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How Sony Xperia raced ahead of the Samsung S9!

February 28, 2018 08:15 IST

Sony unveiled the much awaited Sony Xperia XZ2 and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact at the Mobile World Congress.

Ashish Narsale checks out if the wait was worth it.

Sony Xperia XZ2 and Sony Experia X72 Compact

Hideyuki Furumi, executive vice president global sales and marketing of Sony Mobile Communications, presents the Sony Xperia XZ2 and Sony Experia X72 Compact at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters.
USP
  • Motion eye camera
  • Stereo speakers
  • Shoots 4K video in HDR
  • Shoots super slow motion at 960 fps at the resolution of 1080p
  • Certified as IP65/68 for water resistance
  • Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.03

Sony finally unveiled the much awaited Sony Xperia XZ2 and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact at the Mobile World Congress 2018.

As speculated, there has been a measurable change in design. Sony has dropped its old boxy design and brought in new curved edges and 3D glass design.

The front and back of the Sony Xperia XZ2 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 while the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact has a plastic back.

All the hardware is sandwiched in an aluminum frame between the glass or the plastic, respectively.

Keeping the modern aspect ratio in mind, Sony Xperia XZ2 comes with 5.7 inch screen and the XZ2 Compact with a 5-inch screen, both 18:9 Full HD+ (1080 x 2160) HDR display.

 

The phones have a unique viewing experience. They give you the feel of the scene using Sony's own DVS (Dynamic Vibration System), which vibrates the phone according to the scenes in the video.

For the camera, Sony has chosen its own 19 MP, f/2.0 camera with Motion Eye Technology. The camera can shoot super slow motion at 960 fps at the highest resolution of 1080p, which even the Samsung S9/S9 Plus can't do. The Samsung S9/S9 Plus can shoot super slow motion video highest at 720p.

The camera supports predictive capture mode like smile and motion.

Other then shooting HDR photos, it also shoots 4K video in HDR.

The camera supports ISO up to 12800 for photo and ISO up to 4000 for video.

The 3.5 mm audio jack is missing. Instead the phones have C-type port for audio, charging and data transfer.

The phones are equipped with sound enhancing technologies like High-Resolution Audio and LDAC (Sony's own audio codec for high-resolution wireless audio). They have stereo front firing speakers with surround sound capability.

The phones run on the latest Qualcomm's latest SoC Snapdragon 845, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 64 GB ROM.

They also support external storage through microSDXC.

The phone comes with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

Another measure change in the Sony phone design is the fingerprint sensor.

The sensor has moved from the side to the rear center.

The Sony Xperia XZ2 is powered by a 3180 mAh battery whereas the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact is powered by a 2870 mAh battery.

Both phones support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.03. The Sony Xperia XZ2 also supports wireless charging.

The phones are also certified as IP65/68 for water resistance.

All the specs of the latest from the Sony stable look good on the paper, but the real performance is yet to be tested.

Ashish Narsale