24 Hours with my New XZ Premium REVIEW

[jms.flynn]

Yeah you can change it in the developer settings best setting to ever come to android for none rooted users anyways

Yeah i was just wondering before i had mine, i have it in my hands now and it was the first thing i did. I have mine set to 476.

For some reason at 480 and above the software keys when in landscape are not inline.

 

[AJHutchinson]

Yeah i was just wondering before i had mine, i have it in my hands now and it was the first thing i did. I have mine set to 476.

For some reason at 480 and above the software keys when in landscape are not inline.

I realised that but mine is now at 552 which moves the navigation underneath instead of at the side actually quite good ?

 

[MigueTK]

Hey I just wanted to know if the notification led is a true RGB one. No other reviews mention this fact, and i miss the notification light on my old Nexus 4, nothing has come close to its aesthetics. Thanks!

 

[jaseman]

Hey I just wanted to know if the notification led is a true RGB one. No other reviews mention this fact, and i miss the notification light on my old Nexus 4, nothing has come close to its aesthetics. Thanks!

Yes it is. However there is no default ability to manipulate what color flashes for what purpose. All you can do with the default launcher is turn it on or off. But there are 3rd party apps that work well giving you the ability you seek. I too love having an LED for notifications!

 

[ukemochi]

Hey I just wanted to know if the notification led is a true RGB one. No other reviews mention this fact, and i miss the notification light on my old Nexus 4, nothing has come close to its aesthetics. Thanks!

Just wanted to show you proof it's there.

 

[jms.flynn]

How is everybody finding the stereo speakers? The bottom speaker is not as loud as the top speaker on my unit. The top speaker also seems to have much better range.

Can anybody else confirm this is the same with all the units?

 

[ukemochi]

How is everybody finding the stereo speakers? The bottom speaker is not as loud as the top speaker on my unit. The top speaker also seems to have much better range.

Can anybody else confirm this is the same with all the units?

I did testing inside YouTube, Amazon Video, Funimation and some test calls, both were equal. Couldn't replicate your issue.

 

[jms.flynn]

I did testing inside YouTube, Amazon Video, Funimation and some test calls, both were equal. Couldn't replicate your issue.

The loudspeaker on calls only goes through one speaker so not sure how you have managed to test calls. The bottom speaker is definitely slightly quieter on mine and doesn't have as much range. Can you use this video to test? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKspXZfmEE

They have different speaker top and bottom, so i'm not saying I am surprised by the difference but to my ear I can hear a slight difference in quality and volume from one to the other.

 

[martin042068]

First 24 Hours

***UPDATED****
This is my first time posting a review for phone, because I am that impressed.

A little background so you have an idea of where I am coming from. I have literally purchased every flagship phone a company has had to offer since 2009 (Very expensive vice) from Blackberry 10 devices, Windows devices, iPhones to Android devices. I have an absolute love for gadgets and phones, I hold no loyalty to any company period and never will, just because you have 2-3 products that were solid from the company doesn't mean its not going to create a turd every once in awhile. Loyalty with hardware generally in my opinion garners tunnel vision for someone and the user tends to ignore the downsides or errors with a product. Samsung built Note's 1-7 and the S series, you think all of them were great? No, but big publications I notice seem to think so and its not just Samsung, its all manufacturers for phones. Your decision to buy a phone should be based not only what speaks to you personally but can do what it needs to do for you, not what is "cool" or what everyone else has. Every individual is born with their own preference on things and people should use it.

Parts I am covering, if I left something out and you want me to add it or just ask a question please feel free.
*Overall Build Quality
*Screen Quality
*OS overall functionality and speed
*Sound Quality with HD Bluetooth (LDAC) / Reception
*Camera (Need more time)
*Battery Life
*Summary (Praise and Gripes)

Build Quality

The second you take this phone out of the box and peel off the plastic covering it, you know you are holding top quality piece of hardware, you will find yourself looking all over it from top to bottom for a couple of minutes easy. It's edges are smooth, you don't feel any sharp points while holding the phone, it is a bit slippery (I use a case on every phone no matter what) so I would suggest a skin if you don't like cases. I don't have the brass to walk around with 800 dollars possibly slipping out of my hands and into the wind. Even the speaker grills to the USB-C port cutouts are top notch. I LOVE where they placed the fingerprint sensor, right on the side where my thumb is, this should be the location for every phone ever built in my opinion. I've been using the Blackberry Keyone for a week now and one of the big things I love about a Blackberry is the build of almost all their phones (Priv was garbage) and you will hear a lot of people just say the Keyone is a solid built brick and they are right. This guy is right there with it except glass, it has some nice heft in your hand when you hold it. I would rate the build of this phone without a doubt the 2nd best built quality wise across all platforms of phones so cheers to Sony for that.

Screen Quality

So I put this guy up against the the S8 Plus, and the iPhone 7 Plus. The reason I put the iPhone 7 Plus in here is because its only 1080p and the Sony shows 1080p until you are actually running 4k so its not always in 4k mode FYI and there is not an option to change this (Stupid!) So I was running content side by side against these 2 guys and weather its in 1080p or 4k, theres no comparison, the detail is just stupid. The blacks are amazing and the fact that this phone is an IPS display out-doing an AMOLED is crazy talk. This is the king of displays hands down no contest not even up for debate.

OS overall functionality and speed

Ok so some of you are familiar with Google's Nexus phones and the latest being the Google Pixel and know that since you are getting everything Google intended the user experience on Android to be, for the people that are new or aren't familiar with these Android devices, lets just say you should really try one out, they are bloat free and extremely fast phones. So for the last year or so, the Google Pixel was the fastest Android phone period, it really blew people away at how fast opening and closing applications to having a ton run in the background just wouldn't slow the thing down. So I have always said the there's fast, then there's Google Phone fast...... until now. I dont even know where to begin on how stupidly fast this phone is anything you do or throw at it, and you can say "well it has the Snapdragon 835 in it", yeah that's true but if phones were purely off a spec sheet, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Plus would run at the same speed, software implementation with hardware is extremely important. In no way shape or form is the Galaxy S8 or Plus even in the same solar system as this thing. You can lookup on Youtube there are posts of people running tests this guy and it's quite embarrassing how much faster this Sony is and the one thing I never see reviewers do is show how actually using all the applications while have all of those open at the same, time. This phone does....not....slow....down. Run 10-12 apps on my S8 Plus, lagasaurus rears its ugly head, micro shudders you know what I am talking about. People that claim that theirs never does that is a liar. There are only a few phones on Android that I would say are free of Lag and Micro Stutters, Google Pixel, HTC M8, talk about butter...mmmm...butter.... There could be the argument "who needs that many apps open", well believe it or not when you are busy sometimes, you don't always close everything down and really you shouldn't have to in this day in age with tech. The ease of use navigation using Sony's launcher and the Settings is so simple it doesn't need a spotlight to be hones, its clean and straight forward and you aren't digging for options unlike some out there.

Sound Quality

(Speakers)
There are 2 front facing stereo on this guy, and I do and I know a lot of people love the fact they are facing you and not facing down so when you are cupping the phone it blocks the sound. Its a huge plus for this phone, the sound quality out of the speakers are not amazing but solid, games or Youtube or speakerphone on a call is loud enough that you can hear what is going on even if your surroundings are not so quiet. Quality wise I wouldn't say its going to win awards nor would I say its going to blow you away like some of HTC's boom sound on previous phones or like the Blackberry Passport. But all in all its right where it needs to be and if you need louder speakers I suggest getting some headphones.

(Headphones)
So I own quite a few headsets ranging from Blue Headsets, Sony MDR-1000X, Sennheiser HD 800s just for example, Plugging any one of these guys and listening to all sorts of music sounds just awesome, not just good but actually awesome. I'm not going to go any further into it because this is a very very subjective category given some people are audio files and some are not, some people can actually hear certain sounds and some actually physically cannot (yes you can actually go see a doctor to see which frequencies you can actually hear).

(Reception/ Call Quality)
So this is just my experience with AT&T, I can't give claim to other carriers. The calls are clear and precise and people say they can hear me just fine, no echos. I can hear people with no issue at all same goes for putting the call on speaker as mentioned before. I have 0 complaints in this department.

Camera: TBD*

Battery Life

So this might be premature but usually with phones battery life is horrible at the start because it needs to break-in and a phones software needs to settle in. Well I for one can say since day one its like the rules of everything we know don't apply here, I would consider myself to be a heavy phone user. I watch YouTube, Funimation shows, Wifi is on all day, I really don't cut things out or turn things off on phones just to save battery because I am either too lazy, or it cuts out to much functionality. I take the phone off the charger at 630AM every morning, then at lunch I'm always at 75% or more. I plug it in and let it charge, I don't while I clear out some emails and work and by the time I pick it up again its at 100% and I don't have to plug it in until bed time which is 11PM roughly, and when I am ready at 11PM, its at 65%. I have never got this thing down below 60%. I have no complaints here for battery life.

Summary

As you noticed I haven't spoken about the bezels, and I am not going to because its irrelevant, they are there because of the speakers and Sony's choice, if it bothers or you don't like it that's fine go buy another phone. There are quite a few other phones out there that are worth your hard earned money, and the more you spend I believe you should get more. "When I spend more money I want less" said NO ONE EVER! Sony does not disappoint in this regard yet in the past, I would highly beg to differ. If you look at everything you are getting with this phone, its really hard to think of anything that they left out. HD Bluetooth Sound, LDAC, Headphone Jack, 4k Screen, Stero Speakers, Front Facing Speakers, Amazing Camera, Awesome build quality, Rapid 3.0 Charging, USB-C, Fingerprint Sensor, Notification Light I mean the list goes on the only thing its missing is Cake. My only real negative things I can say so far right now is that the US version of this phone has a disabled fingerprint sensor, I purchased the UK variant to get around this. Also I actually like the Sony launcher a lot, I always use Nova or Action Launcher 3, been toying with Evie another great launcher, you can change the Grid Size and Icons to whatever you like too. Theres no option to change the screen resolution which does bother me, I am not saying my phone needs to be in 4k all the time because of obvious reasons but at least 2k. But other than that, this phone deserves a lot more attention that it will actually get.

Hope this helps anyone looking to get a phone or just plain curious about this guy and what it has to offer. Cheers!:fingers-crossed:

Appreciate your review and agree with your findings. Received my Premium last night. Been great so far!

 

[ukemochi]

Appreciate your review and agree with your findings. Received my Premium last night. Been great so far!

Thank you! Great to hear, hope you end up liking it as much as I do.

 

[ukemochi]

The loudspeaker on calls only goes through one speaker so not sure how you have managed to test calls. The bottom speaker is definitely slightly quieter on mine and doesn't have as much range. Can you use this video to test? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKspXZfmEE

They have different speaker top and bottom, so i'm not saying I am surprised by the difference but to my ear I can hear a slight difference in quality and volume from one to the other.

Thank you for that sound test, I have to agree with you on the bottom speaker, its ever so slightly quieter, I could notice it when it said "both speakers" but when it was doing left to right I couldn't tell a difference at all.

 

[Delvius]

Could you give it the real hard test and check out the Pokemon Go performance?
If Go runs smooth without overheating for a while - everything does.

 

[figo_rulz11]

So I received my Sony xzp today compared the rear camera and to my dissapointment the Samsung s7 had better quality images...so gutted urge sony really need to improve. However the front camera did better than the Samsung s7 so there's that ! Unfortunately I will be returning my Sony as rear camera is important to me...I hope sony improve on their software optimisation for the camera.

 

[figo_rulz11]

Proof that I was comparing the two phones and my z3 too ha.

Also everything else was fantastic on the Sony bar the rear camera.

 

[martin042068]

My Experience So Far UK Model G8141

Today will be the third day with my Chrome G8141 Unlocked UK model and I'm very satisfied overall. My wife has the S8+ so I've had time to compare the two side by side. I didn't write this as a direct comparison but used her phone for a reference.
Here's my summary:

Camera:
Stills: Very good quality for stills. Seems to be more accurate in the detail colors by switching to manual. Picture quality is flagship level but not class leading. It's good but not great in low light. It snaps and focuses very accurately and quickly. You'll get great stills of objects in motion. No RAW support that I['m aware of. This is a very good camera and have no problems using it regularly.

Video: Excellent overall and very quick. 4k and HD look amazing, sound and picture top notch. The slo mo feature takes some practice to get the timing right and it's easy to miss the chance to capture, but it can be very rewarding in use. No delay with commencing any recording. Very fluid and image stabilization is excellent.

Camera UI is missing some settings for serious photo bugs but decent.

Battery Life:
Could go a least a day and half no worries. I haven't had to put it on the charger even once before the end of my day. There aren't excessive sudden power drains and has been very consistent is use. I've only experienced slight warmth during heavy use. That's major compliment coming for me as I use mine for work applications and personal so it sees very heavy use on a typical day. I'm very impressed with battery life and it's far exceeded my expectations.

Software/UI:
Very light skinned and super quick. I've had no lag and very smooth performance. If you like the Nexus experience you'll be very close on this one. Camera UI is little clumsy and for some reason Sony left group (mass) text messaging responding out. Texting issue easily remedied by additional texting application. This phone is somewhat quicker than my wife's S8+.

Sound/Speakers
Very good sounding speakers on the phone though a little soft in volume. Not as quite as good or loud as HTC boom sound but very satisfying nonetheless. Call quality all speaker phone all very good, though not the loudest phone I"ve owned.
Music playback is excellent IMO either through the headphones or Bluetooth.

Display:
In short, amazing! Clean, crisp, great color, plenty bright, and 4k looks stunning on this phone! Daylight visibility isn't quite as good as my wife's S8, but more than acceptable. I wouldn't trade screens for the S8 for certain.

Connectivity:
In short excellent. Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and, LTE/4G+ speeds, cellular reception all top notch. I'm on AT&T in the US.

Build Quality:
Solid, evenly balanced in hand and built very well. Top notch quality. Fingerprints will be your main issue. Recommend a clear case.

To sum up this up. This phone is the best phone overall I've ever owned. IMO it may be the best phone out this year. There is nothing about my wife S8+ is wish for except for the always on screen. It's not for you if you need the absolute best low light camera in a phone or you don't like the design.

Hope this helps.

 

[ukemochi]

Updated with Camera Review

 

[Ca5c4d3]

I agree this phone is the best out there. Only cool feature on the S8 is the infinity display. Coming over from a Lumia 950XL,my only dislikes are :
No glance screen
No visual voicemail
No camera video stabilisation?

 

[martin042068]

My Experience So Far UK Model G8141

I agree this phone is the best out there. Only cool feature on the S8 is the infinity display. Coming over from a Lumia 950XL,my only dislikes are :
No glance screen
No visual voicemail
No camera video stabilisation?

I came from a Lumia 950 also. Miss that glance screen for certain. I was able to download visual voicemail application for AT&T from the play store. Been happy with video cam.

 

[figo_rulz11]

Hmm interesting feedback. Maybe I did receive a bad product? I was gutted though as I'm a huge sony fan and the rear camera just didn't capture the quality I got with my Samsung s7 but beat my Sony z3 so they are definitely improving. Maybe with a software update things could be better? I'm going to order one plus 5 see how that compares so will report back soon.

I'm hoping I go back to the Sony xz premium with future updates and more user feedbacks.

 

[Aerocap]

Great review, thank you much! That's simply the best smartphone until today to me. Please can you tell if you received the "Made in China" or the "Made in Japan" version?

C'est en faisant qu'on apprend