Review: Xperia XZ Premium

After years away, I paid the Sony tax again: I bought an Xperia XZ Premium.

I’ve said the reason plenty of times. I need a phone with a system that leans native, looks good and squared-off, and doesn’t have any weak or outdated spots in the specs…

So the Xperia XZ Premium walked into my sights.

• Native-ish system
• First Snapdragon 835 in the world with a 4K resolution
• Squared-off design and a full mirror screen

Checked the price and it was even a bit cheaper than a certain Pixel… so I preordered.

Before preordering I figured it definitely wouldn’t drop in price, and I thought it probably wouldn’t either, but it seems it still dropped a few hundred bucks. Fuck.

Now for impressions. You know how much I hate those self-media-style review descriptions. I’ll just hit the key points, good or bad.

1. It really is gorgeous, and it feels great naked in hand. But Gorilla Glass 5 doesn’t resist scratches, so whether you go caseless depends on whether you have money. If you want a case, see this post to pick one.

2. The system really is fast. The Snapdragon 835 is a beacon, a savior—once you use it you can’t go back. I think the Snapdragon 821 is garbage; if you’re buying, you have to buy an 835.

3. Out of the box you can flash the Hong Kong firmware. At first I used a special method, now flashtool can flash whatever, so it doesn’t matter.

4. Battery life really is insane, off the charts, not even comparable to my previous phones.

5. The camera really is bad—a complete letdown for that sensor. The focus is baffling, auto mode smears everything, night shots have all kinds of color shift. It’s a step backwards, and I don’t know why anyone praises it.

6. The headline 960 fps video is fun, though it’s only a few seconds. A few seconds is still enough to show off, but only make sure you shoot in daylight—under artificial light the bulbs flicker and it looks like garbage.

7. A lot of people complain about Sony’s chin. I compared it with an iPhone 6 plus and the chin is the same length. I don’t know what there is to complain about. Narrow bezels aren’t something you should chase blindly either.

8. Sony has a bunch of interesting little built-in features, including the whole Whats New thing and a lot of battery care functions—like this one that deliberately slows charging at night and tops it off by morning—plus a feature called lifelog that records in detail what you do every day: how long you chat, how long you look at WeChat, how long you browse, how long you game, how long you sleep. Very useful, and I think it supports installs on non-Sony phones too. Recommend trying it.

Charging protection

life log

9. Last is this 4K screen. The resolution is 4K, no lie, and the UI is normally 4K too—the software UI gets some stretching and algorithms, so it’s technically real 4K. Except this 4K somehow looks oddly grainy. There’s been a lot of discussion about it and I don’t know why either. And the 4K display still scales things to a 1080P length, so webpages show less text than on my previous Nexus 6P. Really sad.

10. There’s a way to force the system to 4K, but after forcing it your dialer breaks. The foreign solution is to install another dialer app yourself—isn’t that idiotic?

11. Best not to root the system. I haven’t rooted it and don’t plan to. For system optimization I use Blackhole (heiyu), and it’s really on another level from Greenify. Strongly recommend.

12. A problem that maybe doesn’t count as a problem: this phone crackles when playing Honor of Kings, and on Wifi it mysteriously gets high ping—I can only use 4G. Other 835 phones don’t have this issue. I mean the OnePlus 5.

13. Fingerprint unlock is in a good spot but is really stupid: it often fails, and every time you have to press the power button to use it—no touch-to-unlock. I seriously question the power button’s lifespan.

All in all I don’t regret buying this phone. Overall I’d give it 70 points, when my expectation was clearly 85… the main thing is the camera is too stupid.

Sony photos:

OnePlus photos

The best phone so far, until I met the OnePlus 5.

As for the price, anyone who wants it is in it for the looks and the faith. The phone itself doesn’t have many real flaws, it’s just a bit expensive—depends on your faith. Personally I think it’s better than the stupid Nexus/Pixel.