Sony shows Xperia XZ2 Premium with 4K HDR screen

Snapdragon 845 SoC and dual cameras with high ISO

Sony has unveiled its newest flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ2 Premium, with a 4K screen, a high end dual rear camera setup and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC with 6GB of RAM.

Measuring  158x80x11.9mm and weighing in at 236g, the Xperia XZ2 Premium is a hefty smartphone but due to Sony’s  “ambient flow” design with a curved back, which we saw at the MWC 2018 show on Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact, makes it only 6.4mm thick at the edges.

The screen and camera are significantly better

The star of the Xperia XZ2 Premium is the 5.8-inch Triluminos HDR touchscreen with 3840×2160 resolution, adding up to a 765ppi pixel density at a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. It has a dynamic contrast enhancer and dynamic vibration system, whatever that means, but Sony notes that it is also the brightest 4K HDR display ever and “uses Bravia TV technology to up-convert everything to near HDR for cinema-quality contrast, color and clarity.”

The screen is placed behind a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and the smartphone is also IP68 certified, making it water and dust resistant.

The Xperia XZ2 Premium is likely to offer  performance as wekk because it uses Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 SoC with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable with microSDXC card by up to 400GB.

Another big update compared to the Xperia XZ2 is the rear dual camera setup with a 1/2.3″ Exmor RS 19 megapixel sensor with 1.22?m pixel pitch and  25mm-wide f/18 G Lens, and black and white 1/2.3″ 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with 1.55?m pixel pitch and f/1.6 G Lens. The main rear camera is – it is claimed -packed with features including AUBE fusion image signal processor and BIONZ for its mobile image processing engine, supports 960 fps super slow-motion video at FHD resolution or 4K HDR movie recording, autofocus burst, HDR photo, 8x digital zoom, Sony’s SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode (5-axis stabilization), anti-distortion shutter, predictive autofocus and more.

Sony also said that bokeh and monochrome features will be available in Q3 2018.

Thanks to the dual sensor setup, the rear camera will be able to record low-light photo with ISO 51,200 and low-light video with ISO set at up to 12,800 reckons Sony.

The front camera is not too bad either as it comes with 1/3,06” Exmor RS for mobile 13-megapixel sensor behind a 22mm f/2.0 lens and ISO of up to 3,200 for picture and up to 1,600 for videos.

The rest of the specifications include all the usual connectivity options including A-GPS, A-Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS8, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band WiFi, WiFi Miracast, Bluetooth 5.0, and USB 3.1 Type-C port. It lacks a dedicated audio jack and the fingerprint reader is placed on the back of the phone. It also comes with 3540 mAh battery with STAMINA and Smart Stamina modes, Qnovo adaptive charging, Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 support and Qi wireless charging support. According to Sony, the 3540 mAh battery should last at least all day, maybe more with all those stamina features.

It also comes with S-Force Front Surround stereo speakers, High-Resolution Audio, ClearAudio+ and Clear BASS features, LDAC for better Bluetooth streaming, and more. Of course, it will run on Android Oreo OS.

Still no price and availability details

The Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium flagship will be coming in Chrome Black or Chrome Silver color options but Sony still did not reveal any details about  price or availability date for the Xperia XZ2 Premium, other than it will be available in summer, this year. Hopefully, it will show up for pre-order in some shop so we can get a clearer picture of  how much it costs, compared to the Xperia XZ2.