In this year's MWC, Sony launched Xperia XZ Premium, the flagship of Snapdragon 835. After many years, Sony finally boasts in hardware: the world's first 4K HDR screen, the world's first DRAM CMOS, Sony's first 4G RAM models, Sony's first machine using UFS, and the end of the "five Sony, 3G memory". But after being forced to delay for several months due to the capacity problem of Snapdragon 835, XZ Premium was launched around the world in June. Can this XZ Premium become the flagship of Sony's counterattack?
Design language of Loop Surface
Sony has adopted a new Unified Design design language after Xperia XZ, which is more slick on the whole and is officially called Loop Surface. The advantage of the new design style is that the grip feel of the XZ Premium is much more comfortable than that of the original Z5 Premium. It has changed from a very tight hand to a tight hand, mainly because the four corners are square, but the transition of the screen edge is much better.
The dual card version models are all G8142 (theoretically, there should be no problem with the firmware of the Bank of China, Hong Kong version and Taiwan version). As for the card slot, it can only be said that it inherits Sony's consistent "brain hole opening" feature. It supports dual SIM cards or SIM+TF card combination. Of course, these Japanese machines can be opened without the card pin, which is convenient for replacement. What needs to be reminded is that the card slot is pulled out and it is "traditional" and needs to be restarted. See us for more appearance details Love to play computer games Previous "Black in the deep sea, Sony Xperia XZ Premium" 。
Unexpected screen performance
In terms of screen, XZ Premium is equipped with a 4K (3840x2160) screen that supports HDR, which is the second smartphone in the world equipped with a 4K screen after Z5 Premium. Similar to other Sony models, it provides three display modes: professional, standard, and ultra realistic. The professional mode is the first time to join. The white balance and DPI after Android 7.0 update both support manual adjustment, and the specific display options are not different from other Sony machines.
In the professional mode, the screen with 138% sRGB officially publicized will be targeted to optimize the sRGB color gamut. At this time, the measured color gamut is 94.6% sRGB. What's more surprising is that the 104 color accuracy test is conducted at this time, and the average DeltaE is only 1.4. As a reference, the iPhone 7 is 1.6, and the Samsung Galaxy Note5 is 1.8. The XZ Premium screen is the best color accuracy of all models that we have tested on our favorite computers.
The default color temperature measured in the standard mode is 8144K (much better than the Z5 Premium, which was close to 10000K), the average DeltaE is only 2.8, the contrast is 1046:1, and the maximum brightness is about 470 nits. It can be said that this time the screen performance of XZ Premium was really amazing. The author shouted directly during the test: This is not Sony I know!
Not extreme performance
Although XZ Premium is the first model of Snapdragon 835 in the world, it does not pursue perfection in configuration: the unity is 4G RAM+64G ROM, and it does not have the monster configuration of 6G+128G or even 8G+128G like other manufacturers. In the actual CPU score, it is also in the middle reaches of Snapdragon 835, and the overall adjustment is still so independent.
The GPU score is also the midstream level of the Snapdragon 835, but the gap is much smaller than that of the CPU. Of course, both CPU and GPU performance, compared with Apple's strongest A10X Fusion, Qualcomm Snapdragon's processor still has much room for improvement.
As the first Sony machine equipped with UFS, the XZ Premium's read and write speed can finally be compared with the current flagship. Although similar to the tuning of the processor, it is not very radical, but the continuous read and write have both exceeded 700M/s and 200M/s, much better than the original eMMC (can not help but mourn for XZs). F2FS is not used on the file system, Therefore, the performance of random reading and writing is the lowest among flagship machines.
"Stubborn" Primitive System
On the system, XZ Premium is equipped with a semi customized UXP based on Android 7.1.1, and the port version system has received a security update in June (because FlashTool has not yet updated its support, it has not been flashed into the experience of the Bank of China system, and users who need it can search online for the official suite in conjunction with the strong brushing tutorial of XperiFirm). Users familiar with Sony believe they can get started quickly without pressure (Because there is no big change at all) The new generation system has made more improvements in widgets and details.
Due to little change in the system, Sony's UXP is still out of touch and difficult to integrate into the domestic Android ecosystem. It is said that the self starting management provided by the National Council has not yet been pushed, which belongs to the situation of uncertain life and death. This kind of native system has a certain audience, but it is a little powerless in the face of domestic cancer applications. You can say that Sony is "stubborn", or it is a kind of persistence. If you really want to talk about the advantages, Spotify Connect can automatically enable PS3 and PS4, and play games as a display screen of PS4. It is one of the few games that can improve happiness in use.
Improved recording ability
Although the XZ Premium has not changed on the photo taking interface, thanks to the read-write speed of the IMX400 with DRAM and the UFS, the overall photo taking experience has improved a lot compared with the original model. In particular, the speed of storing photos is faster than that of the XZs, which has made great progress, and can simply move the old users of Xperia. However, when predictive photography is enabled, the storage speed will be slightly reduced because it is necessary to determine whether multiple samples are available.
Because the new generation XZs and XZ Premium CMOS are the new IMX400 with DRAM, the machine will provide users with 4 samples before and at the moment of pressing the shutter for selection by using the cache feature to shoot moving objects or accidentally shake hands after turning on predictive photography. It is worth sacrificing a bit of storage speed in exchange for regretful measures.
In the case of sufficient light, XZ Premium benefits from the new sensor. Compared with the previous machines, the sample level has made great progress, and the light measurement and white balance are more accurate. However, small deviations still occur occasionally. The power of discrimination has also been strengthened, but Sony's ancestral smear algorithm still causes serious loss of details after magnification. The overall appearance of the sample is more pleasing to the eye, and it will have a bonus effect if viewed on the machine (non professional mode).
When encountering weak light scenes, the level of XZ Premium has improved, but the film rate has decreased. This situation is prone to underexposure. It would be better to switch to the manual mode. The biggest groove is still a serious sense of smearing, and some scenes are prone to a feeling similar to oil painting.
Comparison Scenario 1
Comparison Scenario II
Compared with the current flagship models HTC U11, Samsung Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7 Plus, the XZ Premium still has some gaps. Its analytical power and white balance are still inferior, and the details are also poor after magnification. However, it is gratifying to note that XZ Premium is not the representative of Sony's "Living Lei Feng" this time, but is a bit competitive. I hope that software updates in the future can continue to improve. For more photo samples, you can check the previous "Top competition! S8+/HTC U11/XZ Premium/iPhone photo review" 。
960fps demo video
As for the 960fps super slow motion video that Sony focuses on, it actually has the same sense of dazzle as the 4K screen. First, let's talk about the disadvantages: it's a pity that the image quality is limited to 720P, but not 1080P; The noise in the actual shooting was a little touching, and the logic was a little confused when I first started. After several tests, when pressing the shutter when shooting 960fps video, the picture about 1 second before pressing will be processed by super slow playback. It is not the moment when pressing the shutter.
Therefore, the 960fps ultra slow motion is more suitable for shooting continuous motion videos. It is more difficult to capture, and the picture effect will be better when the light is sufficient. Note that stroboscopic occurs under artificial light sources. For this new feature, entertainment is still very good. It's a lot of fun to shoot videos.
The continuation of the "Great Leap Forward"
The XZ Premium is equipped with a 3230 mAh battery, which has shrunk compared with the original Z5 Premium 3430 mAh battery. Although the energy consumption of Snapdragon 835 has improved, it is still a 4K screen after all. Before the test, there is no expectation for the performance of XZ Premium. However, the measured results can be said that compared with Z5 Premium, it has achieved a great leap forward. After the 2-hour endurance, there is still 78% left, while Z5 Premium is only 69%, about 10% less.
Compared with other Snapdragon 835 machines, only the video link consumes a little more power. In other words, the daily power consumption of this 4K screen is not different from the 1080P of Xiaomi 6. The one hour music playing XZ Premium, which is not shown in the table, consumes 1% of the power. It may be related to the WCD9335 (laugh). The author started Google service in actual use, and under the condition of 24-hour scientific Internet access, normal use can basically meet the needs of a day.
Even though QC3.0 is supported, the charging speed of XZ Premium is still the same as that of Sony. When the screen is off, it is about 11W. When the screen is on, it can go to 13W and 14W. It takes 165 minutes from 5% to full charge, which is 15 minutes short of 3 hours. Even if it is equipped with the "Sony slow charge" technology, it is somewhat unreasonable.
tail
For people like the author who like the Founder machine, the XZ Premium is the only flagship model available today. After all, the HTC U11, Samsung Galaxy S8 and even LG G6 are all slick. If you can accept the appearance of XZ Premium and the UXP system, XZ Premium is the most worthy flagship of Sony in recent years.
Of course, XZ Premium still has a "fatal" disadvantage. The machine only supports mobile and Unicom networks. As a telecom user, consumers should stop buying Dafa. This is really pointless.
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