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Although I invariably begin a Sony smartphone review with a lament on what the Japanese electronics pioneer could have been in today’s market, it’s time to dispense with the obvious. With that out of the way, and moving on to focus on what’s interesting about this sub-flagship device, it strikes me as a great option for those who want a phone on the smaller side. The Xperia XZs is a variant and upgrade to the Xperia XZ and further below the XZ Premium, which hasn’t been launched yet but was showcased at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year.
The Xperia XZs is all neat and compact. Sony’s design for many years now has followed the same philosophy — all straight lines, all rectangular, and all flat. At the same time, the edges are somewhat softened and by no means dig into your palms or cause any discomfort when holding the phone.
Calling comfort As a matter of fact, the in-hand feel of this phone is one of its greatest strengths: the device is narrow enough and compact enough to allow for a nice strong grip. So if you’re someone who makes a lot of calls rather than doing other things on the phone and if you’re someone who’s always on the go and need to keep taking the phone in and out of your pocket — this is a phone you should consider.
A clean feel Despite being metal and smooth, the phone isn’t slippery because of the matte finish and the narrowness. It’s also not a fingerprint showcase, which really feels and looks a lot cleaner. There’s the usual slightly curved glass on top and fantastically, that too doesn’t play host to finger smudges. In my opinion, you can even dispense with a case, unless you’re prone to phone-dropping. On any given day, you’ll probably have one of the cleanest devices around.
All the buttons are aligned on the right side and the old round knob that Sony was fond of has been replaced by a flat button that doubles up as a fingerprint sensor. I found its placement on the side just fine. I also loved the polished feel of the buttons, which immediately seem built with care — as is the rest of the phone.
On top of that, the phone is very well built and solid. It’s also IP68 water resistant, which is a big deal these days as users take their phones everywhere.
The 1280x1920 pixels display is nice and vivid. I found the auto brightness distractingly aggressive, especially when viewing pictures and videos. The highlight feature on this upgrade to the XZs, however, is an added trick to the camera.
Taking it slow The phone’s primary 19-megapixel ‘Motion Eye’ camera with an Exmor sensor supports Super Slow motion 960fps video capture, 5-axis stabilisation and 4K recording. Most phones now can do slow motion video, but the XZs slows it down even further. You press the usual video record button, but then you find there’s an additional button that triggers the slow-mo. Instructions appear on the screen to guide you. You press the additional button when you want to introduce a slow segment within your video. You could end up with an interesting video of fast moving things that then slow down. It’s most fun with liquid as you can see drops flying off at impossibly slow speeds for five seconds. But you need very good light, as I discovered, because any compromise on that leads to grainy and noisy results.
For regular photos, the camera is just above average, but doesn’t make it to the A list of camera phones, which is sad because Sony makes sensors for so many other phones. Using the camera also almost immediately starts heating up the phone and if that doesn’t alarm you, text warnings on-screen that tell you to let the device cool down surely will. You then wonder what the point of putting in a slow recording feature was if the phone can’t take the heat.
Other specs on the Xperia XZs include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage plus microSD card expandability. The 820 is no longer flagship material, so it feels like getting technology that’s on its way out. At the same time, it is running Android 7.1.1 and has a clean interface that doesn’t present any problems. The 2,900mAh battery goes by fast when you start using the camera or use the phone for other power intensive tasks. And at its current price, the XZs is pushing its luck.
Price: ₹49,990
Pros: Great build and material, good software, interesting slow video feature
Cons: Expensive, camera results not always up to the mark, battery drains quick, overheating
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