Sony launched its flagship Sony Xperia XZ Premium in India on Thursday, is a top-tier dust and water-resistant camera-centric phone. The Xperia XZ Premium sports a 19-megapixel Motion Eye camera system on the rear assisted with predictive phase detection and laser auto-focus, but no Optical Image Stabilization. Available from June 12, the Xperia XZ Premium price in India is Rs. 59,990 (best buy price). It will be available from Sony Center, select retail outlets, and Amazon.
Pre-bookings for the Sony Xperia XZ Premium begin on Friday, June 2, and go on till June 11. Customers who pre-book will get a free Sony SRS-XB20 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker worth Rs. 8,990. The company is also bundling a 3-month subscription to Sony LIV worth Rs. 349 for free for all buyers, as well as Gameloft’s Modern Combat 5 with 5,200 in-game credits.
Xperia XZ Premium is Sony’s top-tier flagship phone for the year 2017. Hardware-wise, the Xperia XZ Premium can stand toe-to-toe with Samsung’s Galaxy S8 (and Galaxy S8+), HTC’s U11 and LG’s G6.
Sony Xperia XZ Premium has another highlight feature apart from its top-end Snapdragon 835 SoC – its camera. The smartphone sports a 19-megapixel Motion Eye camera with a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS memory stacked sensor that’s capable of shooting videos at 960 frames per second. It also offers predictive hybrid autofocus and predictive capture features. Other highlights include a 25mm f/2.0 lens, and 1.22-micron pixel sensor.
The USP of Sony’s Motion Eye camera system is said to be the fact that it can do 960-frames-per-second slow-motion videos, 4X times slower than any other smartphone available in the market right now, and ‘dramatise your every moment’ according to Sony. Sony has been able to achieve this by fitting a 128MB DRAM layer of memory onto the camera sensor itself. The 960 fps slow-motion mode is activated via a dedicated toggle inside the camera app. The phone, in addition, can also record 4K videos.
As for the front camera, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a 13-megapixel 1/3.06-inch Exmor RS sensor that’s coupled with 22mm wide-angle f/2.0 lens. The company is touting its SteadyShot technology for both cameras, with 5-axis stabilisation. Another highlight is dust and water resistance with an IP65/68 rating, as well as the use of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back of the smartphone.
The Xperia XZ Premium comes with what Sony calls loop surface design, uses healthy doses of metal and plastic as well. While the sides of the phone are metal, the top and bottom ends are plastic. The Xperia XZ Premium is uses USB Type-C for charging and data syncing. There’s also a side-mounted fingerprint scanner on-board the device.
Hardware specs include: 5.5-inch IPS LCD display 4K (2160×3840 pixels) HDR Triluminos display with an sRGB 138 percent spectrum and the X-Reality for Mobile display engine, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 256GB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. The phone comes with a pair of stereo speakers and support for high-res audio via compatible headphones.
The dual-SIM Xperia XZ Premium runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based Xperia UI and supports 4G LTE (VoLTE-ready). It is powered by a 3230mAh non-removable battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. It ships with a Quick Charger UCH-12 in the box which is claimed to charge the phone by up to 60 per cent in 45 minutes. It also supports what Sony calls as adaptive charging. The Xperia XZ Premium uses intelligent charging to prevent battery decline, according to the company. It learns your charging patterns and adapts to them, resulting in up to twice the battery lifespan, it claims.
Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C (3.1), and a 3.5mm audio jack.
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