Sony made an $800 phone with extravagant features you won’t find in any iPhone or Galaxy phone — here’s what it’s like

By: Business Insider

June 25, 2017 at 10:30 AM EDT

Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

Sony has come to grips with the fact that you’re probably not going to buy its smartphones.

The Japanese giant has steadily stripped down its Xperia line of phones over the past few years, effectively conceding that its dreams of reaching Apple and Samsung are over. But Sony has brought its mobile business back to profitability in the process.

The company is now trying to keep that going by mainly selling expensive devices, the kind guaranteed to bring some sort of return, that bank on standing out to reel people in.

And so we have the Xperia XZ Premium, Sony’s latest top-of-the-line phone, which feels like an experiment in excess. An ultra-sharp 4K display? Sure. With HDR support? Of course. A camera mode that shoots at an absurdly slow 960 frames per second? Now we’re talking. High-res audio support, a 19-megapixel camera, gigabit LTE, a chrome finish? Why not! And priced all at $800? Whatever!

I can respect Sony for taking the “premium” thing seriously; if you’re shelling out a ton for a new gadget, it’s good for that gadget to be differentiated. The Xperia XZ Premium is that, technically. But not all of its indulgences are practical, and some of its fundamentals fall short. Here’s what I mean:

The Xperia XZ Premium is classic Sony design, but I’m conflicted about it. On one hand, Sony has been recycling this boxy rectangular look, with its hard angles and rounded sides, for half a decade. Compared to the new-age designs from Samsung or LG, the Xperia XZ Premium is a dinosaur. The borders around its screen are massive, making the phone nigh-impossible to use with one hand, and the whole thing is fairly heavy (195g).Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

At the same time, it’s clear the Xperia XZ Premium is more concerned with being distinct than chasing trends. Part of me likes that. Its borders are huge, but they’re perfectly symmetrical. The brushed metal on the phone’s top and bottom is chilly and solid. The chrome finish on my test unit is like looking into a mirror. It’s all fused together tightly. Put together, it’s like holding a cut of glass. Everything about the phone contributes to that aesthetic.Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

The problem is that it doesn’t feel as nice as it looks. Apart from the difficulty of actually holding it, its sides are made of a warm, glossy plastic that comes off as too cheap for an $800 device. The glass back is smooth, but perpetually slippery; put it on anything other than a flat surface and it’ll fall to the floor. It’s also an immense fingerprint magnet. It takes effort to make the phone look its best.Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

Sony’s continued inability to put fingerprint scanners on the US versions of its phones doesn’t help. Nor does the oddly huge SIM and microSD tray cutout on its side.

On the plus side, the existence of a microSD slot in the first place is nice, and having a dedicated shutter button on the side is always handy for snapping photos while keeping the phone steady. The device is also fully waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about dropping it in the pool.

Also, its dual speakers are placed in an ideal spot right on the phone’s front, making audio louder than usual — though not as rich as, say, the HTC U11.

The Xperia XZ Premium’s 5.5-inch display is the first smartphone screen to support both 4K and HDR tech. (Other phones have had one or the other, but not both.) The 4K support means it has a resolution of 3840 x 2160, which equates to a whopping 807 pixels per inch. It is the single sharpest smartphone screen in existence. This is great for marketing copy, but it’s also utter overkill.Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

Though the amount of 4K content is growing, it’s still far from the norm. Most apps run at a traditional 1080p.

But even if 4K were standard, the visible difference between the 1440p resolutions found on other high-end phones and the 4K resolution here is negligible on a display this small. Switch videos between the two and your eyes simply will not perceive any change in precision.

To be clear, this screen is still incredibly sharp, and that’s great. But other phones are, effectively, just as good.

The one area where Sony could play up 4K’s benefits is virtual reality: When a phone’s screen is pressed up against your face, those pixels become much more visible. Sony doesn’t have any Gear VR-style headset like Samsung, though, and 4K content is even rarer in VR than it is elsewhere.Jeff Dunn/Business Insider

The Xperia XZ Premium's display isn’t optimized for VR regardless: It’s an LCD panel, so it struggles with motion blur more than an OLED screen of, say, the Samsung Galaxy S8. Swing your head around and things will lose focus and appear more nauseating than they should.

4K is not worthless, and it’s quickly becoming table stakes for TVs. But unless mobile VR becomes a Thing, there isn’t a compelling reason for phone makers to adopt it today. That many mobile carriers now limit the resolution of video streams only slows the process down.

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