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5 Reasons To Buy Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

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Let the 4K arms race begin.

Sony slapped an (unnecessarily?) powerful screen on its latest flagship smartphone, the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. Is it the best display on the market? Can you smugly show off your new uber-display to your jealous friends? Do you or your friends care?

So many questions, so few answers. What we do know is that the Premium has more to offer than eye-melting resolution, there’s also a very capable new camera and a return to the long-lost two day battery life. Read on for more.

If you’re not familiar with my buying guides, check out my run-down of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Note Edge+ and the Moto X Pure.

Check out my hands-on here

4K screen

The exact benefits of a 4K screen, and whether or not the difference is visible on such a small display (5.5-inches), is up for debate. Sony says it is. Having briefly used the device, and compared it to Sony’s 1080p Z5, I struggled to see a big improvement.

With that said, the display is excellent. It’s bright, sharp and any footage blasted through it - from films, to good quality YouTube videos - looks fantastic. Sony’s argument for bumping up the screen spec is because there’s no 2.5k content (most ‘quad-HD’ displays on smartphones are actually 2.5k), whereas there’s plenty of 4K content.

The X-Reality engine (which is also found in Sony’s 4K TVs) engine behind the display also upscales HD content to 4K, including YouTube and home videos.

MORE: Honor 7 Review: Impressive $300 Samsung Galaxy S6 Rival

Long lasting battery

The two day battery that became a hallmark of Sony’s Xperia line was its saving grace. Against the backdrop of an industry hellbent on slimming down handsets and sacrificing battery size in the process, Sony stood firm. But that changed with the Z3+, which had a smaller battery than the Z3, and consequently suffered in lasting power.

That has changed with the Premium with its a large 3430 battery, which Sony claims will last comfortably for two days on a single charge. Obviously the larger battery is necessary for the power hungry display, but there’s also some other power-saving tricks dotted around the device.

Sony has reduced the size of its display model so it can fit a larger battery in the device without making it too thick (7.8mm). The Snapdragon 810 processor also turns off when it’s not being used to save power. For example, if a still image is on screen. Sony told me that “most of the time the CPU will be asleep”.

Another bonus is the faster charging, where you can get 5.5 hours of usage out of 10 minutes of charging.

Camera

The smartphone camera war rumbles on. What’s interesting is that Apple ’s iPhone reigned king for a long time in this department. But Android manufacturers this year have consistently launched devices with excellent cameras one after the other. Samsung, Motorola, Huawei and now Sony are bringing their A-game.

Sony’s new 23MP sensor has the world’s fastest autofocus at 0.03 seconds, which should (I’m yet to properly test it outside of my brief hands-on) make it easier to capture those spur of the moment shots without taking useless blurry pictures. It can snap clear, bright and sharp images on the improved Superior Auto mode.

There’s also a 5x clear zoom that doesn’t result in image quality loss and the ability to take and store RAW images. Sony’s improved the low-light performance too, which was a major problem with previous Xperia models.

Video has had an upgrade too, with improved stabilzation that - according to the video demoed to me - looks very impressive. Up against the competition, the Z5 managed to record a bumpy bike journey with minimal wobble.

Water-resistant design

Just like previous Xperia devices, the Z5 Premium is fully water and dust resistant. It carries the IP65 and IP68 rating, which means it’s completely resistant to dust and other solid particles, as well as capable of withstanding shallow water submersion (the IP68 rating typically means up to 3 feet).

This is topped off with a capless USB port, so you don’t have to worry about reapplying that flimsy cap after you pull the charging cable out. Although, there is a cap for the sim and MicroSD port.

Finger print scanner

Sony’s new touch-based fingerprint scanner for the Premium and all other Z5 variants ticks another ‘ mandatory 2015 flagship feature’ box. Practically all new handsets, from all manufacturers, have opted for biometric security in their 2015 range.

Sony’s slightly bucks the trend by doubling-up the scanner and the power button. The idea is that you can wake and unlock the device in one move. Although it also means that the fingerprint scanner is thin in width, because it rests on the side of the device. For its part, Sony says that the scanner can accurately record and recognise a partial fingerprint.

Cons

There are, of course, some cons worth mentioning. Notably the lack of a software upgrade. The Premium comes with Android 5.1 with Sony’s UI laid over, but it’s no different to the previous model. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much of an update outside of a few tweaks in the camera app.

There’s also the issue of price. The US price hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s likely to be at the higher-end like every other Xperia handset to date.

The 4K display is, indeed, Sony’s attempt to distance itself from the unstoppable chariot of cheap Android phones bum-rushing the market.  In a time when lesser known Android manufacturers like Huawei and OnePlus are doling out very impressive handsets for half the price of the premium end, you have to ask yourself: is it worth it?

 

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