Great shots, great sounds, great phone

SONY’S LATEST Xperia smartphone, the Z5, features wireless high-resolution audio playback and a camera of truly impressive quality.

Housed in a metal frame – 7.3mm and 154 grams – with a frosted-glass finish at the back, the Z5 is available in gold, white, green and graphite-black, the last one loaned to me to test and a real beauty.

You have a 5.2-inch Full HD 1080p Triluminos display with 1080x1920-pixel resolution. The X-Reality for Mobile display engine couples with a dynamic contrast enhancer for great viewing of high-definition video clips and photos.

The fine performance comes down to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64-bit octa-core processor running at 2GHz and 1.56GHz and an Adreno 430 graphic-processing unit. For games and other demanding applications, a quad-core ARM Cortex A57 at 2GHz kicks in, and for general apps there’s a quad-core A53 at 1.56GHz.

Three gigabytes of working memory allow for smooth multitasking, and the 32GB of internal storage and expandable with a microSD card up to 200GB.

The Z5 runs on Google Android 5.1 and supports LTE 4G connections. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and downloaded and installed apps, backed up photos to my Microsoft OneDrive account and posted them on Facebook very fast. The Ookla speed-test app measured downloads at 50.2Mbps and uploads at 20.7.

The touch-screen and menus are very responsive and video clips play smoothly, and you can play full high-resolution FLAC 24bit 192kHz music tracks without hiccups. You can also stream music using Sony’s LDAC codec, which is optimised for above-CD sound quality, which means high-resolution music coming in wirelessly at samplings of up to 96kHz/24bit.4.5Mbps. I ran it through Sony’s MDR-1ABT and appreciated the terrific quality. 

The Z5 music app comes with a DSEE HX function that upgrades the audio quality of MP3 and AAC tracks to near high-res, making the phone a great Walkman music player. A MDR-NC750 high-resolution-audio headset with built-in digital noise-cancelling is an option at Bt2,990.

In terms of pictures, the Z5 carries advanced technology and Sony’s big new Exmor RS mobile sensor, with 23-megapixel resolution. 

The main camera also uses an f/2.0 G lens and Clear Image Zoom technology to enable five-time zooms without quality loss. Hybrid Autofocus gets the scene – even a moving subject – in focus in 0.03 seconds using contrast and phase detection. And Touch Capture lets you focus and shoot by tapping anywhere on the screen. The Exmor RS CMOS sensor is highly sensitive, so you get sharp photos even in low light. 

While the screen is still locked, you can press and hold the camera key on the right side of the screen to activate the camera. Use the key to take photos with one hand and minimise shake (since you’re not touching the screen), and use the volume keys to zoom in and out.

For selfies, the front camera has a 25mm wide-angle lens so you can crowd all your friends into the shot.

Among the shooting modes is Superior Auto, as found on Sony digital cameras. It guarantees sharp pictures in most lighting conditions, automatically selecting the scene mode for you. Night-time pictures grab the lights dramatically.

Other shooting modes include Manual, Creative Effect, Sweep Panorama and Sticker Creator. In Manual, you select your own scene modes – Soft Skin, Landscape, Backlight Correction HDR, Hand-held Twilight, High Sensitivity, Pet, Party, Sports and Fireworks.

Creative Effect is fun as always with Mirror, Old Film, Motion Effects, Motion Trail, Vivid, Fisheye, Colour Sketch, Pencil Sketch and Harris Shutter. Harris Shutter will give your images a wildly colourful, psychedelic feel. Other effects are available for download, like Perfectly Clear, Time Lapse, Horizon, Vine and AudioSnap.

The main camera is also capable of shooting 4K video clips.

The Z5 boasts a fingerprint scanner, cleverly embedded in the power button about midway down the right edge, convenient for the right thumb when the phone’s in your right hand. To set it up, just place your thumb over it several times for scanning, moving slightly to the right and left so a full reference scan is achieved. You also need to input a number or password in case the thumb scan subsequently fails, but I had no such problem.

The Z5 is water- and dust-resistant in accordance with IP68 standards – okay for splashes but not for submersing. And the battery life is solid – a built-in 2,900mAh unit that lasts up to two days, with quick-charging technology (using the UCH 10 charger, Bt990). 

The Sony Xperia Z5 retails for Bt24,990.

 

Networks: GSM:850/900/1800/ 1900MHz; 3G UMTS HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100; 4G LTE Bands 1-8, 12, 17, 20, 28, 38, 40

OS: Google Android 5.1

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) 64-bit Octa Core processor 2GHz, 1.56GHz 

GPU: Adreno 430

Memory: 3GB

Storage: 32GB, expandable to 200GB

SIM: Single nano 

Display: 5.2-inch Full HD Triluminos for Mobile with 1080x1920-pixel resolution

Main camera: 1/2.3-inch 23MP Exmor RS for mobile sensor with wide-angle G Lens (24mm)

Front camera: 5MP Exmor R for mobile sensor with |wide-angle lens (25mm)

Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi Mimo, NFC, ANT+

Sensors: Fingerprint scanner, accelerometer game rotation vector, step counter, step detector, motion detector, |ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, barometer, eCompass, geomagnetic rotation vector, gyroscope, magnetometer

Sound: High-resolution audio (LPCM, FLAC, ALAC, DSD)

Durability: Water - and |dust-resistant

Battery: 2,900mAh, |good for up to two days

Dimensions: 146x72x7.3mm

Weight: 154 grams