Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the premier of the latest James Bond film – Spectre – courtesy of Vodacom and Sony Mobile South Africa. While this offered an exciting chance to get to grips with Bond’s latest adventure, it also afforded me some time to get up close and personal with Sony’s latest outing – the flagship Xperia Z5.
In hand, the Z5 wears Sony’s design language like a well-tailored suit, with the counters, curves and flat surfaces of the device sitting comfortably in hand. Compared to Sony’s Xperia Z1 – which I use in my day-to-day – this is a smoother, far more refined take on Sony’s OmniBalance design language.
On the rim of the device, the Z5’s fingerprint has been neatly integrated onto Sony’s signature right-hand-side power button. While most of us are used to a fingerprint sensor on the bottom or back panel of the device by now, placing the fingerprint sensor on the right hand side leaves it uniquely open to one’s index finger, and makes it all the more easy to unlock the device.
Performance-wise, the Z5 offered the fastest and most smooth experience I’ve yet had with Sony’s traditionally light Android skin. That Sony design language remains on the software front, yet now it is amicably integrated with Android 5.0 Lollipop’s visual redesign.
One thing I did notice, however, was that the device quickly ran hot in my palm, despite not performing any form of strenuous work. I was unclear as to whether the alarm the device was attached to was generating excess heat; we’ll be sure to watch out for it in our upcoming review.
Lastly, the Z5’s major draw factor is its camera, which is significantly improved from earlier Z-series outings. Highlights and shadows are supremely balanced, and images are crisp and clean. This may yet prove to be my favourite Android camera-phone of the year – in competition with the LG G4.
Stay tuned for a full review, along with full details of local availability and pricing.
