Sony Xperia XZ1
The Xperia XZ1 is Sony’s (slightly cheaper) alternative to its flagship XZ Premium. It’s not quite as low-priced as its XZ1 Compact alternative, but with it comes a Full HD 5.2in display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. There’s a 19-megapixel camera on the back, which supports 3D scanning (more on that later), and it runs Android 8 Oreo out of the box.
Sony’s XZ1 is a familiar device to hold, feeling just like Sony’s XZ Premium, with one crucial exception: it’s a tad chunkier than its flagship alternative. At 7.4mm thick and weighing in at 155g, this is a handset that could do with shedding a few pounds.
That’s not to say it’s a monster of a phone to look at. Far from it, in fact – the XZ1’s square lump of metal is typical high-end smartphone fare, with the usual diamond chamfered edging – a common feature these days – complete with rounded sides. Sure, Sony could have deviated from the norm, but the XZ1 is still a swish-looking phone.
On the top edge you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack (take that Apple!) and on the bottom is the solitary USB Type-C port for charging and faster data transfer. On the right-hand side, you’ll find the XZ1’s most useful feature: a power button that does double-duties as a fingerprint reader for added security.
The Xperia XZ1 will be available in a range of colours including Black, Moonlit Blue, Venus Pink and Warm Silver.
Bezels aside, the XZ1’s 5.2in screen is still very good. Sony has stuck to 1080p here, rather than chase increasingly high resolutions - if you want 4K, you’ll have to step up to the XZ1 Premium.
You do get HDR, though, making the XZ1 the first Full HD phone to get high dynamic range. That means brighter whites, more vibrant colours, and more gradation between hues that should really make HDR videos leap off the screen. And yes, HDR clips really do look a lot better than the SDR originals.
HDR from Amazon Prime was already available on the XZ1 Premium, but Netflix arrived alongside the XZ1 at launch. That means a lot more content than Samsung or LG’s HDR-ready phones, which are still waiting for apps to roll out HDR support.
For everything else, the 5.2in LCD has bright colours and exceptional brightness - although contrast isn’t quite as good as we’ve seen from phones with OLED panels. Brightness isn’t a problem, though: it gets hard though enough to see clearly in bright sunshine.
The dual front-facing stereo speakers are a great match to the screen, too. They’re 50% louder, and push out 50% more sound pressure than last year’s phone, easily making it loud enough for playing podcasts while you’re cooking, or catching up with Netflix shows without plugging in headphones.
There's nothing wrong with the screen at all, but phone like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 make it look very dated. And you can get cheaper phones with decent displays such as the OnePlus 5.
What has set previous iterations of the Compact apart from other, smaller Android phones is the inclusion of high-end components. The Xperia XZ1 features Snapdragon 835 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage with a microSD card slot.
It will also be one of the first handsets to run Android Oreo out of the box. You’ll still have to put up with some of Sony’s software ‘enhancements’, but the majority of its additions are fine. The Stamina modes offer a huge improvement over the basic Android power-saver options, and even Sony’s selection of media apps are well designed. Sony’s audio heritage comes into play with support for both Hi-Res tracks and DSEE HX for upscaling.
On paper, the XZ1 delivers, thanks to a 19MP sensor with predictive capture, smile detection and autofocus burst. Basically, it’ll make it much easier to capture the shots you want, without having to jump into the manual mode.
Predictive capture isn’t new to Xperia phones, but it is turned on by default here, so you won’t forget to enable it. Press the shutter and you’ll get a series of shots to choose from, rather than just one. So no more missed snaps - and it works, too, even if it's a little fiddly having to jump into a menu and scroll through every shot to pick your favourite.
Picture quality is up for debate, though. Colours were aggressively vibrant and oversaturated, making a vase of flowers look very unnatural. Details look good on the surface, but zoom in and it was easy enough to spot the limitations of the processing.
As with previous Sony phones, the XZ1 tends towards oversharpening, which looks good on from a distance but loses more subtle details when you look closely. It’s something the higher-than-usual pixel count just can’t compensate for. Google's Pixel, Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Apple's IPhone 7 Plus all do a better job, and with fewer pixels.
Low-light photos aren’t amazing, with lots of noise unless you rely on the harsh LED flash.
Burst mode with tracking autofocus is the real star, here, shooting 10fps for up to 10 seconds but keeping your targets clearly in focus - even when they’re moving around the frame, or in and out of it. The system worked well on slow-moving targets like pets and children, and is a nice addition to the XZ1’s feature-set, even if it's not exactly something you'd buy a phone just to have. Don’t rely on it for a formula one race, though.
Sony’s super slow motion video mode also makes a reappearance, shooting 960fps videos that make hyper-active pets and children look about as energetic as a sloth. Resolution is still limited in this mode, but the results are still impressive when you feed it enough light.
The Xperia XZ1 has a USB Type-C port, which is pretty standard these days. It also supports Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G/4G mobile internet connectivity, as you'd expect.
As for storage, the Xperia XZ1 has 64GB of internal space, with the ability to take a 200GB external microSD card for more videos and images.
Verdict
Let's be honest: unless you've been paying attention very, very carefully over the past four years, you'd struggle to tell the XZ1 apart from any of the multitude of Xperia phones that came before it.
There's no single flaw in the Sony Xperia XZ1 and while it has some decent specs including good audio features and a good camera, it struggles to stand out in a busy market. Phones like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 make this newer phone look dated and devices like the OnePlus 5 are better at a lower price point.
It's perfectly competent, but when the rest of the smartphone world is making the jump to front-filling screens with minimal bezels and smooth, curvaceous handsets that are a joy to hold, the XZ1 feels instantly dated before it even goes on sale.
It’s not exactly a bargain, either: at £600, it’ll set you back just as much as a Galaxy S8, and only slightly undercuts the new crop of iPhones. Gimmicky 3D scanning tricks just aren’t enough to make up the difference.
Sony's cheaper version of the Xperia XZ Premium
Smartphones are beginning to put a lot of faith in unique gimmicks in a frenzied effort to stand out from the crowd. Case in point: HTC’s squeezy phone – the U11 – was equipped with pressure-sensitive sides for quick-launching applications.
The Xperia XZ1 is Sony’s (slightly cheaper) alternative to its flagship XZ Premium. It’s not quite as low-priced as its XZ1 Compact alternative, but with it comes a Full HD 5.2in display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. There’s a 19-megapixel camera on the back, which supports 3D scanning (more on that later), and it runs Android 8 Oreo out of the box.
But who can blame them? At a time where smartphones are essentially big rectangular slabs of metal and plastic, it’s getting trickier for smartphone firms to stick out from the masses. Sony’s new mid-range Xperia XZ1 joins this pack of showoffs, with a 3D-scanning feature unlike any other, but is it enough to get ahead?
Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium was first past the post with these two desirable bits of 4K HDR display tech, but Amazon and Netflix weren’t exactly in a hurry to stream content to it.
In practice, though, Sony seems to have focused more on gimmicks like 3d scanning, than areas that need attention like the rapidly ageing design.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Design
Sony has kept true to the rugged design of earlier Xperia models. Thanks to its dust-resistant and waterproof IP65 and IP68 certification - the highest possible waterproof rating - Sony claims that the Xperia XZ1 can be safely dunked in water for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1.5m. We tested this claim, and can safely say it's correct.
On the top edge you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack (take that Apple!) and on the bottom is the solitary USB Type-C port for charging and faster data transfer. On the right-hand side, you’ll find the XZ1’s most useful feature: a power button that does double-duties as a fingerprint reader for added security.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Display
You do get HDR, though, making the XZ1 the first Full HD phone to get high dynamic range. That means brighter whites, more vibrant colours, and more gradation between hues that should really make HDR videos leap off the screen. And yes, HDR clips really do look a lot better than the SDR originals.
For everything else, the 5.2in LCD has bright colours and exceptional brightness - although contrast isn’t quite as good as we’ve seen from phones with OLED panels. Brightness isn’t a problem, though: it gets hard though enough to see clearly in bright sunshine.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Performance and OS
Considering all that is powering only a 720p display, it won’t be a surprise to discover that the Xperia XZ1 Compact is likely to be a fluid, fast phone.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Camera
Sony's phones use camera tech diluted down from the company's point-and-shoot compacts, so it’s only fair to expect good things.
On paper, the XZ1 delivers, thanks to a 19MP sensor with predictive capture, smile detection and autofocus burst. Basically, it’ll make it much easier to capture the shots you want, without having to jump into the manual mode.
Predictive capture isn’t new to Xperia phones, but it is turned on by default here, so you won’t forget to enable it. Press the shutter and you’ll get a series of shots to choose from, rather than just one. So no more missed snaps - and it works, too, even if it's a little fiddly having to jump into a menu and scroll through every shot to pick your favourite.
As with previous Sony phones, the XZ1 tends towards oversharpening, which looks good on from a distance but loses more subtle details when you look closely. It’s something the higher-than-usual pixel count just can’t compensate for. Google's Pixel, Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Apple's IPhone 7 Plus all do a better job, and with fewer pixels.
Low-light photos aren’t amazing, with lots of noise unless you rely on the harsh LED flash.
Burst mode with tracking autofocus is the real star, here, shooting 10fps for up to 10 seconds but keeping your targets clearly in focus - even when they’re moving around the frame, or in and out of it. The system worked well on slow-moving targets like pets and children, and is a nice addition to the XZ1’s feature-set, even if it's not exactly something you'd buy a phone just to have. Don’t rely on it for a formula one race, though.
The biggest difference between the camera in the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact is the front-facing sensor. The Compact’s bonus wide-angle 8-megapixel selfie camera will mean that you can cram a greater number of faces into the shot.
Following in Samsung's footsteps with the Note 8, Sony has dropped the battery capacity from 2900- to 2700mAh for the Xperia XZ1.
Even so, Sony promises all day battery life for the lifespan of the phone. There's no wireless charging so you'll have to make do with USB-C including Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
We can't test the lifetime element of the promise but we have found battery life to be pretty solid during testing. The Xperia XZ1 will last all day unless you're hammering it with intensive tasks like gaming for extended periods.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Battery
Following in Samsung's footsteps with the Note 8, Sony has dropped the battery capacity from 2900- to 2700mAh for the Xperia XZ1.
Even so, Sony promises all day battery life for the lifespan of the phone. There's no wireless charging so you'll have to make do with USB-C including Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
We can't test the lifetime element of the promise but we have found battery life to be pretty solid during testing. The Xperia XZ1 will last all day unless you're hammering it with intensive tasks like gaming for extended periods.
Sony Xperia XZ1 Connectivity and storage
As for storage, the Xperia XZ1 has 64GB of internal space, with the ability to take a 200GB external microSD card for more videos and images.
Verdict
Let's be honest: unless you've been paying attention very, very carefully over the past four years, you'd struggle to tell the XZ1 apart from any of the multitude of Xperia phones that came before it.
There's no single flaw in the Sony Xperia XZ1 and while it has some decent specs including good audio features and a good camera, it struggles to stand out in a busy market. Phones like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 make this newer phone look dated and devices like the OnePlus 5 are better at a lower price point.
It's perfectly competent, but when the rest of the smartphone world is making the jump to front-filling screens with minimal bezels and smooth, curvaceous handsets that are a joy to hold, the XZ1 feels instantly dated before it even goes on sale.
It’s not exactly a bargain, either: at £600, it’ll set you back just as much as a Galaxy S8, and only slightly undercuts the new crop of iPhones. Gimmicky 3D scanning tricks just aren’t enough to make up the difference.
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