WHAT IS THE SONY XPERIA Z5?
Sitting between the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, the regular Z5 might seem like the least interesting of the trio. It doesn’t have the small, yet powerful nature of the Compact or the 4K display of the Premium.
But, if you spend some time with the Xperia Z5 you'll realise it's a great phone; with an ace camera, vibrant display and plenty of power tucked underneath its frosted glass back.
It rights many of the wrongs caused by the awful Z3+ and, while it's still far from perfect, it’s probably the best Xperia currently on the market.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – SCREEN
Sony uses a lot of buzzwords when talking about Xperias' Triluminous and Bravia Mobile Engine screen technology. Most of the time it's marketing drivel so I'm not going to bore you with it. All you need to know is the screen on the Xperia Z5 is fantastic, in pretty much every way. It’s bright, vibrant, accurate at representing colours and packed with detail.
Sony says quad-HD doesn’t really add anything to phone screens of this size and for the most part I agree with them. This is why I'm not bothered by the fact that, unlike Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Motorola’s Moto X Style, it doesn’t include a pixel-dense quad-HD panel.
I can’t pick out individual pixels on its 1080p screen and the IPS LCD panel displays colours with fantastic amounts of accuracy. Whites are bright, yellows and reds are vivid without becoming oversaturated and if you don’t jack the brightness up too high, blacks are deep and inky.
Viewing angles are also fantastic and it’s surprisingly useable in bright light, with glare rarely becoming an issue.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – DESIGN
Sony clearly believes it’s on to a winner with the overall look of the Xperia series, because its phones' designs have barely changed at all over the past four years. I would have liked to see a bit of a refresh this time around, but there’s no doubting that Sony has made a sleek smartphone. The straight sides blend seamlessly into rounded corners and both the front and back are covered in Gorilla Glass.
Generally, I’m not a fan of phones with glass backs. The glass attracts smudges and they’re far too easy to crack. I must have gone through at least four iPhone 4s and even the strengthened glass on the back of my Samsung Galaxy S6 cracked after a drop from barely a foot.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – PERFORMANCE
A lot of the problems that plagued the Xperia Z3+ stemmed from Sony's choice of components. It was powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810, a chip that notoriously ran hot. So, it might seem odd to layman that, on the surface, the Xperia Z5 looks to be using the exact same chip.
But the 810 in the Xperia Z5 is a slightly upgraded version that supposedly solves the overheating problems. From my time with the Xperia Z5 I'm not convinced this is the case.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – SOFTWARE
Testing the Z5 I couldn't help but thing, "come on Sony, it’s time to ditch your Android skin". Running atop Android 5.1.1 (Sony has already announced the Marshmallow update is coming), the custom UI certainly isn’t as heavy as say Huawei’s awful EMUI, but it still takes away from the OS' user experience experience.
It lacks the modern look of Lollipop, with ugly default icons, fonts and widgets. There are also some annoying apps pre-installed – Kobo books (I don’t know anyone who uses this) and AVG Protection – that shouldn’t be there.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – CAMERA
This is an area where Sony really should crush its competitors – given how it makes the sensors for some of the best mobile cameras around.
The Xperia Z5 is equipped with a Sony Exmor sensor and its the first of this line to come packing 23-megapixels. It’s also exclusive to the Z5, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up on other phones next year.
SONY XPERIA Z5 REVIEW – BATTERY LIFE
Sony tends to make lofty claims about its phones' battery lives, that ring true to begin with and then slowly decrease over time. Take the Z3 for example, it lasts a strong two days for about a year and then drops off to the point it barely gets through a day.
For the Z5, Sony has again claimed you’ll be able to be go two days without reaching for the charger. I haven’t managed to get this much life out of the Z5 once.
Unplugging the Z5 at 8.30am and using it constantly throughout the day for pulling emails, browsing the web and all the other bits we do on our phones it’ll comfortably make it past the working day and on average be at about 30% when you go to bed. That’s ok, and if you left it unplugged all night it would make it too just after lunch before it conks out.
treaming an episode of House of Cards in HD on Netflix eats through around 9%, which is what I expect to see.
Yes, if you enable Sony’s very impressive battery saver Stamina mode then you can eke out two days. But that does alter performance quite a lot, so it’s best saved for emergencies.
I tend to get between 3-3.5 hours of screen on time from the 2,900 mAh cell, which doesn’t quite match the Moto X Play, but far outweighs the Huawei Mate S.
There’s Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 2.0 tech on board, so even when you hit the red it won’t take long to juice it up again.
It will be interesting to see how well the battery lasts over time, though.
SHOULD YOU BUY THE SONY XPERIA Z5?
With the Xperia Z5, Sony has righted many of the wrongs that crippled the Xperia Z3+. And the result is a really good Android phone, with a great camera and one of the best 1080p displays I have ever used on a smartphones. Yet, it falls into the same trap of so many phones in that it’s too safe.
Sony isn’t pushing any boundaries here, instead it’s made a phone that can battle it out with the big boys, but not overtake them. I’d have loved to see more innovative features, like the fantastic fingerprint scanner, used and I still don’t believe the improved performance in the Snapdragon 810 chip is worth the heat that comes off it.
With Motorola offering a truly high-end experience with the Moto X Style at £350, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 now being sold for below £400 and the OnePlus 2 coming at under £300 (if you have an invitation to buy one) the £539 price-tag Sony is asking for is also a little on high-side. Maybe Sony’s only way to really make a dent in the smartphone industry is to create a cracking phone at a more affordable price.
The Xperia Z5 is Sony’s best phone yet. And it’s a great buy if you’re coming from an older Xperia or Android device, but it’s far from the best phone out there.
VERDICT
A major step-forward from the Z3+, Sony’s latest Xperia has an excellent camera and a fast fingerprint scanner, yet it struggles to stand out from the crowd.
