Sony Xperia XZ2 review

14 March 2018
You don't really have to look any further than the new Xperia XZ2 and its little Compact sibling for proof that Sony is evolving even if slowly. The 2018 flagship is different in a number of ways, some of which more controversial than others.

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Anonymous, 17 Mar 2018Oh jee. It has nothing to do with only having 12mp and that... moreI always use my brain, thank you for your insughtful suggestion tho.

So, you are saying picture quality actually has nothing to do with OIS, wider appertures, and lower mpx cameras? But only processing?
Funny, cause many debate and try to convince me quite the opposite.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • Q}4
    • 17 Mar 2018

    AnonD-481725, 17 Mar 2018Sony never failed dude, but they are not planning to domina... morethey dont plan to dominate the world "anymore".
    niw they change their plan because they always failed every year.

    and no need to talk about sam here. you shouldnt compare between the inferior and the king

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • I8m
      • 17 Mar 2018

      Tann Hauser, 17 Mar 2018Errrm, I was talking about Pixel 2, that has OIS and f1.8, ... moreOh jee. It has nothing to do with only having 12mp and that Google very heavily processes the pixel photos.
      Did you ever use your brain?

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        • AnonD-481725
        • StN
        • 17 Mar 2018

        Nick, 17 Mar 2018Not putting OIS and faster lens on the camera is clearly a ... moreWhy definitely? As who you are saying this? How much you been in Camera industry?

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          • AnonD-481725
          • StN
          • 17 Mar 2018

          Anonymous, 17 Mar 2018tell me, why sony always failed to sell their phones every ... moreSony never failed dude, but they are not planning to dominate the market.
          From do you people come with your intels? Sammy fairytales book.

            Nick, 17 Mar 2018Read my comment again, I'm talking about the colour accurac... moreErrrm, I was talking about Pixel 2, that has OIS and f1.8, and dxo score of 98.
            Lowlights from Pixel are astonishingly bad at max zoom, be it my desktop monitor or my mobile screen. Seems bigger apperture and OIS didnt help there.
            And yet, everyone say it is excellent.

            But seriously, at some 100-150% crop (some 3-5x zoom) XZ2 automode lowlights do look excellent, full of detail and texture, even better than S9. If zoomed to some 300% its the other way around, yes, noise cons pop out on Xperia, and noise reduction benefits on S9.


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              • Nick
              • vmF
              • 17 Mar 2018

              Tann Hauser, 17 Mar 2018Oh, now its Xperias display, is it? Nothing wrong with my ... moreSorry for taking your time, but one more thing.
              Another reason not to use a mobile phone's display is that the difference in picture qualities in 2 photos can be minimised due to its small form factor and limitation in a gallery app - detail, clarity and noise level might look identical, when they obviously differ(I noticed it when I sent photos I took with Mate 10 Pro to my friend's iPhone 8 which also took photos in the same scene, and compared them side by side - difference in quality was astonishing when I went back home and saw their photos side by side). Larger display is ALWAYS better than a smaller one for comparing photos in detail.

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                • Nick
                • vmF
                • 17 Mar 2018

                AnonD-481725, 17 Mar 2018Who are the people to define whether Sony is doing a good o... moreNot putting OIS and faster lens on the camera is clearly a bad decision they made.

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                  • Nick
                  • vmF
                  • 17 Mar 2018

                  Tann Hauser, 17 Mar 2018Oh, now its Xperias display, is it? Nothing wrong with my ... moreRead my comment again, I'm talking about the colour accuracy, not your personal preference. It's cool if you like vibrant and saturated colours of your phone's display, but if it is colour inaccurate then you can't use it to examine photo quality.

                  "Thats the point of mobile tech like smartphones isnt it?"
                  We are talking about ABSOLUTE picture quality here with no bias or whatsoever. To SUBJECTIVELY compare the pictures and make a conclusion of which one is better than the other, you need a display which follows the standard - meaning that it should be capable of accurately displaying as many colours as possible. For example, if your phone's display has a bluish tint, then photos with higher colour temperature can look better than those with lower colour temp. which can look too "cold" on that display. If it is oversaturated, well I don't even have to explain what's going happen, do I?

                  "how some OIS devices can be so bad at lowlight, and yet accoladed as excellent mobile cameras"
                  Those "some OIS devices" are most likely midrange smartphones with messy software algorithm. If they didn't have OIS then they would've performed significantly worse. Apart from having a thicker camera module(which shouldn't be a problem on XZ2 since it is thick enough to contain it without making a camera bump), there is almost no disadvantage of having OIS for a company. Look at HTC U11+, Galaxy S9, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, LG V30 etc... They all perform better than XZ2 in terms of clarity and noise at night.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • Q}4
                    • 17 Mar 2018

                    AnonD-481725, 17 Mar 2018Who are the people to define whether Sony is doing a good o... moretell me, why sony always failed to sell their phones every year? they cant even beat nokia which is a newcomer in android smartphone business

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                      • AnonD-481725
                      • StN
                      • 17 Mar 2018

                      Anonymous, 17 Mar 2018Yes of course, but Sony refuses to put OIS in. And some of ... moreWho are the people to define whether Sony is doing a good or bad decisions for the smartphone camera, fans? Lol

                        • g
                        • gringo
                        • fwJ
                        • 17 Mar 2018

                        sim slot is a big fail in all sony phones !!!
                        boring ui camera
                        ugly design
                        ...
                        i will look away

                          Nick, 17 Mar 2018I can't believe that for the whole time I was talking to a ... moreOh, now its Xperias display, is it?
                          Nothing wrong with my mobile display, its an excellent lcd one with great color reproduction, better than my desktop monitor at it obviously.

                          And yah, we shoot photos with mobile, use mobile screens to look at them, surf the web and read revs on this mobile tech news site, photoshop them with mobile, share them on social media with mobile, and all that mobile stuff.
                          Thats the point of mobile tech like smartphones isnt it?

                          I did make the effort to go check on my desktop, and conclusion is down there....
                          Maybe if I had better higher res monitor, with better color reproduction, maybe I would conclude differently.

                          And after that, Im just mindblown how some OIS devices can be so bad at lowlight, and yet accoladed as excellent mobile cameras, but Xperias that do it better here are criticised.
                          Or, maybe its the monitor I used to look at them that makes them look that way. I dont know.

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                            • Anonymous
                            • tZj
                            • 17 Mar 2018

                            OIS has been overrated most of the time, it does't shot well for a slightly bigger hand shake.

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                              • Anonymous
                              • xIq
                              • 17 Mar 2018

                              Anonymous, 17 Mar 2018Yes of course, but Sony refuses to put OIS in. And some of ... moreBut you can't deny its improvement without ois.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • vjw
                                • 17 Mar 2018

                                AnonD-647882, 16 Mar 2018ya, if xz2 camera has the OIS, the quality won't lose S9+Yes of course, but Sony refuses to put OIS in. And some of the people here are inexplicably defending Sony's bad choices, for whatever purpose, I don't know.

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                                  • Nick
                                  • vmF
                                  • 17 Mar 2018

                                  Tann Hauser, 16 Mar 2018?. You an actuall troll or sth? Of course I look them ... moreI can't believe that for the whole time I was talking to a guy who doesn't even use a proper display to see the photos. I'm using colour-calibrated 2017 XPS 15 to compare picture quality and even though my Mate 10 Pro has a very colour accurate display in Basic colour mode, I would never, EVER use it in a situation like this. Considering how defensive you're against criticism towards Sony, I'm assuming that you're using one of Xperia flagship phones, which generally had wide colour gamut but were never good when it comes to accurate colour reproduction. Stop spilling nonsense if you don't have a proper monitor to examine photos... seriously.

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                                    • Nick
                                    • vmF
                                    • 17 Mar 2018

                                    3D Memorys, 16 Mar 2018XZ2 improve the sharpen with reality quality if you don't k... moreIn that situation XZ2 only looks better because of sheer megapixel count and tripod mode which automatically gets triggered whenever it is placed on a tripod and lowers the ISO + uses slower shutter speed to achieve the best results. You cannot use that as a proof of XZ2 beating S9/S9+ since it only becomes activated when you're NOT holding the phone with your hands, and we're talking about quality of handheld night shot on both devices. And if you have a time to carry around a tripod and set it to your phone, you might also want to shoot in RAW format in the manual mode, which is again not available on Sony devices since it doesn't fully support camera2API. Also the manual mode on Xperia Camera app is also fairly limited compared to the same mode found on Samsung/Huawei phones, so...

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                                      • AnonD-743635
                                      • L5@
                                      • 17 Mar 2018

                                      Anonymous , 16 Mar 2018Because Sony is popular.Can I say that it seems to me that it's because sony is particular so is divisive. Has a loyal base that defends every attack in their brand of choice and a strong anti-sony symphatizer group that loves to irk them.

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • I8m
                                        • 16 Mar 2018

                                        Tann Hauser, 16 Mar 2018I am sorry, but clearly you misunderstand the sharpening ar... moreNope. They are correct. Ois helps and Sony is to stubborn. Fact

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