Sony Xperia Z5 Dual

While the smartphone world is going the 2K way when it comes to the display resolution, we know that it hardly makes much difference to the end user. Sony also seems to be supportive of this camp, although it does show off its engineering prowess with the pricier version of the Xperia Z5, called the Xperia Z5 Premium, which is world’s first smartphone boasting a 4K display.

Sony has always kept its customisations on top of Android bare minimal and straight-forward, unlike Samsung’s TouchWiz or HTC’s Sense. The skin on the Sony Xperia Z5 is no different, and runs atop Android Lollipop 5.1. The UI is mostly similar to previous implementations with five home screens and a dedicated app launcher sorting all apps in an alphabetical or custom order.

While most of the features in the Xperia Z5 remain the same as its predecessor or have received minor updates, the camera department has got a significant boost. Instead of a 20.7MP sensor as seen on its predecessors, the device flaunts a 23-megapixel snapper at the back. The shooter features an Exmor RS sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 along with Sony’s G lens measuring 1/2.3”. The company also boasts about the fast autofocus capabilities of the primary shooter – just 0.03 seconds is all it takes to lock focus on the subject. The hardware seems powerful, although the images aren’t as detailed and vivid as we’d have liked to see from the sensor mounted on a Sony smartphone. As mentioned in our Sony Xperia Z5 camera review, the camera quality is impressive, but fails to carry forward the legacy of its predecessors.

Sony has always chosen high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets for its flagship offerings, and same is the case with the Xperia Z5. Just like its predecessor, the Xperia Z3+ (first impressions), the device draws power from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. The octa-core processor offers four Cortex-A57 cores running at 2GHz, while four low-power cores are tuned at 1.5GHz. With such a loaded configuration, using the phone is a breeze, and switching between multiple tasks isn’t an issue either, thanks to 3GB of RAM. We rarely faced any lags with the smartphone, and playing high-end games such as Modern Combat 5 and Riptide GP2 was a delightful affair.

Sony was among the first Android smartphone manufacturers that focussed on the battery life of its devices. It introduced the software-based STAMINA mode to ensure that the juice lasted longer. However, it seems that the brand has now lost its way as the Xperia Z5 offers an average battery life. While its capacity of 2,900mAh isn’t necessarily bad, and the handset doesn’t tote battery-draining 2K resolution, it barely manages to last an entire working day. As part of our standard test, with both brightness and volume levels at 50 percent, it was able to play a 720p video on loop for nine hours, which is less than the results delivered by other high-end offerings.