The transition from 1080p Full HD to 4K and HDR (High Dynamic Range) video content has been a slow and steady one so far, and this is true for both television and mobile platforms. The LG G6 was previously the only smartphone that supported HDR streaming on Netflix, but that’s now changing as the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is gaining this compatibility as well.
We published our full review of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium this morning (you can go check it out here) and one of the handset’s biggest flaws is the fact that the device, just like pretty much any Sony smartphone in the U.S., doesn’t come with the fingerprint sensor activated.
When it comes to purchasing a new smartphone, especially in 2017, do you expect it to come with a fingerprint sensor?
Sony has never had a strong presence in the Western smartphone market, but that doesn’t mean its phones aren’t worth your time. The Japanese company was one of the first to introduce water resistance on a smartphone, as well as a two-stage camera button (at least on the Android front), and now it’s the first and only manufacturer with a 4K phone.
These days, 1080p is still perfectly fine for the vast majority of users, and a lot of people can’t even tell the difference between 1080p and QHD on such a small screen anyway. So why is Sony cramming even more pixels into its latest superphone? Well, simply put, because it can.
Sony has never made a splash in the US market, but we’re glad to see the company finally making its phones easier to access in the States over the past couple of years. Today, Sony has announced when US buyers will be able to get their hands on the company’s latest devices.
Sony announced the Xperia XZ Premium just a couple of months ago at MWC and today, ahead of its release, Sony has announced a new color variant that will launch with the phone, “Bronze Pink.”
I want to put a disclaimer at the very top of this post: I have used the Xperia XZ Premium for about twenty minutes in one of Sony‘s booths at Mobile World Congress, and everything that follows is just a brief recap of my experience combined with my quick chat with the company’s reps. It therefore isn’t meant to give a final judgement by any means — but we know that the product may be of interest for more than a few, so I’m here to tell you what my very first impressions were…
The thing that immediately struck me about the Xperia XZ Premium is… Sony’s philosophy behind it. There were other OEMs are trying to push design boundaries (like LG and most likely Samsung) or deliver overall compelling packages with a few standout features (like Huawei‘s P10 or even BlackBerry‘s KeyOne). Sony, reluctantly, is simply keeping its own path, seemingly looking at the competition uninterested, from afar.
Between all the “X” and “Z” phones released in the past year or so, we all got a little confused. Sony‘s strategy, in particular, seemed everything but clear in regards to its devices’ hierarchy. However, using Barcelona’s MWC as a platform, the Japanese firm announced what it explicitly labels as its “flagship”: the Xperia XZ Premium.
More info after the jump…
Sony first announced the Xperia XZ at IFA last year and made it available for US customers in October. In our review, we noted the handset’s fantastic performance, but it isn’t quite worth its $649 retail price mostly because it lacks a fingerprint sensor in the US.