This week, with sales just beginning of the Sony Xperia XZ2, the first Sony phone with wireless charging, and the smaller Xperia XZ2 Compact, (both were announced in February) Sony has just unveiled a larger, more powerful phone and one that seems certain to turn heads. And it made the announcement with a level of discretion surprising given how big a deal this phone is.The Xperia XZ2 is a great phone and I'll be reviewing it shortly, but Sony has had this one up its sleeve. I think this because in February at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Sony talked about an image signal processor which was so powerful it could capture 'more than the human eye can see'. At the time, many were confused about what this really meant, not least because it wasn't on the two phones the company announced alongside this processor. Watch this space, we thought, though it seemed likely we'd have to wait until the Fall or even next year, for the next Xperia flagship.
But, no, Sony has now announced the Xperia XZ2 Premium and with it the new signal processor and much more.
The XZ2 Premium, for instance, has a full 4K HDR display - something Sony had introduced last year on the XZ Premium but which was noticeably absent from this year's XZ2 models in February. This is a bigger phone, like last year's Premium was, with a 5.8in display. But this phone follows the new, glossy, curvy-backed design of the other XZ2s with smaller bezels than on previous Xperia phones, even if they're not as minimalist as on the iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy S9.
But the other specs on the XZ2 Premium are arguably so advanced as to trounce most of the phones available now.
Not just the 4K HDR display which, assuming it's as good as it was last year on the XZ Premium, will be gorgeous. And like last year's Premium, by the way, this one will have a 16:9 screen ratio.
Anyway, there's also the cameras. Now, Sony has consistently had strong cameras on its phones, not least because its sensors are cutting-edge (and Sony makes camera sensors for rival manufacturers, too).
Here, Sony has deployed twin sensors for the first time on the rear of the phone - one 19MP color sensor, one 12MP monochrome. This is an intriguing way round to do it. Huawei, for instance, has sometimes included a higher-resolution black-and-white sensor to pull in all the sharp detail quickly and use a lower-resolution RGB sensor for color fidelity.
The signal processor, called AUBE fusion, is designed to work in remarkably low light, offering an ISO of 51,200 which, if it works, should be pretty amazing.
And like last year's Premium and this year's XZ2, the new phone will have super-slo-mo at a rate of 960fps - though there's no mention of the clever automatic shutter for super slow motion, as found on the Samsung Galaxy S9.
Still, this phone also boasts the feature that was a first on the XZ2: 4K HDR movie recording.
The front camera on the XZ2 Premium is obviously aimed at superior selfies, because it's a 13MP sensor.
Like the XZ2, there's a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. Some previous Xperia phones have lacked fingerprint sensors in some places, most notably the USA but this model has one and it's likely to work everywhere.
I say everywhere, but the phone has not yet been confirmed for some territories, notably the UK, but it seems likely to be available in the USA this summer, though not on Sprint or Verizon as there's no CDMA variant announced. No price is set but it'll be certain to outprice the Xperia XZ2.
Sony had waterproofing as standard before almost all its rivals, and has more recently made phones with batteries that not only lasted longer on a day-to-day basis but had smart conditioning to last better over the life of the product, too.
With these features and the newly improved styling of the XZ2, the larger Xperia XZ2 Premium has remarkable potential.
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