Sony is great at making smartphones, but pretty lousy at getting the word out about them. While just about anybody could tell you when a new iPhone or Galaxy was about to be released, brilliant phones like the Xperia XZ just arrive one day and nobody but established Xperia fans seem to notice.
Part of this is probably because Sony puts out phones when they have some cool technology to show off, rather than doing it in predictable yearly intervals, but a big part of it is also that — while Apple and Samsung use numbers to denote that a new device is a direct replacement to an old one — Sony phone names often have a confusing set of letters and labels to decipher. So what on Earth is the XZ?
'X' stands for "experience", and is the latest line of Xperia phones, announced early this year. The idea behind X was, apparently, to replace all the various lines of Sony phones with a single upper-middle-tier handset that could work for most people, as well as a selfie-focused and performance-focused variant. Meanwhile 'Z' has always denoted that a phone is a collection of the very best technology Sony could muster in a single device.
XZ, then, is a continuation of the X line, but one that hopes to showcase the best the company has to offer in mobile photography, display technology, software and more. In different ways it's a successor to both the X and 2015's Z5, and the DNA of both is plain to see.
As ever the focus is not on building the brawniest machine but rather on battery life, industrial design, and grabbing the best stuff from elsewhere in the Sony empire including camera, display and audio technology. Thankfully though, no features have been dropped and the expected touches — like water resistance, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, microSD card slot and a physical shutter button — have been retained from previous phones and are still very welcome. All up it's enough to give the other big phones in the market a run for their money, and at $999 undercuts a few of them just a little as well.
Design
Physically, the XZ harks back to the monolithic lines and right angles of past Zs, but appears overall taller and skinnier thanks to its curved edges. The glass continues all the way to the edge and curves off, which combined with the perfectly flat back and front makes for a comfy fit in the hand. The ovular top and bottom surfaces of the phone (where the headphone jack and USB-C connector live, respectively) feature a brushed metal look.
I'll admit that in still photos I didn't think much of the phone's design, but in person I think it's gorgeous. The front is the usual featureless black glass, but the identically-shaped back panel is metal. Specifically, it's kind of alloy that Sony is very keen to tell you is a proprietary material called ALKALEIDO.
Whatever it is, the result is a phone with a kind of mysterious finish, giving off soft, dreamlike reflections despite being mostly matte. Under different lights the black version can appear jet black or a kind of very dark red. Give the back of the phone a polish and set it face down on your desk and it can look downright space-age.
The price to pay for this unique look, however, is that it collects fingerprints like a deranged CSI. The material is very comfortable to hold, and thankfully not as slippery as some past Xperias, but you better get used to either cleaning the thing regularly or living with the greasy, multicolour smudges that streak across it after minutes of use. An unusual greeny-blue version is available if you order direct from Sony.
Hardware
The XZ hums along on a Snapdragon 820 processor and 3GB of RAM. As with virtually all contemporary Android phones, there's an Adreno 530 for graphics as well.
Sony remains one of the only players to stick with IPS LCD screens over AMOLED, but the 5.2-inch display on the XZ is amazingly bright. It's lower resolution than many high-end phones (at 1080x1920), but the company's image processing makes for better colour than the competition and great-looking videos and photos.
The big 23MP rear camera is supported by a bank of sensors, including for laser autofocus and white balance, making it on paper one of the most powerful and technologically advanced camera you can get on a phone. In practice though, it's clear other phones have the edge when it comes to photo software and post-processing. Colour accuracy and autofocus are both consistently brilliant on the XZ, and the images are much bigger, but both the Google Pixel and iPhone 7 are better at, for example, knowing when to sacrifice accuracy for visibility in darker situations.
Selfie fans should note that the 13MP front-facing camera — which is now wider angle to allow for several people to easily fit in the frame — is pretty much best in class.
For music fans the XZ supports Hi-Res audio (24-bit/192kHz) which you'll need compatible headphones and media to appreciate fully. There's a couple of options for elevating non-Hi-Res audio to make it sound clearer, but the phone's offer to automatically "optimise" sound for my headphones made everything unbearably bassy. With the right hardware and some tinkering, even streamed music can sound noticeably nicer though. Without headphones you have loud, clear stereo speakers which sound great for a phone, but that's a low bar to clear.
Sony has given up claiming its phones have a "two-day" battery life, but you could stretch the XZ that far if you needed to. At any rate it's difficult to exhaust the phone over the course of a single day, and if you do find yourself running low the suite of stamina modes give you options to keep your phone alive.
New this time is a series of features designed to keep the battery holding its charge for years to come, which is especially prescient given some of the issues we've seen with the advent of fast-charging. While most phones will race to 100 per cent as quick as possible when plugged in, the XZ learns when you usually go to bed and wake up so it can fast-charge when you need a top up but go slow at night to avoid constantly topping itself up for seven hours straight. The system also measures battery pressure and temperature to regulate how fast power is fed in to avoid dangerous or damaging charging.
Software
Though the XZ launched with Android 6.0.1, an update rolled out on December 1 to bring the latest Android features to Sony's platform [Note, the update went live immediately after this review was originally published, so this article has been updated].
This take on Nougat is one of the better ones out there so far, with Sony improving Google's software where it can (for example a 'Smart Assist' that offers help based on your usage patterns and apps that give you special access to films or a remote display for your PlayStation) and otherwise leaving it alone.
Sony's keyboard and launcher are pretty much the only ones outside of Google's own that I'm perfectly happy to use straight out the box without tweaking, and that's mostly because they contain Swiftkey and Google Now functionality themselves. Sony's main contribution to app management is a smarter way to organise and search for apps, which is great.
Aesthetically I also dig the painterly backgrounds and unique sliding lock screen that comes standard on the XZ, but that's a matter of personal preference. Overall the software is fast, beautiful and most important of all intuitive.
Should I get one?
Ultimately the XZ just beats out Google's Pixel to be my personal favourite phone of the year so far (I say so far because I'm yet to give LG's V20 a proper look), but if you're looking to grab the latest and greatest Android handset your decision is hardly cut and dried. The two phones (and, indeed, most flagship Androids) are similar in many ways, and it will come down to which little enhancements you prefer.
The Pixel has a newer processor, more RAM and the latest version of Android, while the XZ has a bigger battery with (unproven) longevity claims, an SD card slot and is IP68 certified dust proof and water resistant. The Pixel comes in your choice of 5-inch or 5.5-inch, while the XZ is a comfortable middle ground. Both feel great in the hand and have quick fingerprint sensors, although I prefer Sony's side-mounted unit to Google's rear one. The XZ is easier on the wallet, but not by much.
The Pixel comes with some very Google features like the all-seeing Assistant, tight integration with Google Photos and fantastic, artist-focused wallpapers built-in. Meanwhile the XZ comes with some very Sony features like PlayStation compatibility, Hi-Res audio and a brilliant display. The XZ lacks the software wizadry that makes Pixel's camera the undisputed king of all-rounders, with unmatched low-light photography, but its autofocus is fast and its panel of sensors nails white balance and colour correctness much more often.
Given the above I would already be leaning towards Sony's offering, but if I needed a tie breaker it would be aesthetics. There is simply no other smartphone that looks like the XZ, from its square minimalist shell to its cut-out lock screen, and I much prefer it to the rounded edges and candy icons of virtually every other 2016 phone.
