Sony Xperia XZ3 long-term review

Camera

Interestingly enough, the camera app on the XZ3 doesn't look like every other camera app out there. There's no swiping left and right between modes, as you may have expected given the mobile world trends these days. Sony's done its own thing but the app is usable, if quirky in some ways. For example if you want to shoot a Portrait Mode selfie the first time, you'll realize that puts you into a slightly different UI, and that's actually because the Portrait Selfie "Mode" is an app of its own.

We're not sure why everything couldn't just be stuck into the same main camera app, but the system does work in spite of its complications. The app is generally fast and reliable, but we did get a freeze or two on occasion, especially when trying to take selfies in Portrait Mode with the Smile Shutter setting activated.

Since the XZ3 doesn't have a second (or third, or fourth) rear camera, you don't get any options for zoomed photos. You can always just crop your shots after taking them, of course, to get closer to your subject. Capturing photos is quick, and the autofocus works well.

Samples

Pictures taken in good lighting conditions turn out very good. They're sharp and detailed, but there is some noise creeping in - and it gets progressively worse as the ambient light goes down. Night time photos are usable at best, although if it's a really low light setting the lack of a dedicated Night Mode on the XZ3 really starts to sting. And also the lack of OIS, which at this point is getting a bit inexcusable.

Sony Xperia XZ3 daytime camera samples

If you're a fan of preserved highlights you may not be entirely satisfied with Sony's Auto mode, so you might have to resort to using HDR, which for some reason you can only find in the Manual mode of the camera app - it's not a toggle in the UI for the Auto mode like in almost every other manufacturer's camera app.

Sony's been using this 19 MP sensor for a while now and it's only with their most recent phones that we see dual camera setups getting mainstream. Dare we suggest even going with a triple setup with both wide and tele lenses alongside the main one?

Sony Xperia XZ3 nighttime camera samples

Selfies come out good when the light is great (or decent), but if you're shooting at night they get really soft and noisy. Portrait Mode for selfies does what it can in software, but since it's just one sensor to work with, expect stray hairs to get blurred as is par for the course.

Sony Xperia XZ3 selfie samples

Overall the XZ3's cameras produce pleasant images, especially in the best of lighting conditions, but the main unit does fall short when there isn't enough light to work with. The lack of OIS hurts when talking about a flagship smartphone released in late 2018, and the main sensor itself is probably due for an update, nevermind the lack of additional cameras to zoom in or fit more in a shot. All of this means that while the XZ3's camera output might not disappoint you, it won't wow you either.

Frustrations, annoyances

We appreciate the fact that you can take out the SIM tray without the need for a dedicated SIM ejection tool, but the act of putting a new SIM card into your XZ3 is a frustrating experience nevertheless. If you start with the phone on, you will have to get through three reboots until you can use it again. It first reboots automatically, with no warning, when you take out the tray. Then it reboots again when you put it back in, after which it tells you that it will reboot again in order to apply some settings that are personalized to your carrier. We still can't wrap our heads around why that may be necessary in 2019. Hopefully you aren't the type to constantly switch SIM cards, in which case this will frustrate you once and then you'll forget all about it.

We're used to seeing more signal bars, both for mobile connectivity as well as for Wi-Fi, on other devices, in the exact same spots, but since the connection quality overall wasn't worse, we assume the fact that the XZ3 seemingly shows 'less' signal is just down to Sony's algorithm for turning raw signal strength numbers into those 'bars'. On this topic, we haven't had any issues with any connectivity whatsoever, be that mobile, Wi-Fi, GPS, or Bluetooth, so this should just serve as a fair warning to not panic if when you get the XZ3 you seem to have less signal. It's probably not true, just a different, more conservative algorithm at work.

We would have liked to see a way to bring down the notification pane either by swiping down anywhere on a home screen (this is an option in many other skins from other manufacturers), or by swiping down on the fingerprint sensor on the back (the way Google does it). This would have helped reduce finger gymnastics somewhat, but it's clearly a feature anyone can easily live without.

A couple of small things: first off, the notification tone while you're on a call is really loud, and this might startle you anytime you hear it. Second, registering on a network in roaming, when you just landed in a new country, can take anywhere between five to ten minutes, which is pretty unusual to see in this day and age.

Gimmicks

This time around, we've covered most of our frustrations within the appropriate sections of the review, because we felt they were such an integral part of the experience that relegating them to this section wouldn't have done them justice. With that in mind, let's now move on to gimmicks, because boy is the XZ3 packed to the brim with those.

We're not talking about duplicate apps here, although you do get some of those - mostly multimedia focused, and most of them opt-in upon setting up the phone for the first time. But in this respect Sony's faring much better than some of its competitors.That said, there are a bunch of features that seem gimmicky at best, especially since a lot of them have their own brand names.

Opt-in bloatware

In no particular order: video image enhancement "powered by X-Reality"? Check. We've seen something like this from some of Sony's competitors, and we appreciate the fact that some people may enjoy using it, but why isn't this just built-in without requiring user interaction (or thought)?

Video image enhancement

"Side sense" predicted app panel that will show up if you double tap the frame in the right spot? Check. We assume Samsung's Edge Display feature has created some envy, but the problem with Sony's is that we had to turn it off because we kept seeing it when we definitely didn't intend to. It looks like simply holding the device can trigger it, even if no actual double tapping on the frame has occurred. So not only is this an obvious gimmick, it's not even tuned very finely.

Side sense

Smart backlight control that will keep the screen on while you're looking at it? Check. We're not saying there aren't literally dozens of people out there that depend on this feature but is it really necessary to pull resources into to develop? Will most XZ3 owners ever turn it on? Maybe, maybe not.

Smart backlight control

DSEE HX and ClearAudio+? Check and check. The former "restores high-range sound" making compressed music files sound like Hi-Res Audio, apparently, which they're not and never will be. So upscaling then. The latter "optimizes sound settings", which is obviously something that just can't be done automatically without needing to turn something on.

S-Force Front Surround? Check. Let's see what the description says about this one: "virtually reproduce realistic surround sound". On a phone's speakers. Okay, at least it's "virtual" now and it doesn't claim to magically create actual surround sound from nothing.

Surround sound for headphones? Check, with three different options for the picky ones who'd rather have "Concert hall" fake surround sound than "Club" fake surround sound. We'd have none of those, thank you!

Automatic optimization for headphones, which "analyzes your headphones and your listening preferences when you play music" to "optimize the sound experience just for you"? Check. It's amazing that we've been able to live this long without such a setting on all of our devices, isn't it?

Dynamic vibration? Check. Because simply hearing things isn't enough, why not add some vibrations into the mix when you're playing media? But wait, not just any vibrations, but ones that are "harmonized" with the media sound. You know, that's probably the first step if you want to be in harmony with the universe. You can enable this when you play a movie, video, or listen to music, and adjust its effect for every media app - which means that if it's on and you're in a media app you'll conveniently have two different sliders pop up when you hit the volume buttons, one for volume and one for this. In what (harmonious, obviously) universe is this not one of those features that you show off to friends once or twice and then forget it ever existed? Or worse still, forget how to turn it off and then constantly get annoyed at the little pop-up that shows up when you start playing anything that reminds you to try the dynamic vibration.

Sound and audio related gimmicks

Smart cleaner which "automatically optimizes storage and memory"? Check. Why is this a thing that has a separate name when Android should be doing that by itself anyway? In our minds the word "cleaner" is associated with overprotective Android interpretations from China, which do everything in their power to ensure that you never ever get to use the full RAM amount your phone comes with (and which is always bragged about in marketing materials, ironically), by constantly killing things in the background. Sony's Smart cleaner doesn't even explicitly tell you what it does, so we suspect this might just be the company's way of getting to claim it has one of those too, even if it isn't actually doing anything special.

Xperia Assist menu with Smart cleaner

The point of this list of gimmicks isn't to say that none of them will ever be useful to anyone. We're sure every single item discussed here has at least a few die hard fans, and that's fine. That said, we can't help but feel that in inventing, developing, and optimizing these features Sony has focused on things that are, at most, nice to have - but definitely not core aspects of the smartphone experience in this day and age.

That wouldn't have been a problem if those core aspects were all perfect or close enough, but some of them are really far from that. So instead of throwing a bunch of gimmicks at the wall, wouldn't the company's time have been better spent just making a phone that works great for all of the main things people expect?