Sony is continuing to try and find its own space within the smartphone market. While it is a very well established brand in the world of tech, Sony has struggled to go up against the likes of Samsung and Apple when it comes to phones.
The company's new high-end phone seems to just hammer this home even further. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a beautiful phone, but having played around with it for the last number of days, I've struggled to find a truly unique selling point that would make me want to pay out €699.99 for it (on Pay As You Go).
The 5.46-inch 4K screen sits on a glass body that looks stunning until you touch it. Even freshly washed hands leave fingerprints and smudges on the device, which is a bit of a pain. I polished it vigorously to take this photo:
The phone is quite large but still sits comfortably in the hand. The XZ Premium has what is now known as the 'classic Sony' build. It's quite boxy with slightly curved corners.
The power button is located on the right side of the device, which also acts as the fingerprint sensor. The volume rocker is on the opposite side and the USB C charger port is on the bottom of the phone. There's a headphone jack on the top of the device, too.
Internally
Internally, there's a Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. It's an excellent multi-tasking device that performed well during testing. There's 64GB built in storage and the option is there to increase that up to 256GB with a microSD card.
There's a 3,230mAh battery, which works alongside the phone's battery saver features to ensure users get a full day from a single charge. If you're a very heavy user, you'll be pleased to know that the phone supports Qualcomm Quick Charge.
It runs Android 7.1 and is not drenched in bloatware, which is a welcome change to some of the previous Sony devices.
Camera
The stand out feature on the Xperia XZ Premium is the camera. The super-slow motion feature allows users to capture video at up to 960 frames per second. While this looks incredibly cool, I haven't actually used it since the day I received the phone for review.
The main camera takes gorgeous photos. There's a 19MP sensor that is packed with features such as laser auto-focus and electronic image stabilisation. There's 4K video capture too. There's a 13MP front-facing camera, for the selfie lovers.
I've been playing around with Sony's latest smartphone offering... reviews up @NewstalkFM later today pic.twitter.com/zR8dxGtqE2
— Jess Kelly 👩ðŸ»ðŸ’» (@jesskellynt) June 6, 2017
Conclusion
There is no denying that this is a powerful phone and that it captures stunning images. In terms of usability, however, I found myself itching to get back to my iPhone 7.
It may seem like a funny thing to say, but I didn't enjoy using this phone. It's a bit awkward and clunky to carry around. The constant wiping away of fingerprints grated on me after about three hours.
Having used it for a number of days, I was not wowed by this phone. It's hard to see why one would opt for the XZ Premium over the Huawei P10 or the Samsung Galaxy S8. Both of those phones excel in every category.
This met the various criteria of a flagship smartphone but did not go above and beyond on any front.
The RRP for the device only is €699.99.
