Introduction and design
Sony has gone and done it: this is the first ever 4K screen on a smartphone. That’s the big headline for the largest of the Xperia Z5 family, and it’s a truly remarkable feat from the company.
It’s no secret that Sony has been struggling in the mobile phone game for quite some time, and the Japanese company has come back strongly with its new Xperia Z5 series.
The family includes the Sony Xperia Z5, which has a 5.2-inch Full HD display, a new frosted glass design and a fingerprint scanner. Then there’s the smaller sibling of the Xperia Z5 Compact that boasted a similar set up, but with a 720p 4.6-inch screen and a much smaller design.
And now the largest, member of the Z5 family is hitting the shelves: the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. It’s the first time we’ve seen a large-screen Sony phone since the Xperia Z Ultra, which came with a mammoth 6.4-inch display; the Xperia Z5 Premium is measly in comparison though, with a 5.5-inch offering.
You can pick up the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium for £579 / AU$1199 (about US$953). The phone had a last-minute price drop from Sony before the launch, and it’s gradually dropped down a little bit extra on top as well.
It’s certainly not the cheapest phone you can buy, but this top-end tech does cost money.
Even though the Xperia Z5 Premium has been out for a long time, it’s still not available in the US and Sony hasn’t revealed why. If you live in the US you’ll be able to buy it from third-party retailers, but Sony isn’t selling the phone directly.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Sony has already updated its phone range by offering the Xperia X and announcing both the Xperia XA and Xperia X Performance. None of these phones feature a 4K display though.
And this is still the go-to Sony phone for those who love larger handsets, and those who want the greatest thing. The Xperia Z5 Premium has received a lot of hype for its headline 4K display, but a lot of other features need to be present and correct if this phone is to live up to its high-end billing.
Design
Sony has its own particular design philosophy, and has generally stuck to it ever since the original Xperia Z, making only minor changes with each new iteration.
The Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Compact are especially notable for the way the rear design has switched from clear glass to frosted glass. Sadly, Sony hasn’t seen fit to do the same for the Xperia Z5 Premium.
Instead, Sony has decided to keep the clear glass back of the Xperia Z3+, and as before this picks up fingerprints as soon as you touch it.
The Xperia Z5 Premium is much heavier than you’d expect a phone to be in 2015, coming in at 180g but feeling even weightier in the hand – it was the first thing I noticed when I picked it up.
Weight isn’t always a bad thing, of course – it’s good to know your phone isn’t going to fly off in a gust of wind. But the Xperia Z5 Premium is large all over, and sometimes it’s difficult to use because of its sheer size – and I don’t have particularly small hands, so anyone with smaller mitts is going to struggle.
The edges on the Xperia Z5 Premium are an aluminium with a high-gloss texture – but it’s quite easy to mistake these for plastic. In fact, I did for quite some time. The edges feel a lot less premium with that high-gloss over the top and that’s an issue when the edges of the Xperia Z5 really added to the design.
It means the Z5 Premium doesn’t have a convincingly ‘premium’ look, and it also feels a little slippery in the hand – I sometimes found when holding the phone that I was nervous it was going to fall out of my hand.
Sony has included the reinforced corners also seen on the Xperia Z5, which are designed to prevent the phone from breaking if it lands on one of them.
On the right-hand side of the phone, about halfway down, is the fingerprint sensor, which doubles as the power button. It’s a sensible placing, and makes it really easy to unlock the handset.
The volume rocker is just below this, and if you’re right-handed it can be quite difficult to get used to it being so low down. I’d rather it was placed above the power button, where my fingers could reach it a little more easily.
Below the rocker is the camera button – again, this is well placed, as you won’t accidentally hit it when you’re using the phone, and it’s in easy reach when you want to take a shot in landscape orientation.
Previous Sony phones have been covered in fiddly little flaps that are prone to breaking off, and thankfully the Z5 Premium has just one, on the top-left edge.
It’s easier to use than previous examples – and the slot beneath houses the microSD and nanoSIM cards, so you won’t need to play around with it very often anyway.
And it also means you won’t be losing that really useful waterproofing technology. Being able to take your phone into the shower with you is one of the pure joys of owning a Sony handset.
Key features
The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium’s headline feature is that 4K display. It looks gorgeous at 5.5 inches and an incredible 2160 x 3840 pixel resolution.
If you do the math, that works out to 806 pixels per inch, that’s massive, and it makes the quality of some of the content you watch on the screen the best it can be.
I was impressed with the Samsung Galaxy S6’s display last year, and to put that into perspective that phone only has a 571ppi display.
I’ve been watching a lot of 4K video on the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium to assess the quality of the screen and it truly is stunning. However, I also have to admit that in practical terms it doesn’t offer that much more than the competition.
The real problem here is that even though it is a 4K phone, most of the time you’re using a 1080p display. To be able to gain access to the 4K resolution you need to be watching high-quality video or photos within Sony’s Photos or Video apps.
But it is disappointing that Sony has claimed this is a 4K resolution, when most of the time you’re only watching it in normal HD.
When watching higher-quality videos on the Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4 and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, it’s very difficult to discern the difference in quality. Yes, I know it’s 4K – but 2K at these screen sizes looks just as good, and isn’t such a major drain on the battery.
It’s nice to know that you have the highest pixel density going on a phone, but you can’t help but feel that Sony did this because it wanted the distinction of offering a 4K display under its belt, rather than because it wanted users to enjoy very marginally superior images.
If you’re after lots of pixels, the display on the Galaxy S6 looks quite similar – it’s not as large, but then there’s the Galaxy S6 Edge+ if you think bigger is better.
That said, the Xperia Z5 Premium’s screen is gorgeously bright, and I’ve found myself disappointed whenever I had to turn the brightness down – it looks relatively dull at anything below 60%, and it’s a true shame when I have to turn it down to save on battery.
Viewing angles are excellent, even though Sony isn’t using its Triluminous screen tech in the Xperia Z5 Premium.
Overall the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium’s display is superb – it’s just not quite as breathtaking as I’d have liked it to be, and it doesn’t stand out enough from the 2K competition to make it worth the extra power it uses.
Fingerprint sensor
Sony has included a fingerprint sensor on its Xperia Z phones for the first time with the 5 series, and on the Xperia Z5 Premium this is integrated into the power button on the right-hand edge of the phone.
This is an interesting placement that no other manufacturer seems to be doing right now. The metal button sits flush with the side of the phone, and has a nice feel to it – it must be a pain for left-handed users though.
I found it easy to set up the fingerprint sensor, and it’s very responsive – perhaps too much so sometimes.
I recommend registering all the fingerprints of your favoured hand, because if you tap the power button to check the time this can sometimes be interpreted as a failed attempt to unlock the phone – and three of those means you need to use your PIN on the front screen.
I also find it quite irritating to unlock the phone on a desk when TouchID on the iPhone is just there on the front waiting.
PS4 Remote Play
Everyone seems to forget that Sony phones now include PS4 Remote Play – and it’s really one of the biggest selling points of the Xperia range. I love it – it means you can wirelessly connect your DualShock 4 controller to your phone, and use it as a screen for your PlayStation 4 games.
If someone else wants to watch TV, and you want to get on with Star Wars: Battlefront but you don’t want to leave the room, you can sit on the sofa and do both.
The problem is that at the moment your phone has to be on the same wireless network as the PlayStation console, so you can’t use the feature at a friend’s house, for example.
I found the connection on the Xperia Z5 Premium just as good as with the other Sony products I’d tested. I don’t have the strongest internet, so I don’t always get the full experience – but when it’s working it’s fantastic.
I much prefer the PS4 Remote Play experience on the Xperia Z4 Tablet with its 2K large display, but it’s much easier to play fiddly games on the Xperia Z5 Premium’s generous screen than on the Xperia Z5 or Xperia Z5 Compact.
I can’t wait for Sony to go the whole hog and enable you to play games wherever you are. Playing Rocket League on my commute might well be all my dreams come true.
Waterproofing
Like the other phones in the Xperia Z5 series the Z5 Premium is IP68-rated, meaning it’s dust-proof, and water-resistant up to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes.
This means you can use your phone in the rain, or take it into the bathroom, without worrying about it getting damaged – you can even run it under a tap if it gets dirty and not have to worry about the internals getting frazzled.
No other phone manufacturer is offering this technology in such a way right now, and it’s easy to overlook how useful it can be.
It’s something you don’t really appreciate until you lose it – I’m always conscious when I switch to a non-Sony phone that I’ll have to be more careful around water.
Specs and performance
The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop installed but you can now upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Sony adds its own UI over the top of Android, and it doesn’t look anywhere near as nice as the stock version of Lollipop.
I’ve often complained about the styling of Sony’s phone UIs – the app icons and interactions with the different stock apps don’t look nice at all, and make the interface’s feel dated compared to the fresh look of some other manufacturers.
I much prefer the look of Android’s stock applications rather than what Sony is trying to do here with its own design.
There’s no noticeable lag when skipping through different applications at speed, and that’s down to the strong Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB of RAM inside. It’s snappy, and apps load quickly.
Web pages load quickly too, and multitasking with a variety of apps open works smoothly.
I never had to wait long for an app to boot up, and that’s exactly what you want from the top of the line phones. Games sometimes took a bit longer to boot than I’ve found on other phones, but it’s not anything in particularly to worry about.
I personally get very fustrated with the Sony experience due to the amount of bloatware applications on the Xperia Z5 Premium. Samsung’s TouchWiz software has dropped a lot of its bloatware apps in recent iterations but Sony shows no sign of letting up by seemingly adding even more for this latest phone.
Sony throws in apps such as Kobo Books, Amazon, Dropbox and AVG protection that just take up space on the Xperia Z5 Premium. You can delete these, but they shouldn’t be taking up space on the phone in the first place.
Then there’s a huge variety of Sony-specific apps, such as PlayStation, Xperia Lounge and TrackID, which take up more space again.
If you wanted any of these on your phone you could download them very easily from the Google Play Store, so I can’t see why Sony feels it has to force them on us.
And the irony is that Sony hasn’t included its best app here – you have to manually download PS4 Remote Play, which is the most useful and innovative app Sony has released so far.
I’d recommend downloading the latest in Google’s software. It’s all down to whether your carrier or mobile network has the update to Android 6.0.1 ready though.
The latest update adds a variety of system stabilization work and a a slightly improved battery life. It also brings with it the Doze Mode feature, an upgraded camera UI and the option for app permissions. App permissions means you now have greater flexibility over what certain apps can access from your phone.
On top of that Sony has included brand new sticker packs with its Sony Messenger app and offers up some added emoji options that you can download and send to your friends. If you’ve got the ability to download Android 6 Marshmallow, it’s certainly worth doing so.
It also sets up the phone up ready for Android Pay, which recently came to the UK and is available in the US but not in Australia.
Mobile gaming titles run smoothly on the Xperia Z5 Premium with no processing issues. However, as with the Xperia Z5 there are some heating-up issues with the Xperia Z5 Premium. It’s especially noticeable when I’m gaming, with the phone becoming hot to the touch.
If you’re looking for a phone that can handle intense gaming, I wouldn’t recommend this one. It can handle it, but the Xperia Z5 Premium heats up way too much for it to be a pleasant experience. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ doesn’t get anywhere near this hot when gaming.
This is an issue Sony really needs to sort out in its next phones, although the heating is nowhere near as bad as it was with the Xperia Z3+.
I ran some GeekBench 3 testing on the Xperia Z5 Premium, and got a single-core score of 1,262 and a multi-core score of 4,073. That’s quite an impressive result – the Xperia Z5 came out with a multi-core score of 4,015, so the Premium is similarly powerful.
It didn’t come out with anything like the score of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ though – that phablet managed to score an incredible 4949, a similar number to the iPad Air 2‘s.
Camera
Sony has put a lot of effort into refining its camera experience for the Xperia Z5 series. It has offered one of the best shooters on the market for quite some time, and it’s now been upped from a 20.7MP sensor in the Xperia Z3 series to a 23MP unit in the Z5s.
And it’s pretty impressive – it’s not going to satisfy the DSLR lovers among us, but as a standard point-and-shoot affair with a few extra modes to make pictures look great, there’s not much wrong with it.
The pixel quality is incredible, and there’s no better way to admire your shots than on the Xperia Z5 Premium’s 4K display.
When you launch the camera in auto mode the Xperia Z5 Premium will limit you to 8MP photos by default to save on space, but it’s easy enough to switch to manual and up the quality to the full 23MP, or something in between.
I’ve been zooming in on a lot of the photos I’ve taken in 23MP mode, and been very impressed.
There’s a new 5X zoom feature on the Xperia Z5 Premium’s camera, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with it. I kept finding myself struggling to focus in on particular subjects, and not getting a particularly impressive image.
On the other hand the brand new autofocus system on the Xperia Z5 Premium’s camera is quite impressive, and comes in useful when you’re taking photos in quick succession.
It doesn’t work so well for taking photos of moving objects, however – I’ve tried with cars, trains, animals and and I’m still not getting good results. Check out this shot of a passing cyclist…
I still have some issues with Sony cameras – I find that the images I take tend to come out looking a little duller than shots taken on other Android phones. There’s not enough color in the images, and it makes everything look a little dreary.
This is a shame, as otherwise it’s a pretty good camera – but I really don’t believe this is “the world’s best smartphone camera”, as Sony claims, and if you’re a true pixel perfectionist then this probably isn’t the phone for you.
Android Marshmallow does upgrade the camera UI and means it’s easier to switch between video and the normal shooting mode. Plus there’s also a new brightness toggle that makes it easier to fiddle with the lighting in your shots.
As for video, there’s Full HD recording as well as 4K – and now you can actually watch the 4K video you’ve recorded in the quality in which it’s meant to be viewed, courtesy of the 4K display.
The ability to record in 4K has felt a little superfluous ever since it started appearing on phones, but now that you can play it back in all its glory it’s quite exciting. Be warned though: it’s going to take up a lot of space on your phone.
On the front of the Xperia Z5 Premium is the 5.1MP selfie shooter. It’s fine for quick snaps but it’s nothing stunning – the OnePlus X, by comparison, boasts a 8MP front-facing unit, which goes to show what’s now possible with a secondary camera.
Overall, you’re unlikely to be disappointed with the Xperia Z5 Premium’s camera. It can produce incredibly detailed images, but there are a few little problems that make me feel it’s not the best it can be – and not as good as Sony’s marketing claims.
Camera samples
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Click here for the high-resolution image
Battery life
The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium comes with a 3430mAh battery pack, which sounds like quite a lot – and it is compared to some other smartphones. But remember, this phone has the highest-resolution screen on the market, and that demands some serious power.
That poor little cell has to power all those pixels over that 5.5-inch display, and even if you just turn on the screen briefly to check the time everything needs to light up.
It’s four times as much work than that on a Full HD phone – and the Xperia Z5 Premium doesn’t offer good enough battery life to match that 4K display.
I regularly finished the day without any charge left in the Xperia Z5 Premium – most days it would die on me around 9pm, and that wasn’t after particularly high usage during the day.
If I’m just listening to music and keeping the connectivity options on without lighting the screen, then the battery life is about what you’d expect from a current phone – but if I do anything that involves having the screen on, it drains quite quickly.
Put through techradar’s standard 90-minute video test, the Xperia Z5 Premium came out with a disappointing 69% of battery power remaining, a drop of 31%.
For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ boasts a 5.7-inch 2K display and completed the same test with a drop of 23% – and we were disappointed with that score at the time.
Add into the mix the iPhone 6S Plus, which lost 22%, and the Xperia Z5 Premium’s showing starts to look a little embarrassing.
I then ran the test again with brightness at 60%. I wouldn’t usually watch films at such a low brightness setting on the Xperia Z5 Premium, as the picture is nowhere near as vibrant, but we run this test to see how much battery life you can save by turning down the screen brightness when maximum brightness isn’t essential.
The Xperia Z5 Premium disappointed again here, coming out with 73% of its battery left for a drop of 27% – that’s a bigger drop than the Galaxy S6 Edge+ recorded in the full brightness test.
Given such poor battery performance, it’s a good job that Sony has at least included fast charging technology in the Xperia Z5 Premium.
You’ll need a special charger to be able to use this – however, you don’t get one with the phone, and we didn’t receive one with our sample handset, so we can’t comment on its efficacy yet.
It’s disappointing that a fast charger isn’t included in the box. When you’re asked to pay this much money for a phone you’d expect Sony to stretch to an accessory that’s integral to a good experience with the device.
If you want to buy the fast charger it’s called Quick Charger UCH10, and you can get it from a few sources, including Sony’s website, for £19.99 (about $30, AU$42).
According to Sony, fast charging brings your battery up to 60% in 30 minutes, and if that’s true it certainly makes up for the shortcomings of the battery, and will enable you to enjoy the 4K display without worrying about running out of juice.
Sony has also – yet again – left out wireless charging technology. This was really the time for Sony to include the technology in its phones, with charging facilities starting to appear in coffee shops, cafes and bars in many cities.
Battery life is proving to be the biggest concern for mobile users, and it’s a real disappointment that Sony didn’t go further in offering more and better charging options before amping up the screen resolution.
It just goes to heighten the suspicion that Sony has made a 4K phone simply to enjoy the bragging rights that come with having the highest-resolution screen in the mobile world.
Music, movies and gaming
There no built-in storage variants with the Xperia Z5 Premium – it comes with 32GB as standard, with microSD support for up to 200GB. This gives you up to 232GB of space, and the basic software starts eating into that fairly quickly.
When you first boot up the phone, Android takes up some 10GB, leaving you with around 20GB to play with before you’ll need a microSD card.
I found myself filling that up quite quickly with music and apps, so I’d certainly recommend getting a card – the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium can accommodate the biggest cards available, so lack of space isn’t going to be an issue.
Music
The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium comes with Sony’s own Music app preinstalled, so any music you load onto the phone will play through this. The app has sections for podcasts, genres, albums and songs, and it’s easy to scroll through your tracks.
You can’t easily access Sony’s PlayStation Music service through the app any more – it’s just listed as a service at the bottom of the app screen, and boots up a separate app when you select it.
It’s the same for Spotify, or any other streaming service you’re signed up to.
The Xperia Z5 Premium also comes with Google Play Music, enabling you to download a wide variety of albums and songs.
The front-facing speakers on the Xperia Z5 Premium aren’t the best money can buy. They get the job done, but they don’t impress as much as HTC’s BoomSound speakers, for example.
Movies
There’s a separate Video app on the Xperia Z5 Premium, which comes with Sony’s branding all over it and a few video clips to get your started.
Some 4K videos are included, so you can show off that 4K screen straight out of the box, without having to shoot your own footage or download videos.
Which brings us to another issue with the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium: even though you have a gorgeous 4K screen, it’s hard to get hold of content to watch on it.
You can head to Netflix for 4K content, but this is restricted to a number of the service’s own shows, such as House of Cards or Daredevil.
There’s no specific 4K streaming service, and it would have been nice for Sony to offer a few ultra-high-definition movies on its own video service.
PlayStation Video is fine, but without that standout high-resolution content you’re not going to lure people away from streaming services, or from buying content through Google Play – and Google’s service only goes up to Full HD right now.
Gaming
With a strong processor setup and 3GB of RAM, the Xperia Z5 Premium is great for gaming.
Playing through Real Racing 3 and Hearthstone were both a breeze, with none of the stuttering you can experience on many phones.
As mentioned, there’s also the option of hooking up PS4 Remote Play, which means you can enjoy your PlayStation 4 games on the phone – and performance will depend on your internet connection, obviously.
PS4 Remote Play is a great selling point for Sony’s devices, and it’s only going to get better as Sony expands the service, eventually enabling you to play games without your phone having to use the same internet connection as the console.
Hands on gallery
Competition
Here’s a look at the phones we see as being the main competition for the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium…
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Samsung’s latest Edge phone is one of the more innovative phones you can buy right now, quite like the Xperia Z5 Premium. The Galaxy S7 Edge also comes with a 5.5-inch screen, but on Samsung’s phone it’s curved around the edges.
The Galaxy S7 Edge also has a lot more functionality compared to previous Galaxy Edge phones. It comes with a high-end spec including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and the return of microSD support.
If you’re looking for something a little bit different to the rest of the phone market out there and don’t think the Xperia Z5 Premium is the phone for you, why not try this?
Moto X Style
The Moto X Style sports a 5.7-inch 2K display, and it looks great in the hand. You can also customise the handset using the online Moto Maker tool, so you don’t have to stick to the basic design, as is the case with the Xperia Z5 Premium.
There’s a 21MP camera as well, although it’s not quite as good as the 23MP shooter on the Xperia Z5 Premium.
By far the most impressive thing about the Moto X Style is its price. You can get the 32GB version for £360 / $450 (about AU$615) – almost half the price of the Xperia Z5 Premium.
iPhone 6S Plus
Apple’s second phablet incorporates its new 3D Touch screen technology, which gives you different functionality depending on how hard you press.
It’s a great innovation, and offers new ways to interact with your phone – the tech hasn’t been exploited by very many apps so far, but that will change.
The 5.5-inch screen is the same size as the Xperia Z5 Premium’s, but the screen resolution is nowhere near as high, with the iPhone 6S Plus only managing 401ppi. That said, images still look great, so if you’re into iPhones then this could be the phablet for you.
Sony Xperia Z5
Sony’s Xperia Z5 is a great new addition to the Sony family, and gives you the impression that for once the company has stepped it up a gear and really improved its flagship phone range.
The glass back is frosted, and there are metal edges that make the design feel much more premium than previous Z-series phones.
The battery life of the Xperia Z5 is much better than the Premium version’s, but the screen display isn’t anywhere near as good, with only Full HD on offer here. But this phone is much more affordable, so don’t go for the Premium until you’ve checked out little brother.
Verdict
Sony’s Xperia Z5 Premium is clearly an experiment with the top-end specs we’d love to see every phone include one day.
The 4K display really does deserve a round of applause – if you’d asked me 12 months ago I wouldn’t have said Sony would be the first to break the 4K barrier.
But there are still some big issues with the Xperia Z5 Premium, which mean it’s not the best phone money can buy right now.
We liked
The display technology is a step forward for the mobile phone industry. The Xperia Z5 Premium’s screen looks gorgeous, and it’s something I didn’t think we’d see for at least another year. Sony has managed to cheat a little by not making it an always 4K display, but if it saves on battery and offers a high-res picture I don’t really see it being a problem.
It might not look all that different to the 2K displays we’ve seen on a few flagship phones, but those who love to be first with the new tech will be delighted that Sony has jumped the 4K barrier and planted its flag.
The fingerprint scanner on the Xperia Z5 Premium is excellent, and I can’t think of another company that has got its security tech right so quickly; even Samsung and Apple had to have a few tries before they got it right.
PS4 Remote Play and waterproof designs aren’t a new thing for the Xperia brand, but we’ve never seen a phone this big include them.
The ability to enjoy your PlayStation 4 games on a 4K display while in a different room in your house is a great feature, and for gamers this alone is a good enough reason to buy a Sony phone.
Sony has claimed this is the best smartphone camera setup in the world. I don’t think that’s quite true, and there are some big issues with the camera, but it’s a big improvement on previous Xperia shooters, and it’s great to see Sony break new ground with this tech too.
We disliked
The design of the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is pretty lacklustre. There’s nothing inspired, like some of the flourishes on the Xperia Z5 – I don’t understand why Sony didn’t decide to frost the glass on the back, as on the main flagship.
The plastic edges especially feel cheap, and a step backwards from the design of the Xperia Z5. The fact that this phone weighs so much more, and is thicker, only adds to the disappointment.
Sony’s UI isn’t anything impressive either. There’s no step towards improving it over the offering on the Xperia Z3+, and if anything it feels like there’s even more bloatware on this phone.
Heat-up issues continue to plague the Xperia Z family. The problem is nowhere near as bad on the Xperia Z5 Premium as on the Xperia Z3+, but no one wants their phone to heat up alarmingly while they’re playing a game or just watching a video.
Battery life on the Xperia Z5 Premium just isn’t good enough either. The cell isn’t that much bigger than the one in the regular-sized flagship, which is a problem given the 4K display it has to power.
A long-lasting battery is one of the main features people look for in a phone, and Sony hasn’t managed to make serious progress in this area before ploughing ahead with cutting-edge screen technology that we don’t particularly need right now.
Verdict
There’s no denying that Sony was chasing headlines with the Xperia Z5 Premium. We should all applaud Sony for what is has achieved in putting a 4K display in a smartphone, but feels like this hasn’t been done with the right intentions.
Battery issues were inevitable, and I’d really hoped that Sony had a plan to improve the battery life in the Xperia Z5 Premium. Instead, Sony has just hoped its battery would be sufficient and run with it.
This suggests that the Xperia Z5 Premium is more of an experiment than an attempt at making the best phone on the market.
The general specs of the Xperia Z5 Premium do impress, though. If you can live with that below-average battery life, and don’t mind spending a bit more on the fast-charging adapter, you’ll have a fantastic experience with this phone.
Sony has proved that 4K in a phone is possible, and I look forward to the next version – we’ll hopefully be able to appreciate that display even more when some of the other issues have been ironed out.
It might not be as stylish a handset as the Xperia Z5, or as easy to hold as the Xperia Z5 Compact, but the Xperia Z5 Premium is the go-to phone for enthusiasts who want the next big thing.
It’s just a shame that it’s not a more rounded package that everyone else can get excited about.
First reviewed November 2015
Source: techradar.com
Top Brands
"Viewing angles are excellent, even though Sony isn't using its Triluminous screen tech in the Xperia Z5 Premium."
DISPLAY5.5'' 4K UHD (3840×2160), 806 PPI, Triluminos display for mobile, X-Reality™ for mobile, Dynamic Contrast Enhancer
The screen?
For VR applications, the pixel density is a giant and necessary leap. I've been waiting for this.
I really, realy want the t phone, it looks amazing!
Well said i am sick and tired off these biased reviews, its becoming boring
end of the day the sony z series have always the best specifications and always the forefront of technology. No one takes this site seriously anymore, the best thing techradar done so far is was giving us good links to black friday deals, maybe they should do this fulltime.
Please upload the same 4k video on the note 5 and compare both and see the massive difference between the Sony and the Note 5. I have seen a video comparison and the Sony display is miles ahead in sharpness, colour accuracy, white balance and dynamic range. Do this so you guys can stop ranting that there's no point of 4k on a smartphone.
Unless I'm mistaken the display is only 4K when viewing certain content, it's not on all the time so the screen wouldn't be sharper when viewing regular content.
There's a massive difference between the Sony 4k screen and what you have on the note 5. Go on you tube search for sony xperia z5 premium 4k test and see a direct comparison between the two phones and be amazed at what Sony has done with the screen which blows the note 5 out of the water.
Can you invent a design and suggest it to Sony,just for you to be liked!
The phone accepts micro-SD cards up to 200gb, it's extremely waterproof, it has fantastic audio hardware, good battery life, one of the top cameras and a fabulous screen. Try putting the iPhone 6S or 6 Plus side by side with the Z5 Premium and watch Pandora (Avatar) 1080p on both. Everyone has an opinion but few have any real experience of using the phone. I have and the Z5 Premium is streets ahead.
I gotta say, I've had it for about 5 days now and im so extremely dissapointed with the battery. it was fully charged this morning at 8.00am and now at 1.03pm its down to 41%. I have not used it for more than 10 minutes at a time since im at work,(yeah slag me of for not doing anything, shut up! I've had 4 days off during 2015) screen is barely visible because I've seen people suggest to turn the auto off and to reduce the brightness, not even had spotify on because its Friday and I dont wanna lose my awesome headphones when im out drinking after work, read a few articles on the bus on my way to work this morning, browsed tinder for about 15 mins while on the toilet. no snapchat, no photos, no nothing! it overheats like crazy after a couple of minutes. I've had my z3 for a long time until now, and i was so extremely satisfied with it. so bummed out now with this phones potential, the soundcard in it has made my headphones sound like a brand new one, the 4k videos, that camera, and im just to scared to use it because either a) ill run out of battery before 9.00pm, or b) it'll actually burn a hole thorugh my pants. should I get into how long it takes to charge? nah…
You guys are biased to record heights, let's look at this review and the some of the negatives they spit. Design, they say its dated and boring etc they decided to use the understated black colour for their review, why not the chrome version which every single reviewer even the most biased ones have praised as a stunning looker and oozes premium. They didn't even mention that there are other colour options available. When u start a review like this using the worst colour option that really no one or very few will get without even mentioning that there's a far supreme gold and extremely crazy and rare chrome version available it speaks volumes about the intent of this review.
They talk about the screen saying its superb but not much of a difference between it and a Qhd Samsung suggesting getting the cheaper Samsung as an overall better option cause the Z5p is expensive. How much is the Samsung galaxy s6 edge plus if i may ask? without even a 4k screen on board, how much is the i phone 6s plus 64gb version? The level of bias is incredible from some of these sites. You haven't even done a detailed head on comparison zooming both the Z5p and S6 edge plus or note 5 to see if there's a difference. It's a good thing some of us have seen several screen comparisons and can say categorically the Z5p has a better screen than the Note 5 and also has a better screen than the i phone 6s plus by a mile. They also talk about the phone being too large and yet the same negatives are never said about the iphone 6s plus that's a larger phone cause of the incredible record breaking bezels. The camera they say its good but a make a point that it isn't the best and that the Samsung s6 is better. It's a good thing its just your opinion, nothing factual and nobody rates your analysis as a benchmark for anything unlike Dxo mark. Then if the S6 camera is better as u claim why would Samsung be negotiating with Sony now to break the monopoly of the z5 sensor? They want the same sensor in the s7, i guess Samsung must be foolish to want an inferior sensor for the next s7. I can already come up with their next illogical answer to this: Sony's problem is software not hardware and that Samsung has better software and will produce better images as if they already seen it themselves first hand or Samsung has already tested the new sensor on their new phones and can see the difference with their optimized software. These guys can only deceive novices with these biased reviews really, it is sad though there are a lot of people who fall prey to these terrible reviews done deliberately to put Sony down so they don't have any success.
Well – I was sucked in by the hype over Apple products – I have suffered for the last 2 years with what I can only describe as a piece of junk (iphone 5) that continually annoys me everytime I do anything other than make a phone call !! Always used Sony products in the past – great quality – reliable – straightforward – none of this running out of battery after not even half a days useage – Truly wish I was not hoodwinked into changing to using an iphone – If this review is accurate then god only knows how poor the rest of the products are. Also – whilst I am here – Cant believe why anyone would use an ipad unless they are really really desperate for some form of media interaction. I work twice as quickly on a laptop – God knows how many deals I have lost before giving up and trashing my ipad mini in a fit of rage over being unable to match my laptop performance – Good riddance to a mediochre (at best) product!!
So I've been a Samsung user for years due in large part to their screen quality and removable batteries (I've had an S2, S3 & S5). It's time to renew again. I'm bored of Samsung plus they have removed their USP (removable battery) and I want a bigger screen so I've been looking at the options.
OnePlus 2 (signed up for an invite in early August)
Sony Z5 Premium
Blackberry Priv
Google Nexus 6P
I signed up for a OnePlus invite but gave up waiting after a couple of months (despite being bumped up the queue a lot with some referrals).
I discounted the Privy as I don't care about the physical keyboard (I never used a Blackberry back when they were popular) and I don't believe they will be around this time next year. That said, the privacy settings were an attraction for me.
I actually ordered a 6P, but cancelled it when I read about the Z5 Premium and wanted to wait for the reviews before deciding. I still think this looks like a great phone, and I probably would have bought this over the Sony.
Then I looked at the Sony. Hmmm. I've no doubt the screen will look great, but since I don't use VR 4K on a phone is pointless to me. I think the camera looks good too, but since I'm nothing more than an occasional happy snapper, any decent phone camera is likely to be fine for me. So all that's really left to justify the Z5 Premium is PS4 remote Play. £700 is a lot for just that – especially when my tablet will need renewing in a little while and I can get the same function on a bigger screen for a much lower price then.
Then my OnePlus invite arrived. I bought the 64Gb OnePlus 2, all new cables & adaptors (for work, car, portable battery etc) plus a case for less than half the cost of the Z5 Premium at launch. If I had bought the Sony I would have effectively spent more than the price of a PS4 console just to be able to occasionally play PS4 games on my phone.
When the price comes down or the Z6 Premium comes out maybe I'll look again at the Z5 Premium, but for now it is just way too much money for something that has little or no benefit (for me!). TBH, except for the lack of fast charging, the OnePlus Two fits my needs perfectly.
In my view as the market becomes mature and relatively less well-known players like OnePlus, Huawei and others up their game, top end phones from premium manufacturers will be much cheaper than they are now.
Heh…with Sony, that would probably be a pixel quadrant rather than the whole screen.
I have this phone, I work for a UK mobile network so get to try lots of phones. This is the best I have ever used! I have a GoPro Hero 4, and this plays back the videos perfectly! This is the advantage of the 4K screen, I can zoom in on a GoPro video while it is playing and the resolution does not degrade. No other phone that I am aware of would be able to do this. The battery IS very good, as long as you don't have everything running all at once and make use of stamina mode. The iPhone 6s doesn't come close. The S6 series would have done, but no micro sd card slot is a big error by Samsung.
do you like the phone? I am considering it now 😀
the reviewer mentions an aluminum frame, but isn't the Z5 supposed to have stainless steel? Wondering if there is much of a difference between the two in terms of strength and overall design
the article is written with a tone of its good but who needs 4k, if apple half the specifications of this phone then it would be the best thing since slice bread. Gareth Beavis,wrote the article what you expect, if its not apple or Samsung then
its not gonna be great. Hes articles are very bias. The z5 review was done by James Peckham and that was a fair review, i wish he could do the z5 premium
review because it would more fair and balanced then gareth beavis.
It's mildly disappointing that the reviewer didn't mention the Zeiss VR One is bundled with early adopter boxes. This all of a sudden brings the 4k screen into focus (no pun intended) and makes it extremely relevant. 806ppi absolutely DESTROYS the competition and is THE most relevant 'feature' for effective VR. VR apps on this phone will be significantly higher resolution than on any dedicated VR headet already announced, PLUS, it won't require a $2k PC (I have a Rift DK2 and a $2K pc by the way). I will be ordering a z5 premium tonight.
Its not about samsung or apple or any other brand, wait n watch all would bring this 4K under the same Battery capacity 3500 MAH… except this f**k Apple would take years to bring, but sure it will bring.
Man I looked at the landing page of this site, and I was like ok, that's a site that lives on apple's d**k!
As an actual owner of the phone I have to say that I am impressed. Looking at the screen on a screen doesn't show you how accurate and sharp it is. It looks beautiful. The speed is awesome and the fingerprint sensor is genius. Also the pure android experience the lack of apple's and Samsung's UI that is designed to placate to the less technologically savvy is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. The camera is good as far as a phone goes but it is no DSLR (NO PHONE is). In conclusion the screen is great, the camera is good, it looks good, it is not small though but I don't even notice it, and it is a great device. However everyone is different and no review or comment should ever influence your decision on what device is right for you. Decide for yourself.
Sell it for $400 and I'm in.
I bet if the iPhone had the same specs the article would not be as negative for what seems to me to be a fantastic phone.