The Sony Xperia XZ Premium 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 XZs at the annual Mobile World Congress in February of 2017. Pre-orders for the Xperia XZ Premium started in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

on May 22, 2017. The device went on sale in the UK on June 2, 2017, and in the US on June 19, 2017. It supersedes the Xperia Z5 Premium and it was Sony's latest flagship after the Xperia XZ and before

Sony Xperia XZ2 The Sony Xperia XZ2 is an Android (operating system), Android-based smartphone unveiled, manufactured, released and marketed by Sony Mobile Communications, Sony. Part of the Xperia X series, the device was announced to the public along with the S ...

. Notable features include a 4K HDR ultra high resolution display and slow-motion video capture at 960

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

Hardware

Design and Build

The Xperia XZ Premium refines the Xperia XZ's "Loop Surface" design with its "Glass Loop Surface", consisting of 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 ...

side frame, metal top and bottom edges that together make up the chassis of the phone, and scratch-resistant front and back glass panels made of Corning's

Gorilla Glass 5 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 c ...

. The top and bottom part of the chassis are flat and diamond-cut along the edge to form a reflective facet. The most defining change in the XZ Premium, as well as the XZ1, is the placement of the image sensors on the back. It is now placed across the camera lens and slightly off-center, as opposed to being placed longitudinally below the lens like on the XZs. The NFC antenna is at the center part of the rear glass panel, just below the "XPERIA" nameplate. The front of the phone consists of dual front-firing stereo speakers, one on the top bezel and the other on the bottom bezel, along with a 13 MP front camera, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor 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 ...

. The Xperia XZ Premium's dimensions are in height, with a width of and a depth of and weighs approximately . It has an IP rating of IP68, making it dust proof and water resistant for over 1.5 meters and 30 minutes under water. The device also features 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, however, is disabled on units sold in the US.

Display and Performance

The Xperia XZ Premium is the second phone with a 4K (2160p) display, the first one being the Xperia Z5 Premium. But unlike the latter, the Xperia XZ Premium has a 4K HDR display, making it the first smartphone to feature such a display. It is

HDR10 HDR10 Media Profile, more commonly known as HDR10, is an open high-dynamic-range video (HDR) standard announced on 27 August 2015 by the Consumer Technology Association. It is the most widespread of the HDR formats. HDR10 is not backward compat ...

compliant, but has no

Dolby Vision Dolby Vision is a set of technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories for high dynamic range (HDR) video. It covers content creation, distribution, and playback. It includes dynamic metadata that are used to adjust and optimize each frame of the ...

support. The

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 ...

screen has a pixel density of 806 ppi when rendered in 4K resolution and features Sony's TRILUMINOS display and X-Reality for mobile technology. It is powered by the Qualcomm

Snapdragon 835 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 ...

(MSM8998), built on 10 nm process technology with 8 custom Kryo 280 processors (4x 2.45

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 4x 1.9

), 4 GB of

LPDDR4X Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR), also known as LPDDR SDRAM, is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory that consumes less power and is targeted for mobile computers and devices such as mobile phones. Older variants are also known a ...

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

and uses the Adreno 540

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

for graphics rendering. The device also has an internal storage of 64 GB and comes in single-SIM and dual-SIM versions, with both featuring LTE Cat. 16 with 3x carrier aggregation, a 4x4

MIMO In radio, multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO (), is a method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link using multiple transmission and receiving antennas to exploit multipath propagation. MIMO has become an essential element of wi ...

antenna design and a total of 8 antennas. It also has microSD card expansion of up to 512 GB (in a hybrid slot for the dual-SIM variant).

Camera

Sony debuted in the Xperia XZs and the XZ Premium the world's first ''3-layer stacked image sensor with DRAM'' for smartphones. Known internally as Sony IMX400, the new ExmorRS sensor features a RAM chip sandwiched in between the sensor and control circuitry layers which serves as a large and fast buffer to where the sensor can temporarily offload a significant amount of captured data before transferring it to the phone's internal memory for processing. This enables the camera to record super slow-motion videos at 960 fps, at a steady 720p resolution. Recording at super slow motion is limited to 0.18 seconds per buffer, due to limitations. Officially called Motion Eye, the Xperia XZ Premium has a 19 MP 1/2.3” Exmor RS for mobile sensor with a 1.22 μm pixel pitch, f/2.0

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

and 25 mm wide G Lens. It also features 4K video recording, which supports

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 ...

video stabilization alongside the standard 1080p/30 fps and high-speed 1080p/60fps and a 120 fps recording in 720p options. 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 (1/3.06") with 22 mm, f/2.0 lens and 90 degree wide angle lens, same as the Xperia XZ but now features

with Intelligent Active Mode (5-axis stabilization) like on the XZs. The Xperia XZ Premium has Sony's ''Triple Image Sensing technology'' first introduced in the Xperia XZ as standard. It is composed of the ''Image sensing'' ( CMOS sensor with PDAF), ''Distance sensing'' ( Laser AF sensor) and ''Color sensing'' ( RGBC-IR sensor) systems, featuring 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 (PDAF) to lock focus on a subject within 0.03 seconds. It also includes phase and contrast detection along with predictive motion tracking, and a laser autofocus sensor for fast tracking and focus-locking on an object, as well as 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 surrounding environment. It also has SteadyShot with Intelligent Auto in addition to the five-axis sensor-shift image stabilization first seen in the Xperia XZ. The Motion Eye camera also has a new feature called ''Predictive Capture''. When it detects fast-paced movement, the camera automatically captures a maximum of four photos before the shutter button is pressed, and lets the user select the best one afterwards. This is done without any user intervention and is possible due to the same built-in RAM chip on the image sensor used in capturing the 960 fps super slow-motion videos. In November 2017, after receiving user feedback, a software update within the camera features menu was released, titled "Correction for image distortion". The camera received a

DxOMark DxOMark, currently stylized as DXOMARK, is a commercial website described as "an independent benchmark that scientifically assesses smartphones, lenses and cameras". Founded in 2008, DxOMark was originally owned by DxO Labs, a French engi ...

score of 83.

Battery

The Xperia XZ Premium is powered by a non-removable 3230 mAh battery. Charging and data transfer is handled by a

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 ...

port with support for

USB 3.1 USB 3.0, released in November 2008, is the third major version of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for interfacing computers and electronic devices. Among other improvements, USB 3.0 adds the new transfer rate referred to as '' ...

. It also has Qualcomm's QuickCharge 3.0 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 unit'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.

Audio and Connectivity

The Xperia XZ Premium comes with a standard 3.5 mm audio jack for plugging in wired headphones. It also has LDAC, an audio coding technology developed by Sony, that enables the transmission of 24-bit/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. Other connectivity options include

Bluetooth 5 Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

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 ...

and

Low Energy Lethargy is a state of tiredness, sleepiness, weariness, fatigue, sluggishness or lack of energy. It can be accompanied by depression, decreased motivation, or apathy. Lethargy can be a normal response to inadequate sleep, overexertion, overwor ...

, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with 2x2

antennas,

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- ...

MirrorLink MirrorLink is a device interoperability standard that offers integration between a smartphone and a car's infotainment system. It transforms smartphones into automotive application platforms where apps are hosted and run on the smartphone while ...

, screen casting via

Miracast Miracast (also called screen mirroring and wireless display among other names on consumer devices) is a standard for wireless connections from sending devices (such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones) to display receivers (such as TVs, monitors, o ...

Google Cast Google Cast is a proprietary protocol developed by Google for playing Internet- streamed audio/video content on a compatible consumer device. The protocol is used to initiate and control playback of content on digital media players, high-definitio ...

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 ...

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 ...

(with

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 ...

BeiDou The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS; ) is a Chinese satellite navigation system. It consists of two separate satellite constellations. The first BeiDou system, officially called the BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System and ...

and Galileo satellite positioning. The Xperia XZ Premium has no FM radio.

Software

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat along with Smart Stamina battery saving modes and Sony's proprietary multimedia apps. Android 8.0 Oreo started rolling out in late-October 2017. Android 9.0 Pie was rolled out for the XZ Premium in February 2019.

Variants

References

External links

XZ premium
{{Sony phones Android (operating system) devices Discontinued flagship smartphones Sony smartphones Mobile phones introduced in 2017 Mobile phones with 4K video recording