The Sony Xperia XZ...because it’s a selfie world

By Gerard Ramos / Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor

IN a smartphone marketplace increasingly littered with gimmicky features—from “borderless” screens to screens that curve to the sides (without serving any genuinely usable purpose); from modular designs to dual cameras—it’s ballsy for a smartphone player to release a flagship with no obvious headline-grabber. Perhaps shocking even, given that the smartphone player is one of the world’s most iconic names in consumer electronics.

That would be Sony, the global Japanese behemoth which has brought to the world such iconic products as the Triniton TV, the Walkman and the PlayStation, among them.

After revealing in September its new flagship smartphone at the annual IFA Berlin in Germany, the consumer electronics giant has now released globally the Sony Xperia XZ (https://goo.gl/3b6UiP), a refinement of its previous headliners whose biggest headline is…no, none of that curved stuff, nor any of the modular doodads, but a duo of cameras, which, according to Sony, redefines smartphone photography—be it the selfie or the kind of general-audience porn posted every second or so on Instagram or Twitter.

And Sony has good reason to leverage the chops it has earned from a decades-long dive into imaging, from its award-winning Alpha professional range to the hugely popular consumer-friendly compact Cyber-shot snappers.

In 2011 a survey conducted by Pew Research Center revealed “that 92 percent of smartphone users use their phones to take pictures. Eighty percent of users go on to send their photos elsewhere after they’re snapped. Smartphone photography is more popular than Internet browsing, e-mailing, app downloading and gaming,” Michael Zhang wrote for PetaPixel.

A more recent survey, conducted in September 2015 by Zogby Analytics, “revealed that 72 percent of US millennial smartphone users said their device’s camera function was, indeed, very important to them. It’s so imperative, in fact, that almost a third of respondents said they would immediately get it fixed because without it, the device is practically useless. Another 29 percent would take the opportunity to get a new phone—again, immediately” (“Millennials Rely Heavily on Smartphone Camera Functionality”, eMarketer).

And so, the new Sony flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ, which the company calls its new “crown jewel” that packs a rear-facing “23-MP Sony IMX300 camera [with] 24mm-equiv. f/2.0 lens, predictive hybrid laser/phase detection/contrast AF, IR sensor for white-balance selection, SteadyShot, LED flash, dedicated hardware shutter key, [and] 4K video recording.” Add to that the “13-MP front-facing camera with 1080p at 30fps video.”

The local office of Sony gathered select media outlets recently for a preview of the Xperia XZ. The event was held in Bonifacio Global City at the Japanese restaurant Ogawa, which has become rather famous for its open kitchen, where the cooks put in a performance in preparing their scrumptious offerings. Quite a show, it turns out, for the smartphone to capture and showcase its imaging muscle: the rice dish Gyuniku Yakimeshi tossed with expert flourish, the teppan dramatically bursting into flames—the indoor spectacle snapped by the Xperia XZ as if it were a Cyber-shot camera, or even an Alpha, which it might as well be with its manual mode, where you can change everything, from focus range to shutter speed to ISO sensitivity.

Of course, most users won’t bother fiddling with all those settings and stick with the Xperia XZ’s Superior Auto setting when indulging their taste for food or sneaker porn, and this smartphone won’t let them down with its trifecta of sensors that come together to capture images even in challenging conditions. Low light? No problem. Movement? No sweat.

While the Xperia XZ’s calling card may be imaging, Sony has also baked into its latest flagship other desirables, including the Qnovo adaptive charging technology that monitors and adjusts in real-time electrochemical processes to reduce battery damage and extend its lifespan (and, yes, keep your precious gadget from exploding into flames like you know what); and support for Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 3.0 (and, of course, 2.0) that will give this flagship’s 2,900mAh battery a boost of juice in short order. In our usage of the Xperia XZ review unit Sony loaned, we were able to get about day and several hours of typical use—all-day Bluetooth connection to a smartwatch, intermittent Internet usage via Wi-Fi and LTE, the occasional game, an episode or two of Netflix’s new drama The Crown (gorgeous and gripping) and random snaps of life unfolding.

Moreover, according to GSMArena, which conducted more rigorous battery tests on the Xperia XZ, it held up very well—and even bests in standby and voice calls—versus the flagships from HTC, LG and Apple as far as power consumption is concerned.

Not surprisingly, the Xperia XZ doesn’t stray from the design language of its flagship predecessors. The clean, elongated boxy design remains, a stylish amalgamation of smooth angles and curves, with a Gorilla Glass front over a 5.2-inch full HD display with a density of 424ppi that results in sharp, vibrant images; polycarbonate sides; and a back crafted from Alkaleido metal that gives the body a handsome sheen and intriguing gravity (especially the Forest Blue variant, but the Mineral Black, Platinum and Deep Pink models also look stunning).

Like its previous flagships, Sony gives the Xperia XZ its own shutter button, and the excellent fingerprint-reader/power button that made its debut in the Z5 is on this new flagship, as well. Meanwhile, like its competitors, Sony has abandoned mini-USB for a Type-C USB port for data and charging. Mercifully, the company hasn’t jettisoned the standard 3.5-mm jack, allowing you to still use the high-resolution audio headphones you bought barely a year ago.

Powered by Android v6.0 Marshmallow (upgradeable to Nougat), the Sony Xperia XZ also packs in the top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, Adreno 530 GPU and 3-GB RAM; plus LTE Cat.9 (450/50 Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS/Glonass/Beidou; Bluetooth v4.2; and NFC. The variant making their way to stores around these parts is the dual SIM configuration with 32 GB of built-in memory expandable by up to 256 GB via microSD (a 64-GB variant will also be available).

As smartphone flagships go, the Sony Xperia XZ is a certifiable headliner which chooses not to grab headlines. It’s a sublime evolution, a gorgeous refinement of its award-winning predecessors while boasting of upgraded hardware and the software to get the job done efficiently—and beautifully.

SONY XPERIA XZ SPECS