Today Sony has announced their new flagship smartphone for 2018, the Xperia XZ2 Premium, and it was the one we were waiting for.
The new Xperia XZ2 Premium follows the new design Sony has sprinkled over the new generation of Xperia phones this year after ditching the boxy ‘Omnibalance’ design philosophy. The back is curved for a more comfortable feel and the front design looks like the XZ2 with the Sony logo at the base of the screen.
There are a couple of changes this time round made on the XZ2 Premium when you compare it with the XZ Premium of last year. The new design introduced by the XZ2 like the curved back and the repositioned fingerprint scanner.
The 4K screen that has been the crown jewel of the Premium series has been upgraded, where it is now 5.8 inches and 30% brighter. The PPI has dropped to 765, but this is still way high up when you compare with other flagship phones. It still supports HDR content like its predecessor, the XZ Premium.
The cameras have been upgraded too, where the XZ2 now features dual cameras at the back and Sony says they are brand new. They follow the Huawei philosophy of having a 12MP monochrome sensor and a 19MP colour sensor, which Sony says results in high sensitivity, ut ISO 51200 for photos and ISO 12800 for video. Typically, phones usually max out at 6400 ISO and now the XZ2 Premium rivals the bonkers Huawei P20 Pro with its 102400 max ISO. Sony claims its new AUBE™ fusion image signal processor will be able to render the detail in real time and the images will be clean and noise free, which is yet to be determined.
The monochrome sensor has a f/1.6 aperture G Lens, the widest aperture lens so far on an Xperia phone and the colour sensor is paired with a f /1.8 aperture G lens, an improvement over the f 2.0 lens they have used for the last 4 years.
4K HDR Movie recording and 960fps slow mo recording in full HD is also here on the XZ2 Premium just like the XZ2 and unlike the XZ2, it has retained the 13MP selfie camera, which was removed on the XZ2.
Other updates include the new Snapdragon 845 processor like the rest of the flagships this year, 6GB of RAM (finally), wireless charging, 3540mAh battery and will ship with Android 8.0 Oreo. The Xperia XZ@ Premium will ship in two colours: Chrome Black and Chrome Silver. Traditionally, this phone will not be cheap and I expect it to be north of $800 when it starts shipping.
