14 DAY TRIAL // Sony came highly prepared at IFA 2015 in Berlin, where it unveiled not one but three smartphones, including the Xperia Z5, Xperia Z5 Compact and Xperia Z5 Premium, the world’s first handset to arrive with a 4K resolution display.
Sony is trying to wash away this year’s previous failure with its Xperia Z3+ (or Xperia Z4 in some markets) flagship, which wasn’t so popular with consumers due to the lack of innovation compared to previous models. The Snapdragon 810 wasn’t kind to the Xperia Z3+ either, contributing to its failure with some really nasty overheating issues.
Interestingly enough, the Xperia Z5 family is based on the same Snapdragon 810 platform, but Sony has used some tricks, like the dual heat pipe and huge amounts of thermal paste, to keep temperature in check (at least on the Xperia Z5 Premium).
Putting the whole Snapdragon 810 affair behind, the question that naturally arises is whether the Xperia Z5 family is enough to redeem Sony or not. We’re going to attempt to answer it in what follows by looking at the positive and negative aspects the trio brings to the table.
Positive Aspects
Sony is offering three versions of the Xperia Z5 hoping to sell more phones and cover more demographics. The main differentiator between the smartphones is the resolution. The cheapest one of the bunch is the Xperia Z5 Compact which features 720p (1280 x 720 pixels), while the Xperia Z5 comes with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. Last but not least, the Xperia Z5 Premium features 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels) and naturally is the most expensive.
While we’ve been hearing that the Xperia Z5 Premium’s resolution is not always 4K, Sony did mark a first with this handset and this aspect should be taken into consideration.
4K resolution can be downscaled to non-4K content, which will in turn end up saving performance and battery life. The thing is, Sony promises 2-day battery life for the Xperia Z5 family, but if the Xperia Z5 Premium’s display operates at 4K continuously, this standard won’t be achieved. At least we don’t think it will.
Moving along, the Sony IMX230 sensor (of 23MP capacity) inside the Z5 family looks quite promising and we’re pretty sure users will be able to snap some great imagery using it.
The location of the fingerprint sensor (inside the power bottom which lives on the side) seems incredibly practical and you might even end up loving it more than having it embedded into the home button or on the back.
The design of the new phones is quite sleek, and even if the devices aren’t really inherently different from what we’ve seen come out of Sony before, they do hit a sweet spot at least with Sony flagship lovers.
Negative Aspects
For starters, Sony is offering the three devices for pre-order only in the UK. And three days after their launch, the Japanese company saw fit to slash the prices of the devices, but even so, they remain quite expensive. You can get the Xperia Z5 for £549 / $845, while the Xperia Z5 Compact sells for £429 / $652. Last but not least, the Xperia Z5 Premium is available for £599 / $911.
Moving along, a 4K display on a smartphone is considered an unnecessary feature. The thing is the human eye can’t really make a difference between a FHD display and a 2K one, not to mention a 4K one, so the contrast wouldn’t really be that obvious.
On top of that, as we've already said, 2K displays put a toll on battery life, so obviously 4K displays will too, even more. Moreover, 4K content is not really abundant at this moment.
But how about the Snapdragon 810 overheating issues? We’ve been telling you that Sony took some precautions with the Xperia Z5 Premium, but are they really enough to keep things under control?
A recent report showed us that the prototype unit of the Xperia Z5 present on the grounds at IFA 2015 showed the same unpleasant “Camera will now turn off temporary to cool down” message. Is this cause for concern? We can't really say at this point, because the phones aren't yet available in the wild.
Another negative aspect we have to point out is that Sony hasn’t updated RAM capacity ever since the Xperia Z2. So the Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Premium feature 3GB of RAM, while the Xperia Z5 Compact only has 2GB of RAM on board.
However, the rumor mill has it that Sony is prepping another version called the Xperia Z5 Ultra, which is expected to arrive with a 4K display, Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. Still, this model is bound to be even more expensive than the current models we’re talking about here.
So, given everything we've told you above, do you think the odds are good for Sony to succeed with its new phones?