Sony Xperia Z5: Not The Best In The Segment

Pros

• Pin-sharp screen
• Solid camera
• Water Proof to a great extent
• Slick finger print sensor
• Improved battery from previous generations

Cons

• No innovation in design from previous generations
• Spec sheet not much upgraded
• Gets hot
• UI similar to previous generations
• The Finger Print sensor not at a comfortable position

Specifications

Design

Starting with the design of the Xperia Z5, the phone when held in hand reminds me of the previous generations Xperia devices. The not so innovative and fresh look is a let down for the consumers comparing the device with the devices from other manufacturers in this segment.

Although repetitive but the design surely feels solid and powerful in hand. The screen has a bezel that smoothly blends into the screen followed by the nylon corners. The front of the device also holds a set of speakers which are almost invisible at first look offering sound with strong impact.

The most noticeable change in the device from the previous generations is that the back of the device has been retooled, introducing the frosted glass which takes care of the fingerprints, which seems to be an issue with most of the top end devices offering glossy finish. The engraved Xperia logo at the back makes up for the boxy design of the device which does not impress me to the extent where I would recommend the device based on the looks.  The phone is as usual a dust and waterproof device and survive a dip in your swimming pool easily with IP68 level of water resistance which means it can withstand a depth of 5 feet in water for 30 minutes. This said, Sony does not recommend submerging your device in water which is also one of the major let down because using your Sony Xperia device for taking underwater pictures would be one of the solid reasons in your list of buying a smartphone.

Overall, the blocky design device would get like 6.5 rating when we speak about the design.

Display

The Xperia Z5 from Sony has 801PPI to offer which is the highest in the segment when compared to 401PPI and 577PPI which the iPhone 6S Plus and Samsung Galaxy S6 have to offer. Contrary to the expectation the loads of pixels fitted in the 5.2 Inch screen does not offer something really sharp when compared to the iPhone 6S Plus and the Galaxy S6 Edge screens, even if you look really close the difference is just marginal.

Putting in so many pixels into the small screen would not really enhance your experience of using the smartphones for your day to day activities like watching movies, web browsing etc. However the screen does look enhanced in a way with sharp and vivid colors offering a pin sharp experience. The default settings on your phones sometimes looks over saturated and that is the reason why you would try exploring the settings to make it look more realistic.

Software and Performance

Sony’s devices comes with a thick layered skin thereby giving you a lot different look from the stock Android and that is the reason that being a Sony device user you would always end up getting late updates. The interface is neat and sharp complimenting the boxy design of the device. The UI is neat and there is a bundle of default apps from Sony to serve you with a better experience however for another set of users the UI could be cluttered offering a lot of apps which remain unused. The in-build apps include the PlayStation Store, Office Suite, AVG antivirus and etc, apart from this Sony does not allow you to uninstall most of these pre-loaded apps.

Coming onto the perfromance the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor supported by 3GB RAM gives a good set of results on the benchmark tools. The smartphones is smart and swift giving no lags while scrolling through different screens and swapping between different apps. I tested the device with games like Asphalt 8 and the experience was more than satisfying. Overall the device performs as you would expect from a 50k device, right on the target.

Camera

Camera is one such area where you expect Sony to take a lead and in alignment to that, Sony’s camera performed extra ordinarily in our tests. Sony has equipped the device with a Sony Exmor Sensor packing 23MP camera which is just exclusive to Xperia Z5. The Z5 features an exceptionally fast 0.3 auto focus speed along with an adaptable camera. By default the camera is set to take 8MP pictures and you need to manually change the setting to enable it to take 23MP pictures.

In daylight, the pictures come up with sharp and vivid colors and the details are just perfect. Some of the macro shots taken with the pictures are the testimony to the fact that how accurate and dynamic the colors are. Although Xperia Z5 does not offer Optical Image Stabilization however they support a technology commonly known as Steady Shot Intelligent Active Mode which works as good as OIS and our pictures are testimony to that.

The camera performs equally well in low light conditions and captures sufficient details. In order to make the pictures precise the camera tends to fake some parts of it. The noise is not that prominent in the pictures however when you zoom in the images it does. Xperia Z5 is really smart when it comes to focusing and no matter what the light conditions are it does not fail to focus, it uses a hybrid mechanism (both phase and contrast detection) to get this precision and speed.

Verdict

Not so different from its previous generations, the design of the Sony Xperia Z5 is too main stream and does not offer anything new. The finger print sensor at first is not so comfortable to use but then after a few days you will get used to it. The Software does not excite me as well. The 4K display is the only thing that makes me wanna buy the device but then not so strong reason to pick it up over the other devices from Samsung and Apple in this segment. The fact that the device is water proof to a great extent is also one of the reason that might pull you towards it.