Hands On With the Sony Xperia XZ3

BERLIN—The Sony Xperia XZ3 looks nearly identical to its predecessor, the XZ2. Until you plough information technology on and its new OLED display roars to life, that is.

I had the chance to do exactly that shortly after the Japanese tech behemothic unveiled the XZ3 hither at IFA, where I immediately noticed a vast comeback in display quality.

With its new OLED panel and a QHD+ (2,880 by i,440) resolution, the 6-inch brandish on the XZ3 is a marked improvement over the XZ2's already splendid screen. The XZ2 has a relatively low flick density compared to other flagship smartphones like the Samsung Milky way S9, but it besides features upconverting HDR, which means you lot don't need HDR-specific media in social club to take full advantage of the screen's HDR capabilities.

Add in this HDR upconversion to the increased screen resolution, and you get truly fantabulous display quality. Colors popped and everything from icon labels to the virtual Android buttons on the bottom of the display looked incredibly well-baked, even in the harshly lit demo room.

The XZ3, which Sony plans to starting time selling in late September, borrows its OLED panel technology from Sony's Bravia televisions, merely it'due south non necessarily unique, and Sony is really behind the curve when information technology comes to putting OLED in flagship phones. Samsung began using similar AMOLED displays on its Galaxy S8, introduced in early 2022.

As well the improved display quality, the XZ3's other principal innovation is a squeeze sensor along the left and right edges. You double-tap the telephone with your fingers as you're holding information technology to actuate the Side Sense feature, a customizable bill of fare of suggested apps and tools.

Sony says the apps in Side Sense are selected via artificial intelligence after you've been using the XZ3 for a while. When I squeezed the phone during the demo, it brought upward a 3-by-three matrix of apps that included Google Chrome, Photographic camera, and the PlayStation app.

To a higher place the matrix, at that place's a suggestion that allows you lot to "Better accuracy of apps prediction." Below it, y'all'll find icons for Wi-Fi, battery saver, and Bluetooth settings.

As with the OLED screen, Sony isn't the first smartphone maker to introduce force per unit area sensors on the side of the handset. They're currently bachelor on competing flagship phones similar the HTC U11 and the Google Pixel ii. Squeezing the Pixel two launches Google Assistant, and information technology's also bad Sony doesn't offer a mode to customize the XZ3's squeeze sensor to launch the Assistant equally well. Getting a pick of curated apps isn't ever helpful, specially when you're on the habitation screen.

Bombardment chapters is improved slightly to 3,300mAh, up from iii,100mAh in the XZ2. It's unlikely that the slight increase will be enough to deal with all the actress power that the increased display resolution and clasp sensor require, though. The XZ2 only lasted a disappointing four hours and 40 minutes on our battery test.

Many of the XZ3's other features are the same ones you'll find on the XZ2. That includes the concrete design, consummate with curved screen edges and and a rounded back panel that curves almost the edges. The back panel is made of glass and a chip slippery when yous're property information technology, not to mention that information technology is one of the strongest fingerprint magnets I've ever encountered.

Cameras are the aforementioned too, although their software gets some improvements. The xix-megapixel rear-facing camera is capable of shooting both 4K video or slow-motion 1080p video. The new camera app will automatically launch when you raise the phone horizontally to salve fourth dimension when yous're trying to capture a fleeting shot. There's also new bokeh and and dazzler filters for selfies that you take with the front end-facing thirteen-megapixel camera.

The XZ2's unique front-facing speakers as well carry over to the XZ3, allowing you to watch videos with virtual surround sound. The XZ3 also includes its predecessor's dynamic vibration, which vibrates the phone in sync with what's playing, including videos and music. It's a fleck similar using a game panel controller.

When it launches, the Xperia XZ3 will exist one of the first phones to come with Android 9.0 Pie out of the box. Sony does apply its ain skin on tiptop of the Android Os, just it's fairly minimal. Icons and navigation menus look the same on the XZ3 equally they practise on an Android ix-powered Google Pixel Forty I used recently.

The Xperia XZ3 will be available in the U.s. from Amazon and All-time Buy starting Oct. 17 for $900.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/samsung-galaxy-s8/29139/hands-on-with-the-sony-xperia-xz3

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