At IFA in Berlin, Sony has taken the wraps off their most premium series of Xperia phones to date. The range of devices includes the Sony Xperia Z5, the Xperia Z5 Compact for those wanting a smaller form factor without compromising on specs and for those who want the best of everything, the Xperia Z5 Premium with a 4K resolution display.
Unveiled by Hiroki Totoki, President and CEO at Sony Mobile Communications the phones are the best looking Xperia phones to date with an eye on innovative design that continues the design language from previous models, but evolved into a more beautiful and elegant series of phones. The Xperia Z5 series continues to have a glass back and this is paired with an etched metal frame.
The big addition on the Sony design is that their power button has now integrated a fingerprint sensor to allow you biometric security on your phone. Sony has announced that the fingerprint sensor will support the FIDO standard for authentication allowing for online payments.
In that beautiful design is the usual waterproof protection that Sony has become famous for, with an IP65/68 rating on all three phones, though the Xperia Z5 Premium offers a capless USB port to connect and charge.
Colours
Xperia Z5 Compact will be available in four colours: Graphite Black, White, Yellow and Coral.
The Xperia Z5 will also be available in four colours: Graphite Black, White, Gold and Green.
The Xperia Z5 Premium will be available in Chrome, Black and Gold.
Camera
As leaders in Image sensor technology, Sony has also delivered a sensor which promises a lot when it comes to imaging. The camera in all three phones is a 1/2.3 Exmor RS, 23MP sensor behind an F2.0 G Lens.
The camera has been engineered to deliver almost instant capture, with an astonishingly fast 0.037 second capture – faster than the blink of an eye. This speed should capture that all important first goal in soccer, or your rambunctious 2-year old running around the house.
Sony too has worked their magic on software and they’ve announced a new camera feature called Clear Image, offering up to 5x zoom – with no loss of image quality.
The low-light capabilities of the phone has been improved as well, with advancements meaning you get great shots in low-light whether it’s at night, or when the sun is setting or just about to rise.
Finally for video users the Xperia Z5 series now includes SteadyShot with ‘Intelligent Active Mode’ for video. The Intelligent Active Mode means you can capture those action shots while you’re walking, running or riding along with less shake in your video and this has been paired with their low-light capabilities to produce less blur.
Hardware
The Xperia Z5 series are no slouches when it comes to what’s under the hood. The range includes a Snapdragon 810 processor running the show and 32GB of on-board storage on the entire range – a wonderful decision in our books – as well as a microSD card which will expand memory by an additional 200GB if required.
The screen technology is the major differentiator across the range, with the Xperia Z5 Compact carrying all the features of the Z5 series but a slightly smaller resolution screen to fit into the smaller body. The Xperia Z5 Compact has a 4.6″ HD Display with a 1280×720 resolution for an eye-pleasing 319Pixels Per Inch.
With the Xperia Z5 range, Sony has also looked at their heritage in audio products and has included High-Res Audio across the entire range. The High-Res Audio included in the phones allows for a ‘Studio Quality Experience’, with the DSEE HXTM upscaling the audio of your existing music to near high-res quality.
| Xperia Z5 Compact | Xperia Z5 | Xperia Z5 Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 4.6″ HD 720p (1280×720) Triluminos display for mobile X-Reality for mobile Dynamic Contrast Enhancer |
5.2” FHD 1080p (1920×1080) Triluminos display for mobile X-Reality for mobile Dynamic Contrast Enhancer |
5.5” 4K UHD (3840×2160), 806 PPI Triluminos display for mobile X-Reality for mobile Dynamic Contrast Enhancer |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994)64 bit Octa Core processor | ||
| RAM | 2GB RAM | 3GB RAM | |
| Storage | 32GB Onboard storage with up to 200GB microSD Card | ||
| Rear Camera | 1/2.3” 23 MP Sony Exmor RS™ for mobile sensor Hybrid Auto Focus 0.03 sec 5 x Clear Image Zoom Up to 8x Digital Zoom Wide angle G Lens (24 mm) Up to ISO 12800 Photo / 3200 VideoSteadyShot™ with Intelligent Active Mode – video stabilisation 4K video recording Pulse LED Flash |
||
| Front Camera | 5 MP front camera Sony Exmor R™ for mobile sensor Full HD video SteadyShot™ with Intelligent Active Mode – video stabilisation Wide angle lens (25 mm) |
||
| IP Rating | IP65/68 | IP65/68 with capless microUSB | |
| Bands | GSM GPRS UMTS HSPA (3G) LTE (4G)/ LTE (s4G) Cat 6 |
||
| Sensors | aGPS Bluetooth 4.1 wireless technology DLNA Certified® WiFi SISO MHL 3.0 NFC |
||
| Battery | 2700mAh Battery with Quick Charge 2.0 | 2900mAh Battery with Quick Charge 2.0 | 3430mAh Battery with Quick Charge 2.0 |
| OS | Google Android™ 5.1 (Lollipop) | ||
| Dimensions | 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm @ 138 grams | 146 x 72 x 7.3 mm @ 154 grams | 154.4 x 76.0 x 7.8 mm @ 180 grams |
Xperia Z5 Premium – 4K Experience
It’s a full 4K experience on the Xperia Z5 premium, starting with the introduction of the class leading 4K screen on the Xperia Z5 Premium.
The screen delivers a 3840×2160 resolution – that’s four times FullHD resolution – in a compact 5.5″ body. The screen looks stunning close up in our brief hands-on, though Sony won’t let us up close with them quite yet.
With the high-resolution display, Sony has also announced that they will upscale all your favourite multi-media content, including YouTube, Netflix or even your own home videos to look great on the screen.
The Xperia Z5 Premium is a full 4K experience that’s not just limited to the screen. The phone will capture full 4K video in rich, natural and vibrant detail and also allows you to capture full 8MP still shots at any moment.
Battery and Power
One of the tenets of the Sony Xperia experience has been the solid 2-day battery life on their recent handsets thanks to the STAMINA modes. This continues on the Xperia Z5 series, with all three handsets promising 2-day battery life.
The battery capacities on all three phones, including the Xperia Z5 Compact and if you do find yourself running short, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 you can expect Quick Charge 2.0, which can deliver 5.5 hours of use with just 10 minutes of charge from a certified charger.
Availability
As far as availability, Sony intends to launch the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact in October 2015 with the Xperia Z5 Premium launching in November. There will be Dual and Single SIM variants of the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium, while the Xperia Z5 Compact will come in a Single SIM only.
We’re expecting local availability information from Sony Australia in the coming weeks and we’ll advise as soon as we have any further information.
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Z5 premium.. Make it happen Vodafone 🙂
Really want the Compact but curious to know how long it will take Sony to update to Marshmallow. Can anyone with a Sony tell me how fast Sony are with updates?
Sony was the last to update its flagships to 5.0, but it provided updates to more handsets than the other OEMs. Then again, Sony was very fast to roll out 5.1…perhaps around the same time as Samsung. LG and HTC still haven’t updated last year’s flagships to 5.1. Very bad form considering it’s an important bug fix update. Overall, Sony seems to be improving and it’s the best of the big four in looking after older flagships.
Sony has just jumped back up into the consideration…wow.
Some bold claims with the camera (which manufacturer doesn’t) and the battery life.
With all these fingerprint scanners on devices using the new Snapdragon 810 … are they using the ultrasonic system that snapdragon developed and said was getting built into the 810?
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the chrome one or the new iPhone for me
I was thinking the same – I have G3, and thought I would go back to iphone but 5.5″ chrome is tempting.
I’ll give em an open mind.
Others have pointed out that the 4K screen is really nice. Let’s see what we see.
And the camera, well, their old phones had good cameras. It’s all in the software. It’s when you have bright things in dark scenes and so forth.
I’ll await the reviews.
I could argue about specs that this device might be missing from my wishlist but, all I want to say is that Sony nailed the Compact/ standard/ phablet hat trick on this one.
Releasing all 3 models with almost identical specs – 2gb RAM on the compact would be been nicer @ 3 GB but there might be a space/ cost reason – where they can be is just how it should be done.
I’d mention the lack of Qi but I might get lynched 🙂
I wonder if Sony will finally solve the overheating problems of the previous Z-phones. It seems unlikely with the 810 inside…
By the way, if any Z2 owners have tips on how to avoid overheating when using the camera, I’m all ears!
underclocked 810. when these came out, they were running at 2Ghz.
The Z5 has nice specs. The battery capacity seems to be reducing each time. The Z2 had a 3200mAh battery, the Z3 a 3100mAh battery, and the Z5 2900mAh. The dimensions are identical to the Z3 – literally not a millimetre difference, so it’s no thinner.
I’d like Sony to make the corners a little rounder, but I guess the shape is part of the Xperia identity. They make nice phones.
Seems to be missing from the specs table… Z5 display is 5.2” FHD 1080p (1920×1080)
I’m interested in the compact cause its a bit smaller, but of a drag that its only got 2 gig of memory but… I’m also not loving the glass thing. I feel like I will smash it pretty fast.
That was my initial thoughts when I first got my Z3 Compact. 11 months on, it’s not as big of an issue as I feared. Phone still runs pretty fast.
I’ve dropped my z1 compact heaps. Finally got some scratches from some brick the other day, but otherwise it doesn’t seem smashable. Which is good because I never use a case!
The size is great in the hand, and the bigger screen than the Z1 means I’ll probably stay compact with the Z5.
At least on paper, it seems Sony got everything right this time around! Z5 premium, here I come!!
No O.I.S ? Sad face.
Camera might be that good it doesn’t need to rely on o.i.s. like the others. But yes I would agree not having it is a bit of a bummer.
2 days with Stamina mode….sorry Sony i buy smart phones for instant notifications not to get notified only when i turn on screen
You can bypass stamina mode by setting what apps you want to receive notifications(aside from sms /calls). Or otherwise turn it off completely and you’d still get a ridiculously long battery life. Don’t know what magician they employ but stamina mode is so much better than other phones
That Sony Premium is a bloody nice looking phone but I can’t convince myself to get one with a 4k screen. However the Z5 with the green body has got my eye and potentially my wallet.