Sony Xperia XZ Premium review: The showstopper
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- ithehappy
- X%D
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-542706, 13 May 2017No s8 have a crappy amoled pentile. S8 have a parkinson mo... moreHave you actually seen the video with your eyes or something else? I wonder. Cause I just checked the same video and I am still laughing.
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- Shadow Snypa786
- nu7
- 13 May 2017
Letzte Reich, 13 May 2017Let see what is that my problem in XZ Premium! *Auto Res... moreLol ya do realise you can pluck random S8 and S8 plus users and they wont have those problems. Just because your Sony doesnt have issues doesnt mean no one else will.
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- AnonD-542706
- 3Nh
- 13 May 2017
Shadow Snypa786, 13 May 2017So no OIS, a 4k display that 95 percent of the time will ru... moreNo s8 have a crappy amoled pentile.
S8 have a parkinson mode video stabilitation.
S8 no have stereo speakers, mono quality sound.
S8 poor and bored camera phone.
Xz premium destroy s8 ok?
https://youtu.be/ppVCP2l5_vs
S8 is midrange phone
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- AnonD-666662
- pTk
- 13 May 2017
Wow. This comment section is filled with cancer and delusional nonsense.
Try some objectivity.
The display, while not properly calibrated, seems to be some of the best that can be produced with current LCD technology. Rendering at 1080p will be sharper looking than 1440p because of interpolation. 1080p scales well with the native resolution as 2160p is 4 times the resolution. Sony made the right choice here.
Disappointing use of the bezels (poor use of space anyone?). Bigger speakers and a larger battery should be the norm for a device like this. And the headphone jack should be a lot better. It's apparently bigger than Z5P but has a smaller battery. I mean c'mon? I also think it's safe to say that Sony needs to try something else with their design language and I mean both hardware and software. It's getting very predictable and looks dated. Sony is too conservative. It's of course in the eye of the beholder but it's clearly not working as it's only their loyal fanbase (which I don't think is justified given their products) that keeps them above the water.
Now the camera. The thing you're all bickering about. The app is pretty bad even with the improvements. They should take a hint from the competitors. Image quality? Not on par with other flagships although they've improved a lot. Their low-light is still way off and the phone just doesn't handle it well. The linked comparison does not do the XZP any favors. The S8 clearly looks better and whether or not much of it is post-processing (even heavy-handed at that) doesn't really matter. What matters is that the photo is usable and pleasing to look at and the XZP does not deliver. I'm guessing the XZP either needs to implement OIS to compensate (although the camera assembly might be too big with OIS on such a large sensor) or start to do some HDR processing like Google does. They could also experiment with a wider aperture but there are always trade-offs when changing the aperture.
Sony generally has an image processing problem. Perhaps the large sensor and megapixel count gives the ISP and software trouble when processing so much data or perhaps their developers are merely incompetent. Sony may have fixed their lense problem (fixed the corner softness) but it's unacceptable to have many of the same image quality problem so many years in a row.
And there is no reason to come up with excuses such as "low-light doesn't matter" or "you can use a tripod". How many drag a tripod around on a daily basis and do you only take pictures in perfect lighting conditions during the day? Most flagship devices do daylight well enough. Sure there are differences but they all do it reasonably well. It's low-light or other challenging lighting conditions everyone is focusing on improving through various means (OIS, HDR+, wide apertures etc). Sony needs to work on theirs too. You can't just act like an ostrich and stick your head in the sand when the rest of the industry is trying to improve the areas where smartphone photography struggles (low-light, moving objects and video stabilization) and just claim it doesn't matter because the device can handle the mundane scenarios. I hope Sony can alleviate a lot of it with software updates but it seems they're very far off and we're getting close to release, so I don't think it'll happen. It's sad though. Sony does have something to contribute to the ecosystem and they've contributed a lot to AOSP, so I'd hate to see them go even though they seem to blunder through release after release. They should slow down and work on streamlining their releases and their schedule. They should only release on a yearly cadence. It seems 6 months is too small a window for them to make any meaningful progress and it ends up hampering the final product because they can't nail the execution because by the time it releases they're already finalizing the next product. It seems the only reason they actually do this 6 month cadence is it looks good on the bottom line and keeps the revenue up but it's a shortsighted solution and they'll never gain any traction in the long term.
Oh and finally: fingerprint sensor. They might be able to enable it sometime next year in the US market. It's due to an awful deal they made with US carriers that bars them from enabling. How they even came up with such an agreement to begin with is baffling to me but Sony did agree and then broke the agreement, so they've hamstrung themselves. Until then you can flash a European firmware to enable it if you wish to buy the device.
Let the Sony fanboy inquisition begin.
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- Shadow Snypa786
- nu7
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-186803, 13 May 2017Nonsense. The only way toy could objectively say this is yo... moreOk cool and in lowlight the S8 will demolish the Xperia XZ premium whats your point?
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- Shadow Snypa786
- nu7
- 13 May 2017
So no OIS, a 4k display that 95 percent of the time will run in 1080p and even then the battery life is only 72h, plus low light isn't that good and the speaker is below average?
Yep the S8 is pretty much better in all aspects just not 960fps camera mode.
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- Als
- IxY
- 13 May 2017
Classy phone. Period. Stop wasting your time comparing it to other phones. Again, This is the classiest phone this year. It's just gorgeous
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- ithehappy
- X%D
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-668972, 13 May 2017I just read the gsma gs8 review, some users experience duri... moreThere is the GSMArena photo comparison tool. Use that! It was put there for a reason damn it!
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- AnonD-668972
- t@g
- 13 May 2017
I just read the gsma gs8 review, some users experience during the first week the camera is not that good and now reading through XZP review many people said the sample camera is not good, which one i should trust to?
Please help to convince me!
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- AnonD-186803
- 9A7
- 13 May 2017
meandonlyme, 13 May 2017Dude, don't kid yourself. There's so much artificial post-p... moreYup. Returning mine today for precisely this reason - the camera results are artificial looking on the S8.
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- Anonymous
- fjU
- 13 May 2017
Unfortunately the battery life and the sunlight contrast ratio just doesn't cut it. The S8 is miles ahead in talk time and video playback. There is no way around it.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8-review-1603p3.php
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- AnonD-186803
- 9A7
- 13 May 2017
Mark, 13 May 2017I have checked the photo comparison tool ZX Premium vs. Gal... moreNonsense. The only way toy could objectively say this is you completely ignore the wildly different focal lengths and the higher mp count on the Sony (which pulls you further into the image at 100 crop than is so on the Samsung). Convert both to 12mp and account for the FOV. The Sony easily beats the S8.
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- Tann Hauser
- m@g
- 13 May 2017
Anonymous, 13 May 2017you are wrong. admit your mistake??
I am absolutely right.
Find someone else to compare worst available outcoming shots, so sammy fnboys would feel better.
No Xperia user uses hardshutter in lowlight, as all know the shake produces lousy results. We all use softshutter and some steady hand.
You can complain about Xperia cam ease of use maybe, but on photo quality camera can produce, not.
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- AnonD-307716
- vaP
- 13 May 2017
Anonymous, 13 May 2017probably kamikaze. they come to the battlefield with ugly d... moreKeep it to yourself dude. Move on dude, Sony rocks. Moreover, we wouldn't buy a Sony that look likes Samsung or Apple. Each maker has their own uniqueness. Face it, Sony delivered with this XZ premium.
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- xXENDER FREAKXx
- vjw
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-39937, 13 May 2017Sony Xperia XZ Premium, this is an incredible phone! From t... moreXZ Premium is the better choice because of the price tag that is cheaper than S8 and have slightly better specs than S8
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- Anonymous
- thv
- 13 May 2017
Tann Hauser, 13 May 2017This kid compared auto mode nonhandheld. Stop embarrassin... moreyou are wrong. admit your mistake
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- AnonD-39937
- gCq
- 13 May 2017
Sony Xperia XZ Premium, this is an incredible phone! From the beginning to the end, the review says that the "Premium" name it's not a marketing term, it's reality. The design is beautiful, the 4K HDR display is unbelievable(and the single one on the market), the battery life is good, the performance is top notch, the true stereo speakers sound great and I think clarity it's more important than loudness for a phone (anyway a good external speaker is louder, a pair of good headphones is clearer), the camera is the one of the best on the market (nowadays if you choose a Pixel, a XZ Premium or a S8 all of them will shoot awesome photos), the low light photos may not have the best sharpness or noise, but the colours and true blacks are stunning, the videos are sharp, coloured and with the best stabilisation, the 720p 960fps slow-motion videos make this great phone pop in the sea of flagships. I really like this phone and considere buying it later this year when the price drops a bit.
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- AnonD-563777
- tZj
- 13 May 2017
10 hours battery life. how to use our phone after 4pm. its only 24% left ....