Sony Xperia XZ Premium review: The showstopper
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- Resolvepi
- mpX
- 13 May 2017
Tann Hauser, 13 May 2017Here, I made a quick lowlight compare XZ Prem vs S8+: htt... moreYour own photos show the S8 takes way better low light pics! The Sony ones are massively over exposed and you cannot even see anything for all the white light. Your eyes need sering too bud. Sony make great phones but their phone cameras cannot touch Samsung.
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- Lex79
- pLW
- 13 May 2017
So a mixed bag as far as the camera system goes,
The pros appear to be that finally Sony has decided to actually put some real work into the panorama mode (a case of better late than never), the corner softness issue is finally fixed (this is one of those 'once seen cannot be unseen' issues on the XZ), and there appear to be general improvements to overall image processing.
Well done Sony here.
There are still cons apparently though, first is the continued and baffling decision to separate ISO control from the rest of the maual controls and stick it into to a separate settings menu (would really like Sony to try and explain the logic behind that decision). Secondly, the max setting of 1 second for the shutter speed is not really practical, its too short to really be useful from a creative stand point, yet too long for 'reliable' handheld shooting. The preset white balance options are next to useless as well, would it really be that difficult to put a Kelvin scale slider control in there?!?!
Third, this whole 960fps thing appears nothing more than a test gimmick to me, anything going fast enough to warrant being slowed down that much is going to be very tricky to capture reliably when the window is just 0.18 seconds, give me the pixel/S8/iPhone way of doing slo-mo any day, it might not be anywhere near as slow, but the capture process has much more of a predictable control element.
Overall I think there is more good than bad though, the XZP appears to be a general improvement where camera is concerned (always an Xperia's Achilles heal in my experience) will just wait to see if there are the usual 'over-heating' issues when using the more intensive camera features now, hopefully there are none.
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- Anonymous
- t7s
- 13 May 2017
Considering the fact that this phone has 8 Million pixels to light up with a small battery for the standard 5.5" smartphone, i'm generally impressed with the battery life. Sony is coming back with it's battery life A-game.(Check the XA1, 2300mAh gets 72h endurance rating)
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- Anonymous
- t7s
- 13 May 2017
Jason Melling, 13 May 2017Don't care about the fingerprint scanner as nobody uses it ... moreHave you ever used or tried a Sony phone before? There's lots of themes available in the Xperia Lounge and the Play Store. But when I was using the Xperia SP, my personal preference was just to leave it just the way it was. Sony's UI was elegant back in the day, I think the Z5 Material Design UI was much better than the current UI.
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- AnonD-186803
- 9Ai
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-373654, 13 May 2017At the normal distance that we use our phone, 4K resolution... moreFine, unbiased; no you don't need 4k but "not as good as an S8" is not what this, or any other review, is saying. Colour reproduction, sharpness and viewing angles are all on par or better. And when you fire up YouTube or their media apps the screen is crisper than the competition, whether you can see it or not.
Objectively - bar brightness - it's no less than "no better than".
As to the camera, I'm returning my S8 today because I don't like the camera: too saturated, too sharpened and over contrasty. It's like a pre applied filter. Saying that the low light on the XZP puts a black mark against the S8 is reaching: in all other conditions, including video, the camera on the Premium is better than the S8. This should be acknowledged, surely?
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- Tann Hauser
- B}Q
- 13 May 2017
[deleted post]Here, I made a quick lowlight compare XZ Prem vs S8+:
http://imgur.com/a/knpR3
IMO XZ Prem is better.
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- AnonD-635604
- KZ8
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-373654, 13 May 2017At the normal distance that we use our phone, 4K resolution... moreohh really , but samsung want it as well...
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- AnonD-635604
- KZ8
- 13 May 2017
consumersmartphone, 13 May 2017Poor battery life!Sony Xperia XZ Premium has smaller battery than Xperia Z5 premium but with better battery life.
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- 303tk4
- i9R
- 13 May 2017
consumersmartphone, 13 May 2017Poor battery life!I think the battery life is better than expected.
From my experience web browsing time is better represents real life usage than total endurance rate.
My old LG (5.5h of web browsing) was far more horrible than total rate (63h) suggests.
Xperia XZ Premium outlasts my OnePlus 3T (10h vs 8.5h) so it'll be decent.
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- AnonD-417210
- KIG
- 13 May 2017
Anonymous, 13 May 2017samsung and sony fans, no need to quarrel, both phone eats ... moreLol you are drunk :-D
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- AnonD-373654
- Kcw
- 13 May 2017
At the normal distance that we use our phone, 4K resolution on the Xperia XZ Premium seems like an overkill simply because your eyes can't really tell the difference compared to the QHD resolution, which we've seen on most high-end phones.
SO NO NEED FOR 4K according to GSMarena..
and I AGREE
without 4k.. literally in every section samsung s8 and lg G6, beat its ass clearly..
disappointing sunlight legibility, and battey backup.. under average audio quality.. bezels so large, that you can play football on it.. and very bad low light photography
and even if people scream like fools, for its 4k and slo mo.. 90% of the time the display will run on FHD, and of course most people don't use slo mo.. prove me wrong unbiased please?
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- Anonymous
- ijB
- 13 May 2017
samsung and sony fans, no need to quarrel, both phone eats dust from LG G6.
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- gan
- D01
- 13 May 2017
GREAT REVIEW. I am very happy for SONY with this product which is very close to perfection. SONY is the only legend which has truthfulness , uniqueness and morality standards in mobile industry with another legend NOKIA.
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- consumersmartphone
- K5u
- 13 May 2017
Poor battery life!
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- AnonD-186803
- 9Ai
- 13 May 2017
AnonD-72356, 13 May 2017Galaxy S8's wqHD+ super amoled display is much sharper and ... moreIt turns 4k when you use their media app, whatever it's displaying. Did you read the review?
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- AnonD-195762
- 7tm
- 13 May 2017
OK all the trolls are bitching about bezels, at least it doesn't look like every other android or iPhone on the market right now. Sony, dare to be different.
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- AnonD-186803
- 9Ai
- 13 May 2017
Tann Hauser, 13 May 2017Yup, overall it is just a great camera phone. Really ex... more Agree.
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- AnonD-186803
- 9Ai
- 13 May 2017
Anonymous, 13 May 2017LOL Big Bezel + Plastic Carbonate = Fugly It's made of glass. Weird comment.
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- AnonD-186803
- 9Ai
- 13 May 2017
[deleted post]Eh? It's objectively true, as GSMA themselves attest. It's got a great camera.
Having used an S8 for 2 weeks and seen what an over saturated, over sharpened mess it makes, I've no hesitation at all in saying that the XZP has it beaten.