Fancy picking yourself up a 4K phone in 2017? Sony’s got you covered with its Sony XZ Premium

The Sony XZ Premium is now official, following its launch at MWC 2017. This handset picks up where Sony’s last release left off. Yes, Sony is still pumping out handset in six month intervals.

But the Sony XZ Premium is a little different because, for the first time in a good long while, I am actually rather excited by this handset. It looks stunning and has specs to match.

So what makes the Sony XZ Premium tick? Read on for a quick breakdown of all of its new features and USPs.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium Design

Like all Xperia handsets before it, the Xperia XZ Premium carries Sony’s now trademark OmniBalance design that is perhaps best described as a sexy-looking slab of aluminium.

It’s svelte, delicate in the hand and exudes premium feel. The overall look and finish is exceptionally smart, so hats off to Sony’s design department for this one. It looks great.

Sony has added a couple of things in that really help set the Xperia ZX Premium apart from the handsets that came before it. The inclusion of 2.5D Gorilla Glass on the front and rear, when combined with the handset’s metal frame, results in a beautifully balanced look.

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is available in two colour options: Deepsea Black and Luminous Chrome. Both handsets are waterproof, as you’d expect from Sony, and both are very thin at just 7.9mm.

The only issue I do have with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium’s looks is its rather massive bezels which, to me, simply look ungainly and detract quite a lot, aesthetically-speaking, from an otherwise exceptionally attractive Android phone.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium Display

This is where shizz gets real. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium features a 5.5in 4K LCD display which nets you an INSANE 806ppi. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium also features HDR as standard, meaning what you have here is perhaps the most advanced mobile display on the planet right now.

The handset also features Sony’s Triluminos and X-Reality technologies, which are designed to improve image quality even further. And if that wasn’t enough, Sony has partnered with Amazon to bring a raft of 4K content to the Xperia XZ Premium, so you can take advantage of its 4K panel right away.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium Camera

Sony’s gone BIG in the imaging department as well.

The Xperia XZ Premium features a 19MP rear camera and a 13MP setup on the front for selfies.

The Xperia XZ Premium is the world’s first phone to feature Sony’s memory stacked Exmor RS sensor which delivers faster image scanning and data transfer – Sony says its 5X faster.

The pixels inside the 19MP camera are 19% larger compared to Sony’s previous flagship. As per usual, there’s a bunch of supplementary features like Predictive Capture, Anti-Distortion Shutter, and super slow motion video recording at 960fps.

Basically: this is one hell of a camera setup. I cannot wait to test it out properly.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium Specs & Hardware

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 
• 4GB of RAM
• IP68 waterproofing
• 2,900mAh battery
• 13MP front-facing camera
• 19MP main camera
• Android 7 Nougat
• 64GB storage
• microSD-support – up to 256GB in size

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Sony this year. But the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is one hell of an update.

It has amazing specs, a brilliant camera and tons of utility.

The design is spot on and I cannot wait to see how this handset performs during proper testing.

My only concern right now is the battery – it’s rather small (and this phone has a 4K display).