Sony Xperia XZ 5.2 inch 32 GB SIM-Free Smart Phone - Mineral Black

I am reviewing the XZ as I have had it for a few weeks now. The phone has surpassed all my expectations in every way. I was using a z5 before and previous to my z5 I had a Z3 for 2 years. I will be comparing the XZ, z5/z3 and other phones I have used.DesignThe design has improved from the z3 and the z5, the phone feels solid and fits perfectly in your hand , the metal back feels nice and solid, it is more durable than the glass back of the z3/ z5 and the corners are rounded too, making it very comfortable in the hand. The screen has a rounded lip towards the edge, this is a nice touch and adds a degree of sophistication to the design. There are enough design changes made to the XZ, that makes it look refreshing and different from the z5. It feels like a rolls Royce, solid and not light weight and flimsy like the Samsung s7 with its glass build.ScreenThe full 1080p 5.2 screen is sharp and vivid, the colours are more natural and balanced than the over saturated colours of Samsung OLED screens. Comparing the Z5 and XZ the XZ brightness is greater and the contrast is also better, whites are more realistic than the z5. Having a full HD screen is an advantage because not only does it give you decent resolution it will put less stress on your processor, but will also preserve your battery life. This gives the ZX an advantage with phones with 2k screens. Overall a very sharp glossy looking picture, it really stands out. I think Sony have coated their x series of phones screens with a glossy coating. The IPS panel combined with the x reality pro engine ,which is used in there tvs , gives the XZ one the best screens I've seen.PerformanceAs expected the Sony XZ is equipped with the latest snapdragon 820 chipset, with 3GB ram.The performance is rapid, smooth and without lag. The apps open instantly , browsers/ YouTube/casting/ and the camera instantly open. multitasking is excellent there is no lag. I would say it is about 15% faster than the previous snapdragon 810, Which my Z5 was equipped with. There is no overheating issues and the phone stays cool only getting slightly warm when gaming. When doing a side by side comparison with the z5, IE multi tasking, (app switching) the XZ was slightly faster in every test i did, when compared with the z5. The z5 and XZ are very similar, in day to day performance and there is not much difference between them, and most people wouldn't notice , unless your were gaming. Sony have the hardware and software tweaked very well. The phone is equipped with 3gb ram, and it shows no lag, sony have optimized the phone really well, Having 4/5 GB ram would only waste battery and wouldn't make much difference to performance, because android uses very little ram, the extra gig would be wasted. Sony take on android is clean with having very little bloatware. Its almost a stock android experience. One of the new feature on this phone is tip notifications, basically the phone learns your behaviour and then trys to advise you by giving info on "how to take better pictures" etc. The Setup of the phone was so easy, basically I tapped my z5 and XZ together, all my goggle account, apps and contacts were ported over using NFC. Overall the XZ performs as good as any flagship from Samsung or htc, the big bonus is that the Sony is cheaper than most flagships.Sound and CameraVoice calls are very clear , there is no distortion. Speakerphone is also clear evan at loud volumes.The XZ supports hi res audio and LDAC Bluetooth compression. When streaming music to a wireless Bluetooth speaker, the sound quality is detailed and clear with decent bass, LDAC seems to work and compression is kept to the minimum. The on-board stereo speakers are loud and clear , the stereo separation is done very well, the only negative point is that it does lack bass, but its a compromise I can live with , due to the waterproofing of the speaker grills. Playing low quality MP3s are improved with DSEE HX UPSCALING and improves sound quality via audio jack or streaming or headphones. This is a accomplished music player. Camera quality has improved too , it has a new 23 megapixel sensor, what ever you throw at it you will see some of the best pictures a Smartphone can offer. Not going to bore you with all the features and things this camera can do , but it is one impressive camera.Pictures are very detailed and sharp, colours are natural, no oversaturation like I have seen on Samsung phones. The autofocus systems is fast you can take picture under a second without a blur. This camera is probably the best on the market. The Video quality is up there with the best, lots of detail and real colours, i filmed a 1080p video of my 4 year old son playing in the park , the camera even picked up the individual whites stones in the tarmac. That's the sort detail were talking about.Battery life is about the same as my z5 just over a day and half , I like to way Sony have included a USB-C charging port, this will be the standard soon and its good Sony have implemented the XZ with this, making it future proof, you can put the charging cable either way without breaking the usb port. I wish Sony had INCLUDED THE FAST CHARGER, They make you buy this separately.conclusionThe XZ is a accomplished phone it excels in all areas , everything is put together perfectly in a single package , you have the best camera , best display, excellent build quality, waterproofing , Hi res audio . triple sensor camera, the list goes on. The XZ is also priced cheaper then all the current flagships. I would say if your looking for a quality waterproof android flagship, you wont be disappointed. If your upgrading from a z3 or earlier, then this is a major improvement and worth going for. For Z5 owners i would say its an improvement in the right areas when comparing the z5 but not a massive one, if you happy with your z5 then stick with it. if you can afford to upgrade to XZ then you will enjoy the new design and new features. The XZ is priced at £520 , not only is it cheaper then the S7 and apple iphone 7 but it offers all the specification, bell and whistle at lower price. Buy it with confidence and you wont go back.

Upgraded to this from an LG G2.In summary:- Design is great. Nice and slim but you might want to wack it in a case. (personal preference. A lot of people hate the Sony industrial look)- Fingerprint reader is snappy and makes life so much easier. I will never go back to a non fingerprint scanner phone.- OS has minimal bloatware. Whilst it does have some of the Sony apps on there it is not loaded with rubbish.- The Battery saver is sometimes annoying. occasionally it will not charge my phone in time for my wake up schedule. For the majority of time it is fairly intelligent and after a week or two of having the phone it understood my sleeping patterns well enough to be a minor nuisance. No idea if ti is a gimmick or not as I likely wont have the phone long enough to see if it actually extends the life of the battery!- Great screen. Hurts my eyeballs on max brightness and even having it set to 33% brightness I can forget that it is not on full- Sony quick with updates to the OSI have been a fan of Sony phones for a while. My last one was the Xperia Z1 that unfortunately went faulty. I purcahsed this for around £460 and it was worth the money. I think it will definitely hold up for a couple more years at least. With the recent launch of the ZX+ I believe the price will drop further making this a bargain!I cant comment on camera as I do not use it that much. Not had a problem running any apps and it does not seem to encounter the overheating issues that I have seen on the Z5 model.EDIT:Dec 2017 update.- Still going strong - SONY still smashing the updates to android - really great frequency of these.- Camera is not that great comapred to some of the phones out there now but still very good.- The battery saver now works perfectly and understand my routine - no problems with charging anymore.- Very rarely I do need a full reset to "refresh" the phone and make it feel like new again, perhaps once every 2 to 3 months. Apart from the occasional slowdown it is still very snappy and responsive.- no problems overheating