Exactly my thoughts. I'm using a Z Ultra atm, 4K is nice but not something I'd go for again unless it's OLED or something else suitable for Daydream ... actually I'm still not buying that phones are going to be a via HMD with Daydream in any case though due to comfort.
"VR is probably the best reason to go with such a resolution" Marketing is the bigger reason. Also, other than their dedicated photo and video apps, Sony's implementation renders all other apps and UI elements at 1080p, including the browser.
Quick Charge 3.0 is incompatible with USB Type C and Google's compatibility definition for Android Nougat, so I'm sure this is a typo and it's in fact QC 4.0.
I used to be a (very) happy Sony owner. Had a Z2 for close to three years. At the time I got it, Sony had market-leading battery life (heck, even my worn-out Z2 lasted a full day of semi-heavy use, even if it was unusable for other reasons), very competitive if not the best cameras, and were among a select few to have IP rated phones.
Then, they started shrinking the batteries of every subsequent flagship, used inferior image sensors with awful processing (see Z5, XZ), and started stripping away IP ratings from all but their highest end offerings. What the hell?
While I'm glad to see these have new camera chips, I'm not overly optimistic as to image quality. And as noted above, those batteries are _too small_. At least they're still waterproof. Oh, and prices have of course risen. Because why not?
I bought a Oneplus 3T a few weeks ago. Waited as long as I could for an acceptable Sony device, but no dice. Not looking back.
I don't know how it is with Sony phones these days, but I've been using Z3 Tablet Compact (4.5 Ah battery, Android 6.0.1) for slightly over two years, and its battery life has been nothing short of excellent this entire time. I'm only using Wi-Fi when I have to download something large, though, so maybe that's the reason. But Sony's ability to optimize their devices' battery life seems quite comparable to Apple's, in my opinion (considering they're dealing with hungrier hardware AND a hungrier OS), so let's wait with our conclusions until some actual tests drop.
That's been my experience with my last two flagship Xperia devices: extraordinarily good battery. No idea what they're talking about with image sensors either actually.
The thing is this: they're good at optimizing, but doing so to get away with shrinking the battery size? That's just dumb. My Xperia Z2 (5.1") has a 3200mAh battery. The new XZs is 2900. That's a 10% reduction. And the phones are essentially identical in size. Seriously, there's barely a few mm3 of volume separating them.
And while Sony makes possibly the best image sensors around, they've consistently chosen high-resolution sensors rather than optimizing for light sensitivity, while having _awful_ noise reduction - leading to both more noise and less detail than competitors. Not to mention simple things like this: My Z2 has a 21MP camera. It defaults to downsampling to 8MP. WHY? What's the point of using a ridiculous-resolution sensor if you're ditching 60% of the pixels? All that leads to is low quality pictures with too much noise while not giving you anything back.
Sony has consistently made the wrong choices between cutting costs (due to low sales) and not listening to their customers.
I can confirm this, I don't know how, maybe their screens are far more efficient than those other OEMs use, my old Z1 still lasts 4 hours of SoT on average with moderate usage, they constantly seem to get far better battery despite using similar internals.
On another note, the Premium should have 6gbs of RAM and for this price the XZs should too, let's hope they sort out their camera app and image processing which are still seriously subpar
I agree with you regarding the battery life on Sony phones. Can you believe I got a 5 day battery life on my z5compact on a mild usage basis with stamina mod on? That's true. I think this is the most interesting device yet announced this year. Camera and display themselves are just mind-blowing. And I always loved Sony UI design.
To join the bitching, this one also seems to have dropped the dock pins and didn't add wireless charging. It's pretty neat being able to just drop my phone into the car holder and have it be charged while driving without fiddling with cords. Also, while pretty, on black models the glass back makes it harder to tell which way the screen is facing, adding a small but constant annoyance. And it's too fragile, I'm on my third back by now and I'm pretty sure the IP rating is gone due to the reassembly.
Sony phones do so much of the hard engineering extremely well and then screw up the overall experience with small stuff that should be easy to get right.
4K is completely useless for 98% of users and pair that with a tiny battery (for the screen size) and this phone just makes no sense no matter what else it has going for it.
Give me a 1080p phone with a 4,500-6,000 mah battery and I'd prefer that dramatically over anything with 1440p/4k with 2800-3300 batteries.
And oh my god, the phone might be 10mm thick instead of 8mm... THE HORRORS. But then, guess what... that's another 2mm of thickness that the camera can use to remove humps/increase quality/etc.
My ideal specs:
2 fingerprint readers, one from and one back middle. Power / Volume buttons on opposite sides of phone. Water/dust proof (or at least resistant). 4k minimum battery, 5-6k optimal (ability to charge someone elses phone from mine) 1080p ultra high quality/efficient screen or 1440p at max Ruggedized edges so I don't have to put a cover on my phone and lose that thinness anyhow. Best camera you can possibly fit into the phone, especially in low light, even if that means making the phone another 1-2mm thicker or adding multiple lenses in.
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satai - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
HDR IPS LCD - so no Daydream, I guess?And VR is probably the best reason to go with such a resolution.
Diji1 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Exactly my thoughts. I'm using a Z Ultra atm, 4K is nice but not something I'd go for again unless it's OLED or something else suitable for Daydream ... actually I'm still not buying that phones are going to be a via HMD with Daydream in any case though due to comfort.Diji1 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
*viable vialilmoe - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
"VR is probably the best reason to go with such a resolution"Marketing is the bigger reason. Also, other than their dedicated photo and video apps, Sony's implementation renders all other apps and UI elements at 1080p, including the browser.
Meteor2 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Honest question -- why would a 4K HDR LCD rule out Daydream? As people say, it's the only practical purpose for 4K on a phone.Diji1 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
LCD has very low refresh rates which leads to movement turning the screen into a blurry mess.acme64 - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
the daydream spec mandates an oled from what i understandGeorgelos - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
"Both phones at least support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging."Doesn't the Snapdragon 835 support Quick Charge 4.0 or am i missing something?
aryonoco - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Quick Charge 3.0 is incompatible with USB Type C and Google's compatibility definition for Android Nougat, so I'm sure this is a typo and it's in fact QC 4.0.SydneyBlue120d - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Only US? No Europe?Valantar - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I used to be a (very) happy Sony owner. Had a Z2 for close to three years. At the time I got it, Sony had market-leading battery life (heck, even my worn-out Z2 lasted a full day of semi-heavy use, even if it was unusable for other reasons), very competitive if not the best cameras, and were among a select few to have IP rated phones.Then, they started shrinking the batteries of every subsequent flagship, used inferior image sensors with awful processing (see Z5, XZ), and started stripping away IP ratings from all but their highest end offerings. What the hell?
While I'm glad to see these have new camera chips, I'm not overly optimistic as to image quality. And as noted above, those batteries are _too small_. At least they're still waterproof. Oh, and prices have of course risen. Because why not?
I bought a Oneplus 3T a few weeks ago. Waited as long as I could for an acceptable Sony device, but no dice. Not looking back.
moozooh - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I don't know how it is with Sony phones these days, but I've been using Z3 Tablet Compact (4.5 Ah battery, Android 6.0.1) for slightly over two years, and its battery life has been nothing short of excellent this entire time. I'm only using Wi-Fi when I have to download something large, though, so maybe that's the reason. But Sony's ability to optimize their devices' battery life seems quite comparable to Apple's, in my opinion (considering they're dealing with hungrier hardware AND a hungrier OS), so let's wait with our conclusions until some actual tests drop.Diji1 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
That's been my experience with my last two flagship Xperia devices: extraordinarily good battery. No idea what they're talking about with image sensors either actually.Shadow7037932 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
The sensor itself is good, but the image processing is no longer up to par when comparing them to the competition ie. Pixel, S7, etc.Valantar - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
The thing is this: they're good at optimizing, but doing so to get away with shrinking the battery size? That's just dumb. My Xperia Z2 (5.1") has a 3200mAh battery. The new XZs is 2900. That's a 10% reduction. And the phones are essentially identical in size. Seriously, there's barely a few mm3 of volume separating them.And while Sony makes possibly the best image sensors around, they've consistently chosen high-resolution sensors rather than optimizing for light sensitivity, while having _awful_ noise reduction - leading to both more noise and less detail than competitors. Not to mention simple things like this: My Z2 has a 21MP camera. It defaults to downsampling to 8MP. WHY? What's the point of using a ridiculous-resolution sensor if you're ditching 60% of the pixels? All that leads to is low quality pictures with too much noise while not giving you anything back.
Sony has consistently made the wrong choices between cutting costs (due to low sales) and not listening to their customers.
Fidelator - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I can confirm this, I don't know how, maybe their screens are far more efficient than those other OEMs use, my old Z1 still lasts 4 hours of SoT on average with moderate usage, they constantly seem to get far better battery despite using similar internals.On another note, the Premium should have 6gbs of RAM and for this price the XZs should too, let's hope they sort out their camera app and image processing which are still seriously subpar
lopri - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
They had a Doze-like feature before Android adopted it.FreidoNumeroUno - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
I agree with you regarding the battery life on Sony phones. Can you believe I got a 5 day battery life on my z5compact on a mild usage basis with stamina mod on? That's true.I think this is the most interesting device yet announced this year. Camera and display themselves are just mind-blowing. And I always loved Sony UI design.
stepz - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
To join the bitching, this one also seems to have dropped the dock pins and didn't add wireless charging. It's pretty neat being able to just drop my phone into the car holder and have it be charged while driving without fiddling with cords. Also, while pretty, on black models the glass back makes it harder to tell which way the screen is facing, adding a small but constant annoyance. And it's too fragile, I'm on my third back by now and I'm pretty sure the IP rating is gone due to the reassembly.Sony phones do so much of the hard engineering extremely well and then screw up the overall experience with small stuff that should be easy to get right.
lilmoe - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I thought the SD835 supports Bluetooth 5.0?SantaAna12 - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
I owned a Z3, and I dealt with the.hardware problems and Sony's denials.Sony's repeated denials, even after it was proven by teardowns at XDA.
Ki$$ my a$$ Sony.
Never again.
grayson_carr - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Given Sony's track record on launch phones in the US, I guess we'll see the Premium around October. lol SonyzeeBomb - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
4k HDR with the S835. What exciting times do we live in...I can't hate Sony for this as this is a great step up from the Z5 Premium.shadarlo - Monday, February 27, 2017 - link
Yet another completely useless phone IMO.4K is completely useless for 98% of users and pair that with a tiny battery (for the screen size) and this phone just makes no sense no matter what else it has going for it.
Give me a 1080p phone with a 4,500-6,000 mah battery and I'd prefer that dramatically over anything with 1440p/4k with 2800-3300 batteries.
And oh my god, the phone might be 10mm thick instead of 8mm... THE HORRORS. But then, guess what... that's another 2mm of thickness that the camera can use to remove humps/increase quality/etc.
My ideal specs:
2 fingerprint readers, one from and one back middle.
Power / Volume buttons on opposite sides of phone.
Water/dust proof (or at least resistant).
4k minimum battery, 5-6k optimal (ability to charge someone elses phone from mine)
1080p ultra high quality/efficient screen or 1440p at max
Ruggedized edges so I don't have to put a cover on my phone and lose that thinness anyhow.
Best camera you can possibly fit into the phone, especially in low light, even if that means making the phone another 1-2mm thicker or adding multiple lenses in.
jaydee - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
GSM or CDMA?ZeDestructor - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
GSM only, which is fine for most of the world, really, especially with Sony's traditionally insane LTE band coverage.agent2099 - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
Will this work on Verizon?ZeDestructor - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - link
GSM-only, so a definite maybe - depends entirely on Verizon/Sprint's willingness to give you an LTE+VoLTE-only service and matching SIM card.