It rather looks like Sony is not about to let go of its age-old design — the one that celebrates rectangularity. But this time, the company’s new XZ Premium is a head-turner because of its interesting reflective body. I got the Chrome version, which Sony has done before on another premium model, the Z5, and here it is again. You can actually comb your hair in it, but what’s more fun is when you take a photo of it reflecting something else like a landscape or a television screen perhaps. It’s also fun when it catches the light and flashes into someone’s eyes. When you carry this phone around, it’ll get some major attention; say, if you walk into a party with it prominently showing or when you put it down ultra casually on a restaurant table and watch every eye swivel to take note. There are other colours including black too.

Slippery customer But most likely, you’ll need to put the XZ Premium straight into a case because it’s not only super slippery, it’s heavy and has rounded edges — all good encouragement for it to slip right out of your hands. Don’t ever try to use it one-handed. The case, sadly, will probably add to what is already quite an inexplicably bulky device. Without a case, it’s also tiring to grip for a long time because it’s so obviously likely to slip that you strain to hold its broad bulk carefully. Never has the case and pretty phone paradox been more poignant than with this smartphone. Despite the poor ergonomics, it’s a good looking and well-built phone, all covered with Gorilla Glass 5. All the buttons are well placed and nicely finessed and it’s just the SIM tray that looks alarmingly flimsy on the inside. This phone is IP65/68 certified, which means it can take more than a bit of water.

2160 x 3840 of richness On the front, Sony has not reduced the size of the top and bottom bezels, paying no heed to the current edge-to-edge trend in flagships. On its broad bezels, it has front firing speakers, which are nice, but should have been louder and deeper, given the phone is so solid and bulky.

Although 2160 x 3840 with 801 ppi is overkill for just about any phone, considering there’s not much 4K ready content to take advantage of and it’s so processor-intensive. But if you can get a look at some of it, you’ll see the XZ Premium’s ultra high resolution screen come into its own. It’s truly beautiful and shows colours and details like nothing else does. Thinner bezels might have made it look more beautiful, but it’s my belief that once you’re focusing on a picture, your frame of references leaves aside its relation to what is outside it. It’s what’s inside the image that matters for that moment. The 4K spec doesn’t work all the time because that would drain battery. Instead it kicks in when you do have the appropriate content.

Butter-smooth working Many smartphones have top notch specs and more RAM than one knows what to do with. OnePlus 5 is an example, with its 8 GB of power. But that’s not all that makes a device run smoothly and this is evident at once on the XZ Premium. It is so silky smooth that it reminds me of the one other phone I feel does the same — Google’s Pixel. The XZs, a predecessor, had some heating problems, specially with the camera, but this one is much better on that front, getting very slightly warm and not halting tasks. It isn’t stock Android and has Sony’s interface and customisations on top of Android 7.1.1, but it still feels so optimised and free of lag and stutter. It’s the first phone in the country to have come out with the Snapdragon 835, but specs are not everything — how they’re made to work, is, and Sony has done that well on this phone. It’s sometimes so fast, such as when scrolling through a settings list, that you have to deliberately slow things down before they slip out of sight. The phone has 4 GB of RAM, which feels like a lot more and 64 GB storage with an expandable option via MicroSD card. There’s a 3,230mAh battery that performs well but if you take full advantage of that screen and watch a lot of video, prepare to carry your charger, which luckily also means quick charging.

Take it slow Practically all the phones around use Sony sensors for their cameras so it’s only fitting that Sony phones have good cameras. Its 19 MP primary is actually much the same as on the XZs. Its low light photograph has improved, though there are some soft edges. Its colour reproduction is pretty good and true to life. I tried shooting some items of clothing in that sea green that most cameras, including the Pixel, turn straight into a turquoise, and it did very well though the colours shift depending on your moving around as the light changes. The 13 MP front camera is good enough and you won’t be disappointed with your selfies or video calls.

The primary camera on the XZ Premium does a bit of the depth effect everyone strives for without a separate mode, but it depends on how carefully you focus — without moving. Its special feature though is the super slow video trick. You can slide to it when shooting video whereupon you’ll get a few seconds of extremely slowed down footage, which can look very interesting. Something falling in the dust, for example will show a dance of particles that look amazing. Or watch droplets of water go from regular to flowing through the air slowly. Shooting someone walking will be no fun at all as it will look almost still. But you have to be expecting the right moment and press the slow trigger at the right time. It’s obviously for occasional video, though its a touted feature on this device. You can also shoot 4K video.

This is an expensive phone so anyone opting for it has to consider the other flagships around, specially the Samsung Galaxy S8 with its infinity display and tons of features. But if you like the look of the XZ Premium, check it out at an experience centre.

Price: ₹59,990

Pros: Eye-catching, stunning screen, waterproof, interesting capable camera, decent battery life, smooth fast performance

Cons: Heavy and broad, very slippery, 4K screen not a must have for the price

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