The Sony Xperia XZ is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public along with the Xperia X Compact at a press conference held at the annual

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Ac ...

event on September 1, 2016. The Xperia XZ was first released in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

on September 30, 2016, with worldwide sales starting with the United Arab Emirates on October 1 and the United States the following day; its home country Japan only started sales on November 2, 2016. The device is described by ''Expert Reviews'' as the "true successor" of the

Xperia Z5 The Sony Xperia Z5 is an Android smartphone produced by Sony. Part of the Sony Xperia Z series, the device, at that point known by the project code name "Sumire", was unveiled along with the Xperia Z5 Compact and Xperia Z5 Premium during a p ...

and the whole Xperia Z series, and was succeeded

Xperia Z5 Premium The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is an Android smartphone produced by Sony. Part of the Sony Xperia Z series, the device, at that point known by the project code name "Satsuki", was unveiled along with the Sony Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Compact during ...

and Xperia X Performance as Sony's flagship. It is succeeded by the Xperia XZs and the flagship

Sony Xperia XZ Premium The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by Sony. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public along with the Xperia XZs at the annual Mobile World Congress in February of 2017. Pre-o ...

. It is also one of the first smartphones manufactured by Sony to utilize

USB-C USB-C (properly known as USB Type-C) is a 24-pin USB connector system with a rotationally symmetrical connector. The designation C refers only to the connector's physical configuration or form factor and should not be confused with the conn ...

connectivity for charging and data transfer. Compared to its predecessors, the rear camera of the Xperia XZ now has laser autofocus, a first for Sony, built-in alongside the hybrid contrast/ phase detection

autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system ...

also found on the previous flagship. It also the first Sony device to sport an RGBC-IR color sensor to assist the image sensor in capturing accurate colors, temperature and white balance and the first smartphone to feature a five-axis digital image stabilization system for capturing blur-free photos and videos. The phone also has an IP68 rating, with it being dust and water resistant.

Specifications

Hardware

Sony Xperia XZ Platinum with Style Cover Touch case

The Xperia XZ's design consists of 3 different materials that seamlessly blend together in what Sony calls ''"Loop Surface"'': a

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pe ...

frame, scratch-resistant front glass and an aluminium alloy metal back. The rear cover of the device is made from an aluminium alloy marketed as ''ALKALEIDO'', a trademark by

Kobe Steel Kobe Steel, Ltd. (株式会社神戸製鋼所, ''Kabushiki gaisha Kōbe Seikō-sho''), is a major Japanese steel manufacturer headquartered in Chūō-ku, Kobe. KOBELCO is the unified brand name of the Kobe Steel Group. Kobe Steel has the low ...

, specifically engineered to complement the smartphone's premium design with a material "that has an extra shine and a feeling of depth". The device's front side is covered in

Gorilla Glass Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its seventh generation. Designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant, the glass gains its surface strength, ability to contain flaws, and ...

to protect it from scratches and high drops. Also up front are dual front-firing stereo speakers, one on top along with the front selfie camera, ambient light and proximity sensors and

notification LED A Notification LED is a small RGB or monochrome LED light usually present on the front-facing screen bezel (display side) of smartphones and feature phones whose purpose is to blink or pulse to notify the phone user of missed calls, incoming SMS ...

, and the other one at the bottom bezel. The Xperia XZ's dimensions are in height, with a width of and a depth of and weighs approximately . The device brings back the

1080p 1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen ve ...

IPS LCD IPS (in-plane switching) is a screen technology for liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In IPS, a layer of liquid crystals is sandwiched between two glass surfaces. The liquid crystal molecules are aligned parallel to those surfaces in predetermined ...

display with a pixel density of 424 ppi that started with the Xperia Z2 but with a brand new panel, featuring Sony's TRILUMINOS™ display and X-Reality for mobile technology. It is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm

Snapdragon 820 This is a list of Qualcomm Snapdragon systems on chips (SoC) made by Qualcomm for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices. Before Snapdragon SoC made by Qualcomm before it was renamed to Snapdr ...

(MSM8996) chipset with 4 custom Kryo processors (2x 2.15

GHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

and 2x 1.6

), 3 GB of RAM and relies on the Adreno 530 clocked at 624

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

for graphics rendering. The device also has an internal storage of 32 GB for the single-SIM variant and 64 GB for the dual-SIM variant, both with microSD card expansions up to 256 GB (in a hybrid slot for the dual-SIM variant). The Xperia XZ antennas support up to a maximum of LTE Category 9 speeds with a maximum theoretical downlink speed of 450-500 Mbit/s using 3CA, excluding the SOV34 model whose maximum theoretical downlink 3CA speed is limited to maximum 370 Mbit/s.

Connectivity and Features

Unlike some recently released smartphones from competing brands, the Xperia XZ doesn't abandon the standard 3.5 mm audio jack in favor of wireless substitutes. It does, however, have LDAC, an audio coding technology developed by Sony, that enables the transmission of 24bit/96 kHz High-Resolution (Hi-Res) audio content over Bluetooth at up to 990 kbit/s, three times faster than conventional audio streaming codecs, to compatible audio devices. It also has the standard set of connectivity options like Bluetooth 4.2 LE with

aptX aptX (''apt'' stands for ''audio processing technology'') is a family of proprietary audio codec compression algorithms owned by Qualcomm, with a heavy emphasis on wireless audio applications. History The original aptX algorithm was developed ...

, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi with

Wi-Fi Direct Wi-Fi Direct (formerly Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer) is a Wi-Fi standard for peer-to-peer wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, router, or Internet connection. Wi- ...

DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperability ...

and hotspot,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

and

A-GPS Assisted GNSS (A-GNSS) is a GNSS augmentation system that often significantly improves the startup performance—i.e., time-to-first-fix (TTFF)—of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). A-GNSS works by providing the necessary data to the ...

GLONASS GLONASS (russian: ГЛОНАСС, label=none, ; rus, links=no, Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, r=Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, t=Global Navigation Satellite System) is ...

and BDS. Like its predecessors, it has an IP rating of IP68, making the Xperia XZ dust proof and water resistant for over 1.5 meters and 30 minutes under water. The device also feature a

fingerprint sensor A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...

embedded into the power button that can be used to unlock the phone and secure it from unauthorized access. This feature is disabled by default in the US.

Battery

The Xperia XZ is powered by a non-removable 2900 mAh battery, with a

connector for charging and data transfer, one of the first two Sony smartphones to have one, the other one being the Xperia X Compact. It has QuickCharge 3.0 support and Qnovo adaptive charging technology built-in. This allows the device to monitor the cell's electrochemical processes in real time and adjust charging parameters accordingly to minimize cell damage and extend the battery cell's lifespan. It also comes with Battery Care, a Sony proprietary feature, that controls the charging process of the phone by learning and recognizing the user's charging patterns, preventing the phone from damaging the battery's cells from excessive heat due to overcharging. For example, when charging overnight, Battery Care stops the initial charge to 90 percent and then continue charging until full where it left off the next day.

Camera

The rear camera of the Xperia XZ features a new multi-aspect 24.8MP

Sony Exmor RS Exmor is the name of a technology Sony implemented on some of their CMOS image sensors. It performs on-chip analog/digital signal conversion and two-step noise reduction in parallel on each column of the CMOS sensor. Exmor RS is the world's ...

image sensor An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of c ...

, officially named as Sony IMX300. Similar to the

series, the Xperia X and Xperia X Performance, it has 23

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...

s with a sensor size of 1/2.3 inch and a f/2.0 aperture. Sony introduces the ''Triple Image Sensing technology'' with the Xperia XZ, comprised by the ''Image sensing'' (CMOS sensor with PDAF), ''Distance sensing'' (Laser AF sensor) and ''Color sensing'' (RGBC-IR sensor) systems. It features a

hybrid autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system ...

that utilizes phase detection to lock focus on a subject within 0.03 seconds, also same with the Xperia Z5. It also includes phase and contrast detection along with predictive motion tracking, both working together to adjust the right amount of contrast accurately and significantly reduce blur and image shift caused by shaky hands. The Xperia XZ, for the first time, includes a laser autofocus sensor alongside the

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

/ PDAF in tracking and locking focus on an object faster than regular autofocus modes, and an RGBC-IR (''RedGreenBlueClear-InfraRed'') color sensor that assists the

white balance In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors). An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neu ...

function of the camera by providing additional data about the light conditions of the environment, thus improving the color accuracy of the image. It also has an upgraded

SteadyShot SteadyShot is the trademarked name of the integrated image stabilisation technologies used in Sony video camcorders, DSLR cameras, mirrorless cameras and on Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets. Different versions of these technologies are known as ...

with Intelligent Auto in addition to the 5-axis image stabilization. The front

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as ...

camera has a 13 megapixel sensor with 22 mm and 90 degree wide angle lens, making it the highest-resolution front-facer on a flagship Sony device. The device also has 4K resolution video recording capabilities like the Xperia Z5. Similar to the Sony α7 II camera, the Xperia XZ features five-axis digital image stabilization, a first for a smartphone, that helps in producing smooth video with less camera shake and improved image quality in low light environments. This technology improves the image and video produced by detecting camera shake, such as angular motion consisting of pitch and yaw, shift shakes which consists of X and Y axis shifts and ( rotational shake) by correcting the effects detected, shifting the lens to reduce visible image blur and shift shake.

Software

The Sony Xperia XZ launches with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, with Sony's custom interface and software. On December 1, 2016, along with the Xperia X Performance and a few other Xperia devices, Sony announced that the Xperia XZ would receive an update to Android 7.0 Nougat. Just a day after, the Android 7.0 update has officially rolled out.

References

External links

*
Official white paperOfficial white paper
(Dual SIM) {{Sony phones Android (operating system) devices Flagship smartphones XZ Mobile phones introduced in 2016 Mobile phones with 4K video recording