Sony Xperia XZs - Review 2022 - Simental Shad1997

The Sony Xperia XZs is a marginal update to final year'southward Xperia XZ. The two unlocked phones share the aforementioned design and nearly identical hardware, with the only differences coming in the form of bombardment and camera improvements. For $699.99, that's not quite enough. You can spend just a petty more than on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and get a nicer design, faster performance, and a sharper brandish. In that location's also no shortage of more affordable alternatives, like the ZTE Axon 7 and OnePlus v, that provide a better combination of price and functioning.

Design, Features, and Display

The Sony Xperia XZs and XZ are well-nigh identical in appearance, sharing the same dated design with a big rectangular bezel and rounded sides. The phone has a polished metal trunk available in black, blue, and argent.

The XZs measures v.7 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches (HWD), the same as the XZ (though 0.1-ounce lighter, at 5.vi ounces). Compared with tall and narrow phones with borderless displays like the Galaxy S8 (5.9 past 2.7 by 0.3 inches, 5.5 ounces) and the LG G6 (5.nine past ii.8 by 0.3 inches, 5.viii ounces), it feels like some space has been wasted here. The large top and bottom bezel brand it hard to use the telephone comfortably with one hand.

XZs and XZ Premium

Left to right: Sony Xperia XZs, Sony Xperia XZ Premium

A fingerprint sensor is integrated with the power button on the right, but it isn't activated in the US, which is disappointing, since fifty-fifty the entry-level Moto E4 includes this feature. You'll likewise discover a mushy book rocker and a photographic camera shutter key on the right. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on elevation, and there'due south a pair of stereo speakers on the forepart. Both a dual-SIM and microSD card slot are accessible through a flap on the left, and a USB-C charging port is on the lesser.

Like its predecessor, the XZs is IP65/68 waterproof, meaning information technology can withstand immersion in up to v feet of h2o for xxx minutes. We submerged it in a bowl of water with no event.

Brandish resolution is also unchanged. The telephone has a five.ii-inch, 1,920-past-1,080 IPS display. It's a crisp 424 pixels per inch (ppi), just it doesn't come close to matching the Quad HD G6 (565ppi) or S8 (570ppi), let alone the 4K Xperia XZ Premium (807ppi). That said, text and images appear sharp and free from pixelation. Viewing angles are skilful, and while screen brightness doesn't match the S8, it'southward still generally visible outdoors. In direct sunlight it can get a bit too reflective, however.

Network Performance and Audio

The XZs is available unlocked and supports LTE bands 1/2/4/5/seven/8/12/13/17/xix/xx/26/28/29/32/38/39/40/41, for use on GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. During our testing in midtown Manhattan, we

exeprienced

practiced network connectivity on T-Mobile, recording a superlative download speed of 37.5Mbps, which is like to other phones we've tested on the network recently. Additional connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth four.two, and NFC. But because the XZs has an older Snapdragon 820 processor, information technology won't support gigabit networks once they become available.

Call quality is mediocre. Transmissions are on the muddy side and voices sound a flake robotic. Racket cancellation could as well be ameliorate. During a

conversation

at that place was the distinct audio of traffic and voices in the background. Fortunately, earpiece volume is loud, so you lot should nonetheless be able to hear in a noisy environs.

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If at that place'due south one area where the XZs really excels over its predecessor information technology's audio. The phone supports high-resolution sound with ALAC, DSD, FLAC, and LPCM file formats. The DSEE HX protocol enhances the quality of compressed music files past restoring high-range audio and employing digital noise cancellation when you apply wired headphones. I tested this feature with a pair of standard headphones and was impressed with the well-baked mids, sculpted vocals, and deep bass. Audio from the forepart-facing stereo speaker is too solid, merely non quite every bit room-filling as the ZTE Axon vii.

Processor, Battery, and Photographic camera

The Xperia XZs is powered past a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor clocked at 2.15GHz, which even so holds upwards well later being the go-to flake on final year's flagship phones. On the AnTuTu benchmark, a measure out of overall organization operation, the telephone scored 136,325. That'southward less than the Snapdragon 835-powered S8 (158,266), but it'southward nothing to sneeze at. That said, it's disappointing that the phone is running last year's chipset given the premium price and lack of gigabit network suport.

The phone has 4GB of RAM, which is aplenty for multitasking. Actions like switching between apps, launching new apps, and playing games like GTA: San Andreas are smooth beyond the lath. The phone does run a flake warm when gaming, but not distressingly then.

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Battery life is solid. The phone clocked six hours, 15 minutes in our rundown test, which streams full-screen video over LTE at maximum screen effulgence. That'due south better than the Milky way S8 (5 hours, 35 minutes) and the G6 (five hours, 57 minutes), though it falls short of the OnePlus 5'south impressive ix hours, 15 minutes. A revamped Smart Stamina manner optimizes power past learning usage habits and turning off Wi-Fi and other features y'all may not be using at certain times of the day. In that location's also Qnovo, which manages charging cycles to lengthen the lifespan of your battery, assuasive for fast charging (Qualcomm Quick Accuse three.0) when yous first plug in, so trickle charging as you get closer to full.

Camera

The XZs delivers excellent camera performance that comes close to matching the Samsung Galaxy S8, which nosotros consider the superlative camera phone on the market right now. The xix-megapixel camera on the back has however capabilities every bit the XZ Premium. There are RGB and IR sensors that meliorate color reproduction and focus speed, a CMOS sensor with phase detection autofocus that improves low-low-cal shooting, and Motion Centre, a memory-embedded sensor that immediately processes images to minimize distortion and reduce post-processing time. Other features include manual controls to let you tweak focus, ISO, shutter speed, and white balance.

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Pictures taken outdoors in skillful lighting are excellent. Details are crisp and complimentary from dissonance, colour reproduction is great, and the autofocus and autoexposure are responsive. When it comes to low-lite shots, the XZs holds its own. In Superior Auto mode it's able to handle dimly lit indoor areas well, with good noise reduction. That said, the S8 even so wins out in overall photo quality. Fine details are sharper and color reproduction is a bit more than accurate, especially when it comes to shades of dark-green.

The XZs is capable of shooting video at an impressive 960fps. It only works well in good lighting (outdoors in bright sunlight is best) and shoots in bursts of six seconds, just when information technology works, it results in some very cool video, similar the spinning hands on the atmospheric condition station below.

1080p recording at 60fps and 4K recording at 30fps is crisp and stable. The latter can cause the phone to warm upwardly, though we didn't meet any overheating. The 13-megapixel forepart-facing photographic camera takes crisp selfies and is great for video chats.

Software

The XZs runs the latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat software with Sony's custom user interface on top. It's not a heavy UI layer, and aside from some minor visual and blitheness changes, information technology'll be familiar to most Android users.

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Unfortunately, there'due south some bloatware. You lot'll observe Amazon, AVG Protection, Facebook, Lifelog, Lounge, Flick Creator, PlayStation, Sketch, Spotify, Video & TV Side View, and What'southward New preinstalled. None of the apps can exist deleted, only disabled. That takes a good chunk out of your 64GB of total storage, but if you need more space, you lot tin can add a microSD card.

Conclusions

At $700, the Sony Xperia XZs is priced similar a flagship. It offers great photographic camera operation and solid bombardment life, but in near other regards it doesn't have the hardware to mensurate up to the competition. The processor hasn't been upgraded from final year, the bezel-heavy design remains unchanged, the display isn't the sharpest, and one time again you're missing bones features similar a fingerprint sensor. The Galaxy S8 offers a improve experience all around, making it our Editors' Selection. On the more than affordable end, the ZTE Axon 7 gets you a higher-resolution display at a lower toll. And if you're looking for more than ability and battery life, the OnePlus 5 can't exist beat.