto 2 years without degradation.
                                      Overall superb package.

                                      3,2,1...look them hate replies coming in like rain.

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                                        • AnonD-668972
                                        • t@g
                                        • 14 May 2017

                                        Hi nice writers and good debaters, are you willing to break guiness book of world record for "the most flooded by hatred comment sections" category

                                        Calm down guys no need to be rude!
                                        Please erase the out of topic negative comments like calling someone trash or garbage. We only need constructive critiques not insult!

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