This is a subjective " review" from someone coming from the XZ Premium upgrading to Xperia 1
Before I start, I admit that I'm a big fan of the brand, Sony, not to be confused with fanboy, someone who blindly follows, defends or rejects critics.
I also admit that the XZ premium was IMO one of the best phones Sony ever created but with the 64GB of storage, there was no escape, I had to upgrade.
We all know the great specs this phone carries so no need to really talk about the stunning display etc.. I think "most" of the flaws can be worked out hence, the reason why I'm posting this in the first place.
Screen: It is stunning, very good resolution although not a big fan of the 21:9 aspect ratio but it's not the brightness, in fact even with auto brightnessoff, I've seen other phones performing much better outdoor.
Loud speaker : Good stereo speakers, loud notification and ringtones, I mean really loud but the speaker phone has lots of cracking noise during a phone conversation on the loudest setting. I can't really push the volume rocker to the top, it starts crackling and you get the feeling that the speaker is going to explode.
Power button, I think this is the worst thing about this phone. It's position is really really annoying, at least for someone coming from the XZP who's used to double press the fingerprint sensor to unlock.
Fingerprint sensor :Great placement on the side, sometimes slow, sometimes doesn't work. XZP had this issue when it was released and it was fixed with a FW update. crossed fingers
Camera : Great color reproduction, mediocre performance... Need lots of work and the cinemapro App is unpolished. Feels like it's a beta release. Cannot take 21:9 pics. Seriously ? no really.. seriously ?
Battery : Poor - I expected it to perform at least as good as my XZP which had an average battery life but I can tell and I'm sure about it no matter what guys gonna tell me, it's worse which is unusual for an OLED display. Speficially if you use your phone for mails, browsing and texting, battery life i worse. I barely get a full day on a full charge.
Software : Now here's the big surprise. Sony for some reason ( maybe Google fault ? ) decided to remove a lot of features that I already miss.
- No support for glove mode. My fingers sometime register taps on the screen without even touching it. It's way too sensitive ( not using screen protector )
- Home screen customization is a stepback : XZP had much more features and settings in the home screen
- App drawer background is always white unless you stick with the Xperia theme. Very annoying indeed; no themes whatosever
- Dark mode is broken ? why put it in the first place if it doesn't work.
- Gestures : Had to turn them all off as side sense is very annoying.
Most of the time it's there when I dont need it.
Ambient display randomly on when walking with the device in hand, had to completely disable it.
Double tap to show lock screen should have faster double tap speed as I also accidently double tap without realizing when I hold the phone since it's almost bezeless on the side.
No option to lock the screen with the power button....( I can live with that )
Swipe up on Home button : Can be disturbing as the home and back button are close to each other since the phone is narrow.
That's mainly what annoys me ( and many around me who happen to have the device ). I hope the newer Xperia phone will have the same brick/boxy design XZP had ( note 10 is adopting it ) with minimal bezels, NO punch or hole in the display, better color options like the godly chrome version, same figerprint placement and certainly MORE ONBOARD STORAGE ( I already restored my backup and still have 30% left of storage. I use dual sim so SD card is out of question ) and certainly better software implementation. Gee, Sony is really lagging behind when it comes to R&D, one of the most important divisions for a handset maker.
