Introduction
Sony's back, and it's back with great aplomb. The company has brought us an entire Xperia Z5 family of smartphones ranging from the Xperia Z5 Compact for small pockets to the 5.5-inch Xperia Z5 Premium with the industry's first 4K display in a production smartphone.
We get it, a launch of that magnitude couldn't wait until IFA actually kicked off and Sony scheduled their own dedicated event today. Not that the insane 806ppi of the Premium wouldn't have been enough to pierce through all the clamor at the show and draw most of the attention, even more so now that Samsung's phablets have already been announced.
Sony did need the good publicity only a truly new feature could bring and now they have it. The company has been an easy target for critics with its twice-a-year flagship update cycle. It's been the ideal mix of few improvements over the previous generation on the one hand and buyers, disappointed that their brand new device becomes last generation in only a few months, on the other.
In fact, the regular Sony Xperia Z5 may still suffer from the same stigma - after all, the Z3+ was announced in May and save for the new camera (which in itself may be worth the upgrade, we don't know yet) and fingerprint sensor, it's essentially the same smartphone.
The Compacts have had a more fortunate fate, largely because they only accompany the odd-numbered flagships (the Z3+ doesn't count). That, and the fact that there's really no other truly high-end big-name small-sized flagship in existence.
But the Z5 Premium is a whole new breed. Sony hadn't had a proper high-end phablet since the Xperia Z Ultra more than two years ago, but it's hard to call the Z5 Premium a successor. Next to the monstrous 6.4-inch Z Ultra, the Z5 Premium looks dwarfish.
It's not size Sony went for this time, it's resolution, and 2160p on a 5.5-inch diagonal is nothing short of astonishing. But why, you may ask, and you'd be right. Because we can, Sony would answer. We are, however, inclined to speculate that such a pixel density has some VR application planned for its near future.
Sony Xperia Z5 / Xperia Z5 Compact / Xperia Z5 Premium shared specs at a glance
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with Xperia UI on top
- IP65/IP68 certified - dust and water proof up to 1.5 meter and 30 minutes
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset with 2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A57 plus 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, Adreno 430 GPU
- 23MP camera, 24mm-equiv. f/2.0 lens, LED flash, dedicated hardware shutter key
- 2160p video recording, SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode
- 5MP, 25mm-equiv., front-facing camera with 1080p video recording, SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode
- Up to 32GB of built-in storage, expandable via the microSD card slot by up to 200GB
- Cat. 6 LTE (up to 300Mbps); Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.1 with apt-X and Sony LDAC wireless High-Res Audio codec, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou receiver, Stereo FM with RDS; USB On-The-Go
- Active in-call noise cancellation with a secondary microphone
- Digital music noise cancellation available with certain Sony headsets
- Front-facing stereo speakers
- STAMINA Power Saving Mode, up to two-day battery life promised for all three
- Stylish dual glass-panel design
- Qualcomm Quick charge certified, no wireless charging built-in
- Capless USB port design in waterproof phones
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor in the power button
Sony Xperia Z5
- 5.2" FullHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS LCD display with 428ppi
- 3GB of RAM
- 146 x 72 x 7.3 mm, 154g
- 2,900mAh battery
- Also available as a Dual SIM version
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
- 4.6" HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS LCD display with 323ppi
- 2GB of RAM
- 2,700mAh battery
- 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm, 138g
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
- 5.5" UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels) IPS LCD display with 806ppi (!)
- 3GB of RAM
- 3,430mAh battery
- 154.4 x 75.8 x 7.8 mm, 180g
- Also available as a Dual SIM version
With nigh identical hardware, the three smartphones have the display size to set them apart and consequently physical dimensions, of course. We'd also expect them to perform rather differently in the graphics department as there's a 9 times abyss between the number of pixels that need to be rendered on the Premium, compared to the Compact. The Compact should also be the battery king by a long stretch, going solely by the numbers.
Being the lucky folks that we are, we got the chance to spend some time with the brand new Xperia Z5 bunch. It's way too early for conclusions, but we're ready to share some initial impressions, starting on the next page with the vanilla Xperia Z5.
Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
Sony has adopted a novel fingerprint sensor on the side of all three phones. It works with partial prints, obviously, but you also don't need to cover the entire pad - about 2/3 will suffice. It performed flawlessly in terms of recognition and unlocked on the first try throughout the time we spent with the devices. That's only a few hours though, and it's unclear how it will react in tricky conditions - sweaty/dirty fingers or under water.
What we're not fans of, is the fact that you need to wake the smartphone up, before it can take a reading. You can't just place your finger on the button and have it unlock the phone directly like you can on the OnePlus 2. It could be a battery endurance consideration, perhaps an always-on sensor would take too big of a toll. In all fairness, both Apple and Samsung's implementations follows the same press-then-scan logic.
Fingerprint sensors on the Z5, Z5 Compact, and Z5 Premium
Another niggle is that with the power button/fingerprint sensor recessed into the frame, it's quite difficult to press. We'd reckon that it's an issue related to our pre-production hardware as both our Z5 Premium and Z5 Compact fare better that the plain Z5 in this respect with a more solid clicking action.
Synthetic benchmarks
All three smartphones are powered by the same Snapdragon 810 chipset. We can already hear the comments section complain why it's not the new 820 or the 808. One possible explanation is that the 808 comes with an inferior GPU that would have choked on the 4K resolution of the Premium, while the 820 is, for all we know, simply not ready for mass release.
It is what it is, and the S810 is Qualcomm's reigning high-end solution and the obvious choice for a flagship (or an entire family of three).
While we did have all three with us, the state of the Premium's software was such that it didn't allows to run any benchmarks. As for the other two, just keep in mind we're tested pre-production units running non-final software. The performance may (or, likely, will) change by the time the devices are ready to hit the shelves. Also, the phones rejected to install some of the usual benchmarks, so here's what we managed to run.
Basemark OS II
Higher is better
Basemark X
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Both smartphones exhibit great overall performance, as indicated by the all-round Basemark OS II benchmark. The graphics department posts great numbers too, nearly up there with the Samsung Galaxy S6 in Basemark X.
GFXBench also places the Z5s towards the top of the crop. The Z5 Compact breezes through the onscreen Manhattan test with a 35fps score, favored by its 720p resolution - after all it's the only device with an HD screen, powered by the S810 and Adreno 430. Yes, we know that subjecting the Premium to this, would have a lot more fun, but tough luck this time.
