Sony Xperia XZs review

Those hoping for a new design from the XZs will be disappointed. The XZs features the same loop design of the predecessor complete with rounded sides that taper to the front and back. Critics found this design comfortable in their hands. It also is IP68 certified, making it dust- and water-resistant.

Besides this, it comes with the same metal plate back, plastic sides and glass front. For those looking for thin bezels, look elsewhere as this has a large top and bottom bezel when compared to other flagship phones.

Another annoying issue is the fingerprint sensor. For international versions, the scanner is on the power button. Many experts found the placement awkward. If you live in the US, you won’t have a fingerprint scanner at all.

The 5.2-inch 1920-by-1080 display is unchanged as well from its predecessor, which isn’t a bad thing. Reviewers were pleased with the good viewing angles, color reproduction, contrast and overall sharpness. While not the brightest smartphone on the market, they had no issues viewing the phone outdoors on a sunny day.

The differences show up in performance. The Xperia XZs comes equipped with the same 1.6GHz quad-core processor and graphics processor as its predecessor. It does, however, get a RAM boost—up to 4GB.

Although the processor isn’t top-of-the-line, critics were happy to note it still hummed along well during day-to-day and more intensive tasks. They didn't notice sluggishness or lag. Though when compared side-by-side with its competitors it is slightly slower.

Battery-life was neither good nor bad. Reviewers could get around a full day’s worth of life with moderate usage. With that said, Phone Arena adds, “… if you play a lot of heavy games, or rely on your navigation a lot, you might want to keep a USB-C cable close by for emergency charging.”

While Sony has gone for minor changes in most departments, they saved the major upgrade for the 19MP main camera. Sony makes use of its latest smartphone sensor, which comes with 1GB of its own DRAM.

What does this mean? It can shoot super-slow motion videos at 960 fps. There are two super slow-motion modes—regular and one-shot. Regular allows you to shoot normal video, but with a click of a button, you can switch to slow-motion in the middle. The second records a short 960 fps video.

If you’re not into taking videos, that’s okay. Reviewers were pleased with the overall picture quality as well. Highlights include lots of detail, excellent color reproduction and little noise in good and low light conditions thanks to its 5-axis stabilization.

While a solid phone, critics have a hard time recommending the Xperia XZs over its predecessor due to the minor upgrades. Gadgets 360 states, “Sony needed a more drastic hardware change compared to its previous flagship, and the Xperia XZs doesn’t deliver that.” Android Authority agrees stating, “The Xperia XZs is not worth an upgrade from its predecessor, and if you are in the market for a new phone, there are quite a few options out there that undercut [it]… If you want a real upgrade… you are better off waiting for the more powerful Xperia XZ Premium.”