back to article Sony's 4King with us now: Xperia Z5 mobe has UltraHD screen, cam

Sony announced the Xperia Z5 series mobile phones at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin, including the first smartphone with 4K video playback and capture. The Xperia Z5 Premium, set for release in November, has a 5.5-inch 4K UHD (3840x2160) display with 806 PPI (pixels per inch). This is accompanied by a 23MP rear …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wonder what the price will be. No doubt £500+. My prediction is they will not sell well, have problems with the screens and continue they're reputation for having very poor customer support.

    Good luck to them but I can't see them clawing any ground back from Samsung or Apple.

    1. PleebSmash
      Paris Hilton

      Some lucky person alive right now will be the first person to crack their Ultra HD smartphone screen.

    2. Brenda McViking

      Clove have them listed at £629 inc VAT last I checked.

      However, I won't be buying one, because no removable battery = no sale.

  2. Youngone Silver badge
    Flame

    Hi-Def this n Hi-Def that

    I've been boycotting Sony products for years, after being stung by their awful crappy gear failing just outside warranty several times.

    These phones however look OK, so I'll just wait 6 months or so and buy something similar made by one of their competitors.

    Also Hi-Def audio is a scam. I'm sure that view won't be controversial on this site at all.

    1. PhilipN Silver badge

      Re: Hi-Def audio

      Agreed.

      As a pimply-faced yoof I listened to Jon Lord/Deep Purple Concerto for Group and Orchestra on a record player (remember those?) from Woollies that cost less than 15 quid. Today I listen from a CD or HD Audio . Can I hear better i.e. more clearly? I guess so. Up to a point. Can I hear more or anything new? No.

      Message to all acoustic engineers: We listen with our brains, not with our ears.

      1. thomas k

        Re: We listen with our brains, not with our ears

        Have an upvote.

        I would include our hearts with our brains, though. Wonderful case in point, the Furtwangler La Scala Ring cycle. There is a fair amount of audience noise but I actually found it enhances the listening experience as it suggests you are there in the audience yourself, especially as you can hear Furtwangler turning the pages of the score.

        This recording, to me, carries a lot of extra-musical connotations which makes it an even more moving experience - it's 1950, the horrendous war which ravaged the Continent is only 5 years past and these people are gathered here witnessing both the greatest conductor who ever lived and the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the past 20 years in the twilights of their respective careers, performing the pinnacle of the Western cannon. And every time you hear Furtwangler turn the page or hear Kirsten avoid a high note, you are reminded of this.

      2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: Hi-Def audio

        That dates you does it not? Ok, it does me as well.

        mind you the sort of experimentation in Music that went on around then was fantastic.

        some really original works. This one , Tommy, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Rainbow Suite, DSOTM etc

        Some were more successful than others but alt least they tried different things.

        Can you hear more these days? probably now as your hearing range gets less over the years.

        But most modern crap (sorry excuse for Music if you ask me) is all Bass sounds from a drum machine and little else.

        Heyday TV had a prog on the early days of The Who on the other day. Drums, Bass Guitar and Lead. That was it. Still managed to make a great sound and not a computer in sight.

    2. John Sanders
      Thumb Up

      Re: Hi-Def this n Hi-Def that

      >> Also Hi-Def audio is a scam. I'm sure that view won't be controversial on this site at all.

      There you go, upvoted, if you had said that 4k is at least half a scam I would have given you the pint of the week.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hi-Def this n Hi-Def that

      Well I disagree, I have a Z3 and the active noise cancelling is awesome, ensbkevitbon s flight or train, and the noises melt away. This £400 phone matches a £400 pair of Bose active noise cancelling headphones, but without the bulk.

      The audio performance is also streets ahead of anything else I have tried. Putting some larger cans on, its got a decent output stage beefy enough to drive them.

  3. Frank Bough

    800ppi

    to what Earthly purpose?

    1. JP19

      Re: 800ppi

      "to what Earthly purpose?"

      To increase sales to fools the same as the HD audio and 4k camera.

    2. PleebSmash
      Boffin

      Re: 800ppi

      Google Cardboard VR or other phone-holding VR

      1. Tachikoma

        VR

        Yep, while overkill for day to day phone use, it's perfect for VR, hopefully by the time my contract runs out in a year, Sony will have released the Z7 which won't have the crippled, portable heater 810 processor and 4GB of RAM.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: VR

          The 810 is only a heater in badly designed phones. Sony know how to build stuff

    3. MrWibble

      Re: 800ppi

      Bigger number = better to most people, it seems...

    4. John Bailey

      Re: 800ppi

      "to what Earthly purpose?"

      Selling over specced kit to sad muppets who derive their identity from consumer electronics.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately...

    However technically accomplished it is, it will, just like my Z1, be loaded with the most eclectic collection of useless crapware known to man. If the glass is anything like mine, it will scratch from looking at it.

    I decided to give Sony another shot when I bought this one, but I'm totally off them now. I'm quite happy too put up with a lower spec phone if it's vanilla droid.

    Of course, 'landfill' droids today are the high end of two years ago.

    1. Tachikoma

      Re: Unfortunately...

      My Z2 from O2 was pretty light on bloat, and what was on there could be uninstalled. Never had a problem with the front glass scratching, but the rear glass is a bit delicate. They made some big improvements to the software and durability since the Z1, the skin and mangling of Android is very light and is now regarded as one of the better implementations, certainly better than Samsung.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Unfortunately...

      Don't worry a new load of Droid is on its way. Marshmallow cometh.

      The question is, will it be nicely toasted or burn to a crisp?

    3. SkippyBing

      Re: Unfortunately...

      You did take the plastic film off the glass didn't you? I took it off mine after the first month or so and in two and a half years it's scratch free despite a couple of face plants on concrete (the phone not me).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Unfortunately...

        No I did not take of the anti-shatter foil, because :

        1. I don't like shattered glass very much, and

        2. I was told this would void the warranty.

        But, since it'll be OUT of warranty next month, I'll give it a go.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: Unfortunately...

      You do know Sony are actually quite "supportive" of rooting your phone and loading a plain OS on.

      By supportive I mean they supply the tools to do so, not the warranty.

      http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/

    5. lansalot

      Re: Unfortunately...

      You missed the part where they're saying this is going to be a vanilla Android, very limited in crapware then?

    6. Adair Silver badge

      Re: Unfortunately...

      Have to say my Z1 Compact didn't come with any bloat, apart from Sony's usual 4-5 suspects, which aren't generally that bad. I do keep my phones in a leather cover, so scratching has never been an issue, and Sony, in recent years, have been pretty prompt with the updates and upgrades. So, overall, I'm a happy customer. Experiences obviously vary.

    7. Greg 16

      Re: Unfortunately...

      My Z1 has hardly any bloat and the apps that it does have are actually often used and an improvement over vanilla android. As for the scratchable screen, I always buy a tempered glass screen protector whenever I buy a new phone. They're pretty much scratch-proof and also reduce the likelihood of you smashing the screen.

  5. Alan Denman

    re - all the customers you simply do not want.

    Are all the 'I bought you and I hate you' ccomments ever real?

    Unlikely, and it is hard say what reality distortion equipment they do use.

  6. g e

    Was hoping for something a bit more innovative then just 'more'

    Might hang onto the perfectly trusty Sammy S4 for another iteration yet, Sammy having failed to wow me with S5 or S6, I was looking forward to the Z5 specs. Bit of an anti climax but battery life is appealing assuming it's comparative to other 1-day battery life claims for other/earlier devices, hence double.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Was hoping for something a bit more innovative then just 'more'

      What exactly were you hoping for? "More" is all anyone is giving you. Smartphones are on the whole pretty much the same as when Apple first showed the iPhone 8 1/2 years ago, other than "more" - more inches, more megapixels, more gigabytes, more MHz, more cores, more dpi and so forth. Sure you get little bits glued on that are useful for certain people, like fingerprint readers, NFC, wireless charging, or here today gone in the next model gimmicks like eye scrolling.

      No one is adding anything to a smartphone that will become a must-have feature for everyone, so I don't know why you'd expect Sony of all companies to be the one to deliver it.

  7. SimonAldrich

    I'm on my second Sony handset now (previously an Xperia Z and currently on the Z3 Compact) and my own experience of them has been nothing but positive. Great hardware and (importantly for Reg readers) Sony will let you unlock the bootloader and stick a custom ROM (I'm currently using CM12.1) on. They even have their own AOSP build. I am definitely tempted by a Z5 Compact (my tiny hands aren't manly enough for a 5" screen) the only downside I can see is that they seem to have dropped the magnetic charging connector which I really liked.

    1. Tachikoma
      Unhappy

      Sony will let you unlock the bootloader

      Unless you buy it from a carrier... I can install custom ROMs as long as they don't use a custom kernel.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dropped from a 4K screened phone to a HD screened phone. Not noticed the difference in quality at all, but have noticed the speed improvement.

    It's a case of "we can do it, so we will" and "the sales people will have a USP". Utter bollocks.

    Since Jobs croaked it not enough people in the industry are thinking "yes, we have all this cool technology, but how to we actually make it solve problems for users".

    1. PleebSmash
      WTF?

      "Dropped from a 4K screened phone to a HD screened phone. Not noticed the difference in quality at all, but have noticed the speed improvement."

      You dropped from a 4K screened phone? Are you an Anonymous Cowardly Time Lord?

      I'll assume you meant you dropped from Quad HD (2560x1440) to Full HD (1920x1080). HD is 1280x720.

  9. Xyra

    I like the idea of the high DPI screen. I realise I am probably in a small group of people, but I use systems like Google cardboard heavily for work and my current Z2 with 1080P screen still has a lot of "screen door" grid lines, which a 4K screen would improve on drastically.

  10. MrXavia

    I don't think we need anything exciting in new phones... all the features we need are already there...

    Personally I just want good build, a decent screen, powerful processor, fast camera and a micro sd card slot.. this fits the bill nicely.. Samsung, while upping their build quality, dumped the one feature that would have kept me a buyer, the sd slot...

  11. lansalot

    hmm...

    I have a Z1 for the past 2 years... For most of that time, the camera has been unreliable. Then, they upgraded it recently to lollipop and hooray - camera fixed!

    Unfortunately, with minimal apps loaded (and I even did a factory reset), the phone is now rendered so slow it's incredible. You can watch the icons draw. I'm not alone in this. There's a lot of people waiting for a fix - you'll frequently find yourself re-pressing buttons thinking you must have just missed them the first time round. For a jump into chrome, it might take >5 seconds for example. Come back out to the home screen, you'll randomly find a 5 second delay as the screen gradually fills in.

    So, beautiful hardware - but what's the point if the software lets it down? For over a year, I was plagued by the camera popping up, seeing what you wanted in the viewfinder, pressing capture and then getting "camera not available". As a camera, it was totally worthless to me. Now it's just an unfeasibly slow brick.

  12. David Austin
    Unhappy

    Kazuo Hirai is looking old..

    Wasn't ready for that photo - He seems to have aged very quickly since moving from Head of PlayStation to Head of Sony, much like Iwata did when moving from Lead developer at HAL to CEO of Nintendo.

    And now I'm thinking about the fact Iwata's gone, I'm gonna go be sad for the rest of the day.

  13. peyton?

    Should also add

    "The biggest sources of distortion in the audio chain are the transducers: the microphones used to record the music, and the loudspeakers, ear buds, or headphones used to play it back."

    Don't forget the DAC used... even for your basic mp3, it can have a noticeable impact.

  14. Jim-234

    I may have to give the phone a look when I need a new one if Samsung keeps up with their no MicroSD card ways.

    I purchased one of the earlier models for my boss & he has been quite happy with it. The FM radio was a requirement and Sony is one of the few higher end ones that still have one in their phones.

    However after 2 years the battery needs replacing (which can be done, but is a fair bit of work), which again is why I like how you can just swap out the battery on the Note 3 and Note 4

  15. erhumdm
    Boffin

    Not sure I need the 4K - but otherwise happy with my Z2

    I just bought the wife the M4 Aqua - her only complaint is it doesnt fit in the Jeans pocket.

    The real issue for me on the Z2 was the quiet removal of support for DAC output when they moved to Lollipop (which is the only reason I bought the device ... MicroUSB a better interface than crappy 3.5 earplug).

    Sooner or later I will upgrade. No doubt it will only be available on contract for the first 6 mo anyway

  16. -dp-

    I am looking at the Z3 Compact, hoping the price will come down to around €250 euros. Fingers crossed as as I need a good phone for running in the rain:) Z5 compact looks good though, but overpriced for whatI need it for.

    Still waiting for the price to drop on Amazon France - holding steady now. Anyone know how long it usually takes for the price of the previous model to drop? The orange one is the cheapest right now at 389.

  17. Greg 16

    What the customer wants?

    I've had a Z1 for a couple of years and I love it - it's the best phone I've ever owned and really can't see much reason to replace it any time soon.

    Would a Z5 tempt me? Not with a fancier camera and fancier screen. However, if they had instead kept the specs the same, but instead focussed on extending the already fantastic battery life from a couple of days to four days, then yeah I'd be pretty tempted by that and it would be almost unique amongst current smartphones.

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