The year 2016 saw a lot of different kinds of smartphones, ranging from the beautiful, the weird and the futuristic. Even while the year is ending, we keep seeing a lot of new entries in this ever-evolving segment.
Companies are starting to be innovative with their work and its showing. Keep in mind that a lot of these new technologies and designs were borrowed from Apple. Different tech companies like HTC, Google, LG, Motorola and Xiaomi, have traveled the extra mile to make things more innovative.
Some of them succeeded and some of them didn’t. Meanwhile, the Japanese tech giant Sony, finally decided whether it should discontinue its Z lineup or not. Sony is done with the Z series; the company took a different turn with the XZ series.
Regarding looks, it seems to be a combination of the Xperia X Performance and Xperia Z5, as per branding and tech specs is concerned. It not only looks different, it feels different too. However, nowadays the problem is that being good is not just enough for everyone. Overall, the XZ looks like a combination of different things.
It has the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on the front, followed by Alkaleido metal on the back and plastic on the sides of this device. A lot of you are wondering, what on earth is Alkaleido. In reality, its Aluminum which comes in a fancy form with a subtle matte finish and what Sony explains is a feeling of sure depth.
The lower end of the back has some plastic as well. The physical buttons are entirely made up of plastic along with the rectangular flap which covers the dual hybrid SIM card slot. Sony’s Xperia XZ has a lot of plastic, but the company has done a good job in disguising it with the rest.
With every generation, Sony brings interesting changes to its trademark OmniBalance design scheme. The company recently started appreciating the presence of curves. The Xperia X family of the device showed us some curves which were hard to discern with the naked eye.
However, it is still as flat as a pancake but includes something that’s called a loop surface. It makes sure that sharp corners are a lot less and overall, it looks a lot more pleasing and fluidic to the eye.
The sides of the phone combine seamlessly with the glass and metal, thereby giving the phone a sophisticated look. In reality, the XZ looks like a device you c an expect BlackBerry to make, especially the mineral glass variant. In other words, it is the best-looking device to be built by Sony so far.
On the right-hand side of the device, you have an oblong power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor. Keep in mind that it you’re in the US, it’s just a button. The right-hand side also has a camera launcher button and a volume rocker, while the left has a microSD card tray and a SIM.
The device has a 5.2-inch display, which makes it closer to the Z series rather than the X series. The X, XA and X Performance, all have 5-inch displays while the Xperia Z variants had 5-inch displays. The Xperia XZ has a full HD display with a 424ppi pixel density. At this size, the display looks quite crisp and beautiful while browsing through photos and gaming.
The device has a Snapdragon 820 processor, and it runs on 3GB of RAM. It’s quite a flagship but not what you’d expect from a device which launches in the last quarter of 2016. Come on; we already have phones with six gigs of RAM!