Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium hands-on review

A bit late, but with potential for greatness

The Xperia XZ2 Premium is the first Sony smartphone with a dual camera - 'better late than never' seems appropriate. It may be the last of the big names to warm up to the idea, but for all the time it took, this is one of the most impressive camera specsheets you can read today.

There's not one, but two 1/2.3" sensors inside the Premium - we don't get to see such large imagers since both HTC and Google switched to smaller 1/2.6" ones for the Pixel 2 and U11. And this Xperia's got two.

For starters, there's the 19MP module from the Xperia XZ2, sort of - all the numbers are the same, except this lens has a wider aperture (f/1.8 vs. f/2.0). The focal length is still a wide 25mm equivalent, pixel size is 1.22µm.

The other one's 12 million pixels are 1.55µm across, so they're pretty big to begin with. Additionally, this being a black & white module, there's no Bayer filter on top of the sensor, so an extra 1.6 stops of light makes its way to them pixels. This one also has an even wider aperture at f/1.6. Theoretically, this should make it one hell of a camera for low-light shooting.

That, and the ability to crank the ISO all the way up to 51,200 for stills and 12,800 for video. The XZ2 could only go as high as 12,800 and 4000, respectively.

Now, since this is pre-production unit running non-final software (did we mention that?), not all shooting modes are available yet - eventually, there will be a monochrome and a portrait mode. Both of these will be ready by the time the phone hits the market.

So far, only the high sensitivity mode that combines images from the two cams is operational, and we're told even that is not finalized but we found it to work quite well.

Superior Auto will engage it when it's dark enough and in Manual mode you have to toggle manually whether the phone should use both cameras or not. Turning this toggle On will unlock the High sensitivity mode and lift the ceiling of the ISO to the insanely high 51,200.

A little caveat is that the dual camera image blending is only available at 17MP resolution. If you insist on using the 19MP mode, this is only possible in Manual mode and the new special mode is not available.

Camera UI

We shot a handful of daylight samples and here the Premium is on par with the already excellent XZ2 (in our case it's the XZ2 Compact, but they have the same camera anyway).

In fact, it turned out that the 2 extra megapixels the non-Premiums capture in Superior Auto (19MP) provide a negligible benefit over the XZ2 Premium's 17MP in terms of resolved detail. There's not much to separate the two Xperias in colors or dynamic range either - it is almost the same camera, if we don't count the dual camera features.

Xperia XZ2 Premium camera samples, Superior Auto

Here are the Compact's versions of the same scenes.

Xperia XZ2 Compact camera samples, Superior Auto

We are seeing more notable differences in low light, however, and they're in the XZ2 Premium's favor. Part of it is down to the wider aperture (f/1.8 vs. f/2.0), which lets more light to the sensor and allows it to keep a lower ISO for the same exposure value.

Additionally, the XZ2 Premium's photos taken in Superior Auto are cleaner than the Compact's with much less noise speckles - noise reduction has been tuned differently, and the detail sacrificed in the process isn't all that much. Of course, the XZ2 Premium benefits not only from the wider aperture but also the dual camera tandem too.

Xperia XZ2 Premium low-light samples, Superior Auto

We did switch to Manual mode where we could have a more direct control over the use of the cameras. There are marked differences between the images captured with just the one camera and those taken with the two. With the two cameras combined, the results are very much identical to the ones you'd normally get in Superior Auto.

Xperia XZ2 Premium, Manual mode: Single camera • Dual camera

Xperia XZ2 Premium, Manual mode: Single camera • Dual camera

Xperia XZ2 Premium, Manual mode: Single camera • Dual camera

With the single camera you'd end up with significantly more noise, but also some extra detail. Even in this case where the monochrome module is out of the picture (aren't we punny), we consider the Premium's photos to be superior to the Compact's.

New vs. old samples: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Xperia XZ2 Compact

New vs. old samples: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Xperia XZ2 Compact

New vs. old samples: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Xperia XZ2 Compact

We figured that even though the Premium's software isn't quite ready for prime time, a quick shootout would still give us an idea of what to expect. We brought a Pixel 2 XL, Galaxy S9+, and a Huawei P20 on our late-night outing. Draw your own conclusions, but let's just say we're liking where Sony's headed and it's no longer an underdog in handheld low-light photography.

Shootout: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Pixel 2 XL • Galaxy S9+ • Huawei P20

Shootout: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Pixel 2 XL • Galaxy S9+ • Huawei P20

Shootout: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Pixel 2 XL • Galaxy S9+ • Huawei P20

Shootout: Xperia XZ2 Premium • Pixel 2 XL • Galaxy S9+ • Huawei P20

And here are the same scenes shot on the Huawei P20 in its Night mode, for comparison purposes.

Huawei P20 low-light samples, Night mode

Video recording

The Xperia XZ2 Premium is particularly impressive in low light video recording, where the extra high ISO capabilities leave the competition in the dust.

Sure, the high-sensitivity magic works only in 1080p and not in 4K, but the Premium is able to capture detail in situations so dark the others just can't see. It does so while also retaining a nice color saturation, when the rivals' output goes gray and dull. Mind you, we're talking cream of the crop smartphones here - Galaxy S9+, Pixel 2 XL, and Huawei P20, and none is anywhere near.

Here's an extra video we only shot on the Xperia XZ2 Premium - at this point it was abundantly clear the others couldn't handle the darkness. We only wish the 4K video recording benefitted from that too.

Our overall impressions

We'll be doing more proper testing once a finalized unit of the Xperia XZ2 Premium comes our way. Battery life, performance, image quality - all these things should be examined on a retail-ready device, but we still jumped at the opportunity for an early look at what this device is capable of.

A bunch of things are already obvious from the onset, however. Like, for example, the fact that the handset has an almost tablet-like weight to it and a significant amount of bulk too. It's an important consideration which might put off a bunch of potential users.

But put that aside, and it's fair to say the dual camera is a game changer for the Xperia lineup. The software may not be completely final, but we like what we get from this camera - pixel peeping or not, it never disappointed us.

The new system also gives the XZ2 Premium a significant competitive edge in video recording in the dark. It goes to the extent that the XZ2 Premium can capture good-looking footage in situations where rivals can't output anything usable (or recognizable). That's some amazing stuff right there.

You can say we're pretty excited and looking forward to getting our hands on a proper review unit. Let's hope that happens sooner, rather than later.