Just to give a bit of background, this year I've owned a Sony Xperia XZ, Samsung S8, iPhone 7 Plus, BB KEYone (still got that, love it) and used to work in a phone shop so I've had a good look at the likes of the LG G6 and HTC offerings...
Been using the XZ Premium for a couple of days solidly now so thought I'd post a few thoughts.
I have to say I'm particularly impressed with it for a number of reasons, but mainly because it pretty much does everything well, and in some cases really well.
The phone is pretty big, as you can see in the photos the chin and forehead are quite large, but in everyday use it isn't quite as bad as pictures would have you believe. Strangely enough.
It's heavy, but it isn't too heavy. I used an iPhone 7 Plus with a pretty bulky case on for months so this is fine for me.
The chrome is a bit out there, as it is basically a mirror, but I think this version looks so much better than the shiny black.
The phones screen is basically the star attraction for me. I don't think I've ever used a mobile phone with as good a screen. Colours are just amazing, they look natural, smooth and crisp and no matter what you are looking at on this phone, it looks great.
This leads me onto another reason I love it - customisation. I love changing my wallpapers, and this phone basically looks good no matter what wallpaper you throw on. The more colourful the better though for me, as it really shows that display off. Also, Sony themes have always been a reason I've liked their devices. I downloaded a Spider-Man one which coincides with the new film and it's pretty cool. Doesn't change things too much, such as buttons etc (as some go wayyyy overboard) but the moving wallpaper is awesome.
Battery life so far has more than surpassed my expectations. I am really pleased at how all the big manufacturers recently are managing to get a lot more out of their batteries than previous devices. I can't think of a flagship this year that has been criticised for poor battery (could be wrong?) which is great to see.
With the 4k display here, I expected to be needing the charger come 8pm, but no such case at all. You can see what kind of usage I'm getting below. Huge thumbs up.
This was unplugged at around 7am.
Camera. Well I half expected to be disappointed but I couldn't be more wrong. Sony really do seem to have taken some strides compared to the XZ that I had last year. I don't really know what they'e done, but this is now a much more reliable shooter than that was. It takes photos pretty quickly and whilst there is still too much processing done after the shot is taken, results can be impressive. Attached some below.
These ones were all taken in fairly low lighting. Both outside and in. I used the phone at a wedding and a lot of people were complimenting the front facing camera as we took selfies (I won't share those... haha). They all had iPhones... I'm saying nothing.
Really impressive results. It hasn't disappointed me once yet, and it has been used in real social instances where I wouldn't want it to let me down. Very impressed.
I have been tinkering with the slow motion video recording and it can be tricky if you need to slow the video down at the exact second. However tonight I nailed it with my sister throwing the dog a treat which I slowed down at the exact time he dived and caught it in his mouth!
It looks great. I'll upload that when I figure out the best way, might just have to be YouTube. It's such a cool feature.
As I mentioned when I got the phone, the speed of the device is blazing. No slow down or hang up at all which I knew was going to be the case after reading a lot of reviews which all said the same thing.
It handles everything you can possible throw at it with ease, and I'm comparison I can now notice the very small hiccups and stutters on my KEYone.
I'm a big fan of Sony putting Google now into their software so when you swipe to the left of the home screen you're right there. I think that's a great feature to be built into the phone, and I use that almost daily.
Things I don't like?
Well I could really do without all of that Sony bloatware. We're lucky in the UK that carriers don't add anything to devices like they do in the US. But Sony has about 9 apps for all sorts of different things and it is just excessive and annoying. They notify me all the time, despite me being sure I had turned them off. You can disable them, and also delete them but it's annoying that they are there. Although things like Sony's weather app looks really good:
I don't like there is no night filter built into the OS. Loads of Android devices do this now and I would get a lot of use out go it. Shouldn't have to be downloading a third party one.
On screen buttons. Annoying as you lost a good bit of screen. Not a problem with some devices but when you have that chin, and then the space for buttons and then your on screen keyboard, typing can get a bit 'reachy' despite lowering the VKB height. I can't lower it too much, otherwise it is basically unusable as I'm no fan of VKB at the best of times!
No double tap to wake? Why Sony. It was on my XZ? Double tap to sleep is there, but no wake. Odd.
No lock screen notifications. This goes hand in hand with the above. My KEYone had lock screen notifications and when I had a notification the screen would kind of half come on and just display a black background with white text detailing the notification. None of that here. So this is where double tap to wake would help so I could easily reach over when it's on my desk to quickly check if I was needing to reply to something. Instead I have to press the power / unlock button to do that, which is really annoying.
Those niggles aside, I am enjoying this phone a lot. I should have known seeing how much I liked the XZ, but this is in a whole other ball park. I personally think it is one of the best looking phones in years, which is odd given the criticism
it has had because of the bezels. But for me, it's a winner in the looks department.
Hope this helps anyone who is considering the phone.
Sorry for the length of post, I do tend to go one when I get excited about new tech!
Been using the XZ Premium for a couple of days solidly now so thought I'd post a few thoughts.
I have to say I'm particularly impressed with it for a number of reasons, but mainly because it pretty much does everything well, and in some cases really well.
The phone is pretty big, as you can see in the photos the chin and forehead are quite large, but in everyday use it isn't quite as bad as pictures would have you believe. Strangely enough.
It's heavy, but it isn't too heavy. I used an iPhone 7 Plus with a pretty bulky case on for months so this is fine for me.
The chrome is a bit out there, as it is basically a mirror, but I think this version looks so much better than the shiny black.
The phones screen is basically the star attraction for me. I don't think I've ever used a mobile phone with as good a screen. Colours are just amazing, they look natural, smooth and crisp and no matter what you are looking at on this phone, it looks great.
This leads me onto another reason I love it - customisation. I love changing my wallpapers, and this phone basically looks good no matter what wallpaper you throw on. The more colourful the better though for me, as it really shows that display off. Also, Sony themes have always been a reason I've liked their devices. I downloaded a Spider-Man one which coincides with the new film and it's pretty cool. Doesn't change things too much, such as buttons etc (as some go wayyyy overboard) but the moving wallpaper is awesome.
Battery life so far has more than surpassed my expectations. I am really pleased at how all the big manufacturers recently are managing to get a lot more out of their batteries than previous devices. I can't think of a flagship this year that has been criticised for poor battery (could be wrong?) which is great to see.
With the 4k display here, I expected to be needing the charger come 8pm, but no such case at all. You can see what kind of usage I'm getting below. Huge thumbs up.
This was unplugged at around 7am.
Camera. Well I half expected to be disappointed but I couldn't be more wrong. Sony really do seem to have taken some strides compared to the XZ that I had last year. I don't really know what they'e done, but this is now a much more reliable shooter than that was. It takes photos pretty quickly and whilst there is still too much processing done after the shot is taken, results can be impressive. Attached some below.
These ones were all taken in fairly low lighting. Both outside and in. I used the phone at a wedding and a lot of people were complimenting the front facing camera as we took selfies (I won't share those... haha). They all had iPhones... I'm saying nothing.
Really impressive results. It hasn't disappointed me once yet, and it has been used in real social instances where I wouldn't want it to let me down. Very impressed.
I have been tinkering with the slow motion video recording and it can be tricky if you need to slow the video down at the exact second. However tonight I nailed it with my sister throwing the dog a treat which I slowed down at the exact time he dived and caught it in his mouth!
It looks great. I'll upload that when I figure out the best way, might just have to be YouTube. It's such a cool feature.As I mentioned when I got the phone, the speed of the device is blazing. No slow down or hang up at all which I knew was going to be the case after reading a lot of reviews which all said the same thing.
It handles everything you can possible throw at it with ease, and I'm comparison I can now notice the very small hiccups and stutters on my KEYone.
I'm a big fan of Sony putting Google now into their software so when you swipe to the left of the home screen you're right there. I think that's a great feature to be built into the phone, and I use that almost daily.
Things I don't like?
Well I could really do without all of that Sony bloatware. We're lucky in the UK that carriers don't add anything to devices like they do in the US. But Sony has about 9 apps for all sorts of different things and it is just excessive and annoying. They notify me all the time, despite me being sure I had turned them off. You can disable them, and also delete them but it's annoying that they are there. Although things like Sony's weather app looks really good:
I don't like there is no night filter built into the OS. Loads of Android devices do this now and I would get a lot of use out go it. Shouldn't have to be downloading a third party one.
On screen buttons. Annoying as you lost a good bit of screen. Not a problem with some devices but when you have that chin, and then the space for buttons and then your on screen keyboard, typing can get a bit 'reachy' despite lowering the VKB height. I can't lower it too much, otherwise it is basically unusable as I'm no fan of VKB at the best of times!
No double tap to wake? Why Sony. It was on my XZ? Double tap to sleep is there, but no wake. Odd.
No lock screen notifications. This goes hand in hand with the above. My KEYone had lock screen notifications and when I had a notification the screen would kind of half come on and just display a black background with white text detailing the notification. None of that here. So this is where double tap to wake would help so I could easily reach over when it's on my desk to quickly check if I was needing to reply to something. Instead I have to press the power / unlock button to do that, which is really annoying.
Those niggles aside, I am enjoying this phone a lot. I should have known seeing how much I liked the XZ, but this is in a whole other ball park. I personally think it is one of the best looking phones in years, which is odd given the criticism
it has had because of the bezels. But for me, it's a winner in the looks department.
Hope this helps anyone who is considering the phone
.Sorry for the length of post, I do tend to go one when I get excited about new tech!
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