Sony has just unveiled its newest flagships, the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. First thing to notice about these phones is how much the design has changed. Say ‘goodbye’ to the boxy and squared-off look we were used to from Sony. Both the XZ2 and the XZ2 Compact still have square corners but the edges and sides are totally rounded. The back is completely redesigned too, it is now curved and tapered at the edges instead of flats with the fingerprint reader now mounted in the middle. Just above the fingerprint scanner there’s now the new position of the camera, hopefully it doesn’t lead to accidental smudging as someone try to unlock the phone.
The XZ2 and the XZ2 Compact both have an aluminum frame but the XZ2 is made from shiny glass which looks stunning. The downside is that the glass together with the curvature makes the XZ2 a pretty slippery phone, on the other hand the XZ-2 Compact is made from matte plastic with a frosted glass look and should be less likely to slip away. The build is solid and both models offer water resistance which is always appreciate from Sony flagships. Something missing this year is the 3.5mm headphone jack, you’ll have to use a pair of wireless headphones or plug-in through a dongle. Coming to the rescue here are the stereo speakers in both phones, and they fared pretty well and better then the XZ-1.
A unique feature added here is the ‘dynamic vibrations’, the phone can vibrate along to songs, videos and even games and you can change the intensity quite easily. The screen of the XZ-2 has seen changes since last year, it is still a bright IPS LCD with a Full-HD resolution but now it’s a larger 5.7-inches with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The XZ-2 Compact’s LCD has improved too, it is now 5.0-inches instead of 4.6-inch and has gone to Full-HD over 720p.
Both the XZ-2 and the XZ-2 Compact have support for HDR video playback, allowing to see more of those details and highlights and shadows than normal SDR video. Both phones can even record 4K HDR videos and TRUE HDR for the first time on a smartphone. The camera also brings back 960-fps (super-slow-mo.) video. The camera is the same on both the phones, the 19-mp (f/2.0) single shooter is the motion-eye camera as the last year but with some more advanced processing algorithm powered by the new chipset. The selfie is changed with 5-mp on both the models, seems like a step down from XZ-1’s 13-mp autofocus camera. Bored with flat images or selfies? Jump to the 3D creator, it now works with the selfie camera too. It is now easier to use and accurate.
The XZ-2 and XZ-2 Compact come with the Android 8 Oreo out-of-the-box. At first glance the UI seems to be pretty close to signature Sony style but there’s a new interactive phone assistant which can help you learn all of the phone’s features. There’s a new panel that organizes your phone management options into one convenient place. Both the devices sports the newest flagship processor too, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Chipset is the powerhouse under the hood with 4GB of RAM, this is the first phone to use this Chipset and its quite fast too. Battery here is at 3180mAH and these phones also support the Qi wireless charging for added convenience and may support wired fast charging too.
The Xperia XZ-2 is beautifully built phone with plenty of exciting features and the XZ-2 Compact offers the same but in a bite-sized package. Both will make into the market this 2nd half of the year. Full review will be coming soon.
