To say that Sony's mobile division
has had a tough time lately would
be an understatement. As the
company puts out half-hearted
efforts like the Z3 and Z3+, sales
have been dropping steadily. We're now at the point where Sony is losing more than $1 million per day just keeping the division going.
Something has to change. Sony has
to take smartphones seriously, and
this is its attempt to do just that.
Meet the Xperia Z5 family, which
includes the world's first 4K phone display, "next-generation" cameras
and some tiny, tiny fingerprint
scanners. For what seems like the first time in
ages, Sony is announcing a trio of
flagship phones at the same time.
From big to small, we've got the Z5
Premium, the Z5 and the Z5
Compact. The trio share many attributes, but thanks to one spec,
the Premium is by far the most
interesting. The world's first 4K phone
display I'm totally besotted with the
Premium's display. It's got a truly
ridiculous, world-beating 5.5-inch
4K (3,840 x 2,160) panel, with rich
colors and deep blacks. We'll need
to spend more time than the few hours we've had with the new
lineup to give a proper verdict, but
right now we can say for sure that
it looks great. I'm not sure I want a
4K display in my phone, but I am
sure that the allure of an 806-ppi display will be enough to win some
over. Sony's thrown down the
gauntlet, and at least in pixel
density, the Z5 Premium is the
phone to beat. Unfortunately, Sony's saved all of its
new screen tech for the Premium,
with the regular Z5 retaining the
same 5.2-inch 1080p unit as the Z3
and Z3+, and the Z5 Compact
getting a 4.6-inch 720p display. Apart from their
displays, the devices
are almost identical. As far as specs go, though, the
displays are pretty much the only
things distinguishing the Z5
Premium from the Z5 and Z5
Compact. All three have
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor inside, up to 32GB of
internal storage (expandable by
microSD), high-res audio chips and
"up to two-day battery life." That's
a cute way Sony found to say "you
only need to charge this one once a day." How they eke out that battery
life differs of course, with the
Premium having a 3,430mAh
battery, the Z5 a 2,900mAh and the
Z5 Compact a 2,700mAh. The only
other differentiator is RAM: The Z5 Premium and Z5 have 3GB; the Z5
Compact only has 2GB. The same, but different The Z5s' power buttons house fingerprint sensors. If you've seen any Sony phone
made in the last couple of years, I'm
sure you've already noticed the Z5
family is a very familiar one. Sony's
"OmniBalance" design theme has
been knocking around since the Xperia Z1, and it's really difficult to
get excited about: They're
rectangular slabs with clean lines;
they're waterproof; and they're
uncomplicated. That said, this is
probably the tightest iteration on that theme. The Z5 Premium and Z5
both feel very polished, with
carefully considered color schemes
and materials. The Z5 Compact feels
sturdier and a little chunkier, but
not necessarily in a bad way. The Z5 Premium is available in
black, gold or chrome, all with a
mirrored glass back, while the Z5
has white, black, gold and a
subdued green, with a frosted
glass back. Sony's clearly targeting the younglings with the Compact,
especially with some of the bright
and "fun" colors. It comes in the
usual white and black, but also
vibrant yellow and coral (pink) --
again with frosted glass at the back. Of course they're all different
sizes too; The Z5 Premium has a
5.5-inch display and is 7.8mm
thick; the Z5 has a 5.2-inch display
and is 7.3mm thick; while the
Compact has a 4.6-inch display and is 8.3mm thick. The Z5 Premium in chrome makes for a very effective mirror. I think the yellow Z5 Compact is
probably my favorite of the bunch;
the bright color wrapping around
the edge of the black display
frames the device really well. The
green Z5 is also kinda classy looking, and it's a nice step away
from the staid colors we're used to
from flagships. Also, big shout out
to the chrome Z5 Premium, which is
essentially a mirror with a phone
attached to the back. It's ostentatious; it's ridiculous; and it's
impossible to keep clean, but I
kinda love it. So all these new Xperias are
familiar, but changed. The same,
but different. Those coming from a
previous-generation Z will notice
how nicely this latest bunch feels to
hold, as well as some neat design additions. There's now a little
"Xperia" wordmark etched into the
phones' metallic sides, and the
series' small circular power button
is no more, replaced by an oval-
shaped button that somehow squeezes in a tiny fingerprint
reader. Taking care of number one All three phones share the same camera setup. Sony's image sensors are
everywhere. Of course you'll find
them in the company's own
smartphones, mirrorless and SLT
cameras, but they're also in high-
end Nikon and Fujifilm models. Not to mention flagship smartphones
like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG
G4. Put simply, they're considered
some of the finest in the business,
and one of the increasingly few
areas that Sony is a market leader in. Not all sensors are created
equal, though, and this time, Sony's
keeping the best smartphone
sensor for itself. All of the Z5s have
a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS 23-
megapixel image sensor. It's brand-new, and Sony says it'll be
exclusive to Xperias, at least for a
while. Click image for original 7MB file. Shot by Sony at f/2.0, 1/2500s, ISO 40. This fancy new sensor is backside
illuminated and has embedded
phase-detection pixels. It's housed
in Sony's first mobile camera
module with a closed-loop
actuator, and in front of the sensor is a new six-element 24mm lens
with a wide f/2.0 aperture. If you're
unsure what all of this means, I'll
break it down for you: Sony says that, thanks to the
phase-detection pixels, the Z5
family can autofocus in as little as
0.03 second, claiming it's the
"world's fastest autofocus in a
smartphone." All we can say is it's very quick. The actuator helps with
this by swiftly moving the lens to
focus, and because it's closed-loop,
it'll also offer better image
stabilization, especially for video. As
you'd expect, all three will shoot movies in 4K, although evidently
the Z5 Premium is the only one
capable of playing footage back
natively on the phone itself. Sony
says the new sensor is capable of
oversampling images (PureView style) for digital zoom "without loss
of image quality." Take that claim
with an ocean's worth of salt, of
course, but the zoomed images
definitely seemed good enough for
a Facebook or Twitter share. Click image for original 3MB file. Shot by Sony at f/2.0, 1/30s, ISO 250. All of this adds up to... well, no one
knows yet. What I can say is that
Sony's sensors are the envy of the
business; Sony's "unedited" sample
images look fantastic; and, in my
brief time with the Z5s, I took some quite pretty images that I'm sadly
unable to share with you. But it's
too early to say whether this new
camera represents a huge leap
forward, or even if it's at the front
of the pack. A fresh start Although it's not quite stock, Sony has all but removed its Android skin. On the software side, the Z5 family
runs Android 5.1.1, and Sony says
"stay tuned" about an Android M
update. The good news for virtually
everyone but the most die-hard of
Sony fans, though? The company's Android skin is no more. Instead,
the devices all run a virtually stock
Android experience. Sure, there are
some differences in iconography,
but the general look-and-feel isn't
too far from a Nexus device. That's a huge step forward from current
Xperias, which feel like they're
stuck in the past despite many of
them actually being on the latest
version of Android. Google won't officially bake in
fingerprint support to its OS until
Android M is released this fall. Like
other manufacturers, though, Sony
already has things up and running.
I wasn't able to test out the functionality myself, but the
placement seems very natural, and
I watched Sony staff unlocking
their devices with various fingers
and thumbs at a 100 percent
success rate. The big questions A close-up of the Xperia Premium's etched metal wordmark. I'm pretty impressed with Sony's
new lineup. But there are still three
lingering questions that Sony
needs to answer. First, there's the
small matter of price. So far, we've
got this from Sony: "Pricing will reflect the premium quality of the
smartphone." Make of that what
you will, but Sony isn't exactly
known for producing budget
devices. In the age of the OnePlus 2
and the Moto X Pure, you can get a lot of smartphone for a few
hundred dollars. Second is battery life and
performance. The chip inside all
three, the Snapdragon 810, has
had some well-reported issues with
overheating, and is not known to
be very frugal when it comes to battery life. Couple that chip with a
4K display, and it's easy to question
Sony's claim of "up to two-day"
endurance when it comes to the
Premium. The company points to its
on-display memory (which effectively switches off the
processor when the screen isn't
moving), and other battery-saving
tech as proof it can hit that target.
Many will remain unconvinced until
the phone's been properly tested. Third, and perhaps most
importantly for Sony's shot at a
global success, is availability. The Z5
and Z5 Compact will be "globally"
available in October, with the Z5
Premium following in November. But Sony has really struggled to
persuade carriers to push its
devices. That's especially true in the
US, where sometimes it feels like
Sony doesn't exist. If a 4K display doesn't
pique the US carriers'
attention, nothing
will. You could argue that this is Sony's
fault. Several generations of Xperias
have come and gone, all of which
looked pretty much the same, and
none of which blew the
competition out of the water. They've been solid phones, but
plenty of companies make solid
phones. Why should carriers put
their weight behind Sony when
Samsung et al. offer the same basic
package? With iPhone season fast approaching, there's a real chance
Sony could be left by the wayside
again. At least with the Z5 Premium,
Sony has clearly put everything it
can into a single device, short of a
new design. If the world's first 4K smartphone doesn't get the
attention of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
and T-Mobile, nothing will. Check out all the news from Berlin
at our IFA 2015 hub. 4k exmor hands-on ifa Sony's Xperia Z5 family
includes the world's first 4K
smartphone GALLERY | 45 PHOTOS Xper

If you read this to the end..Ure really patient like Buhari..BTW FTC

What exactly re u even explaining in this epistle of urs?
Is it not just about a phone? Phone ooooo!!!

What exactly re u even explaining in this epistle of urs?
Is it not just about a phone? Phone ooooo!!!
No image of the fone sef!

um...
so....

how much?