Sony Xperia Z5 review

Performance

Toning down the CPU shouldn’t have too much of an effect on the Z5’s overall speed, though, as its octa-core, 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip and 3GB of RAM make it one of the fastest Android handsets around. With respective Geekbench 3 single- and multi-core scores of 1,236 and 3,943, the Z5 breezes past both the G4 and One M9, and it’s not that far off the Galaxy S6‘s scores of 1,427 and 4,501 either.

Unsurprisingly, Sony’s version of Android Lollipop 5.1.1 felt exceedingly snappy, and I didn’t notice the phone getting too hot either. Snapdragon 810 chips have been known to overheat in the past, but the Z5 only ever felt mildly warm round the back even when I was running multiple apps and watching a video.

The Z5 also has unparalleled gaming performance, as its 1,606 frames in the offscreen Manhattan test of GFX Bench GL is the fastest score I’ve seen on any Android handset, the Galaxy S6 included. This equates to roughly 26fps, and it had no problems running complex games like Hearthstone. The Xperia Z5 will also be an attractive prospect for PS4 owners, as it supports Sony’s PS4 Remote Play feature, which lets you use your smartphone screen as a portable display for your PS4 and keep on gaming if someone else wants to use the TV.

^ The new frosted glass effect on the back of the handset gives it a beautiful matt finish that keeps messy fingerprints to an absolute minimum

The Z5 doesn’t drop the ball when it comes to web browsing performance either, as its Peacekeeper score of 1,609 blazes ahead of every other Android smartphone I’ve tested this year. In fact, it’s only bested by the Xperia Z5 Compact, which sneaks ahead with 1,629. Unsurprisingly, the Z5 handled complex web pages beautifully, taking sites with embedded videos, nested comments and large images in its stride.

Camera

If that wasn’t enough, the Xperia Z5’s 23-megapixel camera is capable of producing some superb photos, and its super fast autofocus, which Sony claims takes just 0.03 seconds, can latch on to subjects almost instantaneously. The combination of phase detection and contrast detection technology makes for extremely quick yet precise snaps.

^ This is the first time Sony’s introduced a new camera sensor to the Z series since the Xperia Z1

Outdoors, photos looked great, producing rich, vibrant colours while fitting a huge amount of stuff into each frame. Admittedly, detail levels dropped off slightly toward the edge of each photo, with windows and detailed brickwork often getting merged into single blocks of colour, for instance, but compared to other shots I took on the Motorola Moto X Style and iPhone 6S, the Z5 certainly produced the brightest and most attractive pictures overall.

This high brightness did have a somewhat detrimental effect when I moved indoors, though, as there was a distinct lack of contrast in my initial test shots which made photos seem quite drab and washed out. There was hardly any noise present, but colours lacked vibrancy and shadow areas just weren’t as dark as I expected them to be. This a shame, but I’ll be testing the camera out in more detail over the coming weeks, so the Z5’s sensor may yet prove itself to be the superior sensor once I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces a bit more.

^ Colours were lovely and bright on the Z5’s camera, but finer details were often lost towards the edge of the frame

^ Indoors, images were a little too bright, and the loss of contrast makes images appear rather washed out

The only real negative point is an unfortunate side effect caused by the arrival of the fingerprint sensor. The volume control keys have been moved down below the power button, because your fingers naturally rest there when you hold the phone in portrait view. Turn the handset to landscape to take a photo, though, and it’s clear you can only rest your finger on the camera shutter button or the volume keys, not both, which makes zooming just that little bit trickier.

Conclusion

For some, the Xperia Z5 will have come far too soon after the launch of the Z3+, but for me, it can’t have come soon enough. While it’s slightly disappointing that Sony continues to persist with the same screen size and resolution, the display itself is the best LCD panel in the business and it’s great to see the company finally moving the Z series forwards with its new fingerprint sensor and camera module.

Of course, launching a new flagship phone at this point in the year always carries an element of risk, as it not only has to contend with this year’s flagships, but it’s also got to be futureproof to survive the launch of next year’s early flagships as well, such as Samsung’s inevitable Galaxy S7. Thankfully, the Z5’s class-leading performance should be more than enough to weather the transition, and its design feels bang up to date for a 2015 flagship.

The only problem is pricing, as now the Samsung Galaxy S6 has dropped to around £410 SIM-free and £32-per-month, the Z5 starts to look rather expensive by comparison, starting at either £550 SIM-free or £37.50-per-month with an upfront cost of £20 on contract. As a result, the Z5 just loses out on Best Buy award, but considering it’s still one of the best Android phones around, it still comes highly recommended.

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