Sony Xperia XZ Premium Hands-on, First Impressions

Sony’s latest and greatest handset to date is finally in our HQ. It was announced back in February during the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona and was even hailed as the Best New Smartphone at the annual Global Mobile Awards. Here’s our first look at the Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

The Xperia XZ Premium inherits the design of the Xperia XZ we reviewed. Frankly, every Xperia handset looks similar to each other. Their uniform design language is consistent throughout the Xperia line of smartphones. Up front, we have the 5.5-inch 4K Triluminos display which has a pixel density of 801ppi. This is definitely one of the sharpest display in the market right now. It also has Sony’s X-Reality engine and is HDR10 compliant.

To compliment the gorgeous display, the phone has front-facing stereo speakers that sound better than most flagship phones. The 13MP selfie camera is situated above the display along with the earpiece and a couple of sensors. Perhaps the main gripe we have so far is the ridiculous amount of bezel this phone has as it only holds a 68.4% screen-to-body ratio. This makes the phone feel bigger on hand compared to other phones with the same display sizes.

To the right of the handset are the physical buttons of the phone. Here we have the volume rocker, power/lock button, and the dedicated shutter key we always see on most Xperia phones. The fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power/lock button — another usual Xperia aspect.

On the left is the hybrid card tray. It’s easy to access, unlike other phones that need a pin to eject the tray. The phone accepts two SIM cards with the option to swap the other with a microSD card for more storage space.

Down below is the USB Type-C port and the main microphone while up top is the 3.5mm headphone jack and the secondary noise-cancelling microphone.

At the back, we have a shiny Gorilla Glass 5 rear panel. It gets smudgy real quick so it’s best to keep a microfiber cloth around to keep it sparkly. Ignoring your reflection when checking the back will show you the main 19MP rear shooter and its autofocus sensors. One of the main feats of the Xperia XZ Premium is the ability to capture super slow motion videos at 960fps. The NFC is position in the middle, just in case you’ll need to tap your phone when pairing.

Keeping up with its flagship status, the Xperia XZ Premium is the first phone to feature the Snapdragon 835 although it wasn’t the first one to hit the market. It’s got 4GB of RAM to help your with your multitasking needs and 64GB UFS storage to keep your apps and files. So far, the phone is incredibly snappy and responsive. The swift animations of the UI help a lot in keeping things up to speed. The phone ships with Android 7.1 Nougat with Sony’s skin on top which is pretty close to stock.

Other notable features of the phone are support for Gigabit LTE, which is unsupported by our local telcos, and IP68 water and dust resistance.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium specs:
5.5-inch 4K HDR Triluminos display
X-Reality, Dynamic Contrast Enhancement
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 64-bit CPU
Adreno 540 GPU
4GB RAM
64GB UFS
Up to 256GB microSD
19MP 1/2.3″ Exmor RS Motion Eye rear camera w/ Hybrid AF
Super slow motion 960fps video capture
SteadyShot w/ Intelligent Active Mode (5-axis stabilization)
13MP 1/3.06″ Exmor RS front camera
Gigabit LTE
WiFi 802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS with aGPS support
IP68-certified
USB Type-C
Fingerprint sensor
Android 7.1 Nougat
3,230mAh Li-Ion non-removable battery

We’ll be taking the Sony Xperia XZ Premium for a full spin this coming week. Stay tuned for our review. The handset is officially available in the country for Php45,490. Our unit was lent to us by Widget City and they offer the handset at a cheaper Php41,999 tag. See listing here.