Vote for best testimonial [CAMERA Experience] of SONY XPERIA XZ Premium & win Sony wireless speaker

Which is your favourite and best written review on [CAMERA Experience]?

  • garychengjw

    Votes: 54 37.5%
  • shadey

    Votes: 9 6.3%
  • fireduke86

    Votes: 6 4.2%
  • Audiology93

    Votes: 19 13.2%
  • poor_poor

    Votes: 65 45.1%
  • Wessleh

    Votes: 2 1.4%
  • Qubicfactor

    Votes: 3 2.1%

  • Total voters
    144
  • Poll closed .

bosssaizo

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Vote for best testimonial [CAMERA Experience] of SONY XPERIA XZ Premium & win Sony wireless speaker

Description:
In collaboration with Sony Mobile SG, 21 lucky forum members had a chance to take home the Xperia XZ Premium for 2 weeks on a user trial program.

About the Xperia XZ Premium

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Sony’s flagship smartphone Xperia XZ Premium has been recognised around the world since it was announced as the most innovative Xperia smartphone to date. It comes with a camera able to create sensational videos from your everyday moments by recording in Super slow motion, a beautiful 4K HDR display, super-fast download speeds and a host of intelligent features which offer useful, tailored suggestions about how to use different features to make life that little bit easier.

The Camera
Xperia XZ Premium incorporates imaging know-how embedded on Sony ‘α’ and Cyber-shot™ cameras to create the new Motion Eye™ camera system. It is also the first smartphone to feature a memory stacked Exmor™RS sensor with technologies usually only found on premium compact cameras, providing 5 x faster image scanning and data transfer. This means you can create sensational videos from your everyday moments by recording in 960 frames per second, providing Super slow motion video playback that is four times slower than other smartphones, giving you more detail than has ever been possible.

As verified by Strategy Analytics, this makes the Xperia XZ Premium the World’s first Super slow motion video in a smartphone*


How can you participate?

So read up on what the trial users have to say based on their experience with the CAMERA Experience and vote for the best testimonial you believe deserves to win!

garychengjw
shadey
fireduke86
Audiology93
poor_poor
Wessleh
Qubicfactor

By voting, you stand a chance to win a Sony wireless and splash-proof speaker (SRS-XB10) worth S$79 too. Bonus: And if you participate in this thread to ask more questions to the trial users, or adding on your own experience and observations from the store/your personal unit, you stand a higher chance to win ;)
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*Check out www.sonymobile.com/xperiaxzpremium for more product info or follow Sony Mobile for the latest news at:www.facebook.com/SonyMobileSG

*This poll will close on 07-07-2017 at 03:13 PM

Updates: 7th July 2017

Congratulations to the following winners!

Top Prize Winner : Audiology93

1st Consolation Prize Winner: carlover76

2nd Consolation Prize Winner: Shadey

Consolation Prize Winners will walk away with a new Sony Mobile wireless headset. We will send out the prize confirmation email to the above mentioned winners, latest by 10 July.

Thanks and Congrats once again!
 

garychengjw

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Testimonial for Sony XPERIA XZ Premium (Topic: Camera)

Testimonial for Sony XPERIA XZ Premium (Topic: Camera)

Camera

Sony revamps the entire rear camera sensor with a breakthrough technology, which called - Motion Eye. It's the world first memory-stacked sensor, which built in between the Pixel Area and Signal Processing circuit that result 5 times faster scanning compares to conventional sensor. It also maxed the spec of the camera. It has a 19MP rear camera with a 1/2.3in sensor and able to capture video recording at 960 frames per second for super slow motion playback.

Something I have always like about Sony’s camera, is the use of a wider angle lens. The rear is a 25mm lens, and the 13MP front camera has a 22mm lens. This allows me to fit more into a shot, which is great when taking photographs of landscape, or when you want to show off the background too in a selfie.

Talking about selfies, this is one of the best front facing camera I have used too, producing excellent results and details in most lighting conditions.

Something I want to mention too is how good the video quality is too. Sony’s SteadyShot technology with 5-axis stabilization is really quite amazing. The camera produces one of the smoothest and most stable footage I have seen on a smartphone.

Predictive capture feature which can predict movement in a shot and captures a couple of images even before I actually click the shutter button. I can then choose the best looking one out of the lot, making sure I always have a blue-free image. it will take up to 4 best shots and allow user to pick the best one of four.

Not everything is super fast with the camera though. With the new Motion Eye camera, I can go super slow too. Slow motion video captures are pretty common on smartphone these days, but trust me, you’ve never seen slow motion like this on a smartphone.

Your typical smartphone does 240fps at most. The Xperia XZ Premium is the world’s first does 960fps. This allows me to capture and see things in a totally new perspective. It does have its limitations. Because the shutterspeed has to be really fast to capture at 960fps, it’s hard to use it in anything but great lighting conditions. Also the super slow motion capture has to be triggered manually, which can make it a bit tricky to catch that perfect moment.

Sample Shots

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Sample Shots

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Videos

Sony XPERIA XZ Premium - 960fps SlowMo - Suntec Fountain of Wealth


Sony XPERIA XZ Premium - 960fps SlowMo - North Bridge Road on Vehicles

Conclusion

With the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and 4GB RAM, the overall performance is powerful yet fluidity. Overall the camera experience is just insanely enjoyable. It has the best standby battery life which can last whole entire day without a single charges. The camera is super easy to use to capture great images and videos, and the 960fps slow motion capture is just such an incredible feature to have.
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shadey

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Hands-on: Sony XZ Premium (Camera review)

HANDS-ON with the Sony XZ Premium (Or is that Powerhouse???)

Hardwarezone (SPH) and Sony opened their doors and kimonos to a select group of 20 people to learn more about Sony's new powerhouse flagship phone, the XZ Premium on May 26. As an added bonus, we were able to test the phones for 2 weeks in order to bring you an unbiased end-user review of some key features of these (gorgeous) phones. I focused on Performance and the Camera, so read on and feel free to ask me anything else you want to know about the Sony XZ Premium! :)


Unboxing:​

Once you get your hands on the XZ Premium, you'll quickly realize that the packaging... Is not premium. This is where Sony dropped the ball. It's the same box design you get for every other Sony phone, and pales in comparison to the "unboxing feel" from other brand flagships with their carefully designed boxes or even the SonyEricsson X1 (way back in the day). This is something Sony really needs to improve on - customers buying a "Premium" phone expect a premium experience from start to finish, not just a premium price.

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The included contents are quite basic as well. You get the usual manuals, the ordinary UCH 20 charger (not the high speed charger) and a very basic set of AG-1100/MH410 headphones. You'll definitely want to use some of Sony's excellent Hi-Res Audio headphones with this phone. :)

It would have been nice for there to be more goodies in the "premium" box to begin with, like a microfiber cloth or a classy sleeve casing with microfiber lining to wipe away fingerprints, for example (hint hint Sony).
 

shadey

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Camera:

The true "heart and soul" of the XZ Premium is the incredible camera that is packed with every technology you can imagine. First off, I'm ecstatic that Sony has eased off the "Megapixel race" and instead of increasing the megapixel count, actually took a step back and gave us 19 megapixels with larger light sensors. Thank you, Sony!!!

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Shot by Sony XZ Premium, Manual mode, 1s exposure​

Starting from the XZ, Sony added a laser AF sensor for super fast autofocus and a RGBC-IR sensor to accurately measure the white balance for more natural looking images. In the XZs, Sony first introduced the incredible Motion Eye 960fps recording feature and the newer, enhanced 19 megapixel sensor with it's ingenious stacked memory (similar to the technology found on the incredible Sony A9 mirrorless camera). In the XZ Premium, Sony took it to another level again by improving the Bionz processor and redesigning the G lens for even better corner to corner sharpness. The results? Incredible.

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A perfect example. Wonderfully warm daylight tones, rich colors, exactly as inviting and delicious as I remember it. Compared to the Z5 Premium, the improvement to the picture quality is stunning. Same scene, both shot in Auto:

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WOW!!! I mean really, WOW!! The difference in warmth and dynamic range to what I already thought was a good camera in the Z5 Premium blew me away.

But let's take a look at low light shots, a traditional weakness of the Sony image processing workflow. In the below image, I have highlighted in red boxes where I have cropped 100% samples from the XZ Premium and the Z5 Premium for a comparison. All shots handheld, full Auto.


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Quite nice and accurate colors. Even the dark blue of the sky is maintained! So, how does it compare to the Z5 Premium?


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The differences... are stunning. It's not just the noise/grain in the darker areas. The difference the RGBC-IR sensor is providing in terms of accurate colors and whitebalance is blatantly obvious. I'll never look at my Z5 Premium pictures the same way again!

Let's take a look at the 100% crops for all us pixel peepers:


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Just like the side by side image, the differences are anything but subtle. The XZ Premium captured the line pattern in the ledges, the improved dynamic range gave better details in the hallways. You can still see the individual metal bars in the balcony on the XZ Premium crop. And the redesigned G lens finally provides us with sharp, detailed corners. No more wasted image space!!

Shooting with the XZ Premium was a joy as well - the autofocus was super fast, capturing shots was easy and quick. Sony's performance improvements really kicked in here. :)

Another feature Sony built into the camera is the incredibly useful Predictive Capture feature. Basically, the camera can detect that you are taking an action shot with fast movement (it will detect you are panning the phone, or that there is a lot of movement in the frame) and will start taking pictured *before* you even hit the shutter!!! Then, it will select up to 4 of the best images based on exposure, composition, etc, (including the image you actually took of course) and you can then pick the best one to keep. This will make it incredibly easier to capture those perfect jump shots, running children, etc. A great way to capture more of those unique fleeting moments to keep as a memory forever. :)
 
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shadey

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Then we come to the star of the show, the spotlight feature of the XZ Premium Camera: Motion Eye. This allows you to take short (0.182s) bursts of super slow motion video, letting you capture movement in ways that were impossible on older Smart Phones (although only at 720p resolution).

Tip: Sony has 3 Slow Motion modes - The first (default) will record normal video and then allow you to tap the Super Slow Motion button to insert the short burst of slow motion. This is perfect for capturing a 100m dash for example, with the Slow Motion only at the moment the racers cross the finish line. The second mode will not record normal speed video at all, and only capture the Super Slow Motion segments. The third is "normal" slow motion and shoots at 120 frames per second, or about 4x slower than normal speed. This can be done for extended periods.

Here's some samples of the Super Slow Motion in action:




What we get is a mixed bag, really. The slow motion effects allow us to see things our eyes would never have been able to see, like the near organic grace of water shooting from a fountain, or the fire, flame and spark from igniting the oven. However, the video shows signs of very heavy-handed compression - even in bright sunlight, it's very blocky and grainy. In low light (see the last segment) the video looks super "noisy" - but to be fair, that makes absolute logical sense. When you think of it from a photographic perspective, the camera is shooting at 1/960s (let's round to 1/1000s) at an F/2 aperture - with these settings in dim lighting even a high end DSLR would need to pump up ISO to 12800 or even higher!! On a small camera sensor, the ISO noise becomes even more obvious. So, I really can't fault Sony for the grainy low light video.

Still, in good lighting, with the right subjects, this feature is definitely not a gimmick - it will let you capture movement like never before.

Speaking of capturing moments like never before, Sony added another trick into it's bag - The Predictive Capture feature. Basically, if the phone detects that you are trying to capture an action shot (it can detect that you are moving it about, panning, etc) then it will actually start taking and buffering pictures and wait for you to press the shutter - then present you with up to 4 shots - 3 from just before you hit the shutter button and then the last one is when you actually took the picture. It will pick these based on exposure, etc, and then you can pick which you want to keep. Capturing those action shots of running kids, pets, jump shots, whatever you can think of - has never been easier!!!

Conclusion:

I was already quite happy with the Z5 Premium, and thus set a very high bar for the XZ Premium. I wanted to be able to really feel a difference in speed, battery life and camera image quality with the XZ Premium over the Z5 Premium - otherwise it's not much of an upgrade, right?

All I can say is that the XZ Premium not only beat my expectations, it blew them away! The smoothness is incredible, it made my Z5 Premium feel like molasses by comparison. I got so spoiled by the phone in the 2 weeks we were allowed to use it that the very day I returned it, I picked up my very own unit. :)

That's it for my impressions - please feel free to let me know what you think and any questions you have!
 
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fireduke86

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Xperia XZ Premium - The Flagship of 2017?

It has been a pleasure to use the trial Xperia XZ Premium as my daily driver during the trial and I now pen down my thoughts on it.

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Design

The Xperia XZ Premium continues in the same vein as Sony's previous flagship models when it comes to design, including the by now standard water / dust resistance. It might be dated to some, especially since the current flavour seems to be the thin and bezel-less design made popular by the LG G6 and Samsung S8/S8+, the XZ Premium's contemporaries. While it is admittedly true that the bezel and the thickness of the phone can do with a little shedding, it does not take anything away from the fact that the XZ Premium is a gorgeous phone with its glass-clad front and back, rounded plastic sides and flat, diamond-cut and anodised metallic top and bottom. I cannot emphasise enough on the beauty of the XZ Premium's glass clad front and back; it just spell "GORGEOUS"! More importantly, it continues the combination of fingerprint scanner with the power switch instead of moving it to elsewhere on the phone and making the users perform finger gymnastics while the volume rocker has been moved to above the power switch. This greatly helps in the operation of the XZ Premium with one hand.

Camera

Perhaps the greatest improvement to the Xperia family of flagships came in the camera. I have used the Xperia Arc, Xperia Active, Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z5. In their time, Sony's camera sensors were used by many of their competitors but it has always been inconceivable to me that their phones, using improved camera sensors than those used by their contemporaries, were rated lower by both reviewers and users alike, myself included. In this regard, I am happy to note that the XZ Premium no longer has a problem with autofocusing with white background and that its night / low night shots are satisfactory / on par with the competition. A shot taken at a night performance at the recently concluded Army Open House, a night panoramic shot of the Marina Bay area and some pictures of food (attached) look good enough on the XZ Premium's screen, which is the yardstick for most users nowadays in my opinion. I was also delighted that I could somewhat capture the trailing lights of passing vehicles by adjusting the exposure in the Manual mode though I wish that the Manual mode can allow me to fiddle with more options. The biggest surprise of all is the 960FPS video mode, which is supposedly a world first. It may only allow you to take up to 6 seconds of slow-motion video but it WORKS ! As is evident in the video below.

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Performance, software and battery

Having used the XZ Premium as my daily driver for the past week or so, I am delighted to note that Sony is continuing its tradition of minimal overlay so that one gets as close to a pure Android experience as one can in light of the scarcity of official Google handsets. This should theoretically enhance performance but then the XZ Premium is already as fast as it needs to be a worthy competitor in 2017. A short 5 minutes spent playing with my friend's S8+ and the trial set seemed to suggest that the XZ Premium is faster in getting into apps (cache cleared, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube). Battery life is one of Sony's traditional strengths and XZ Premium continues that tradition. Compared to my S&7 Edge, which has a bigger battery, a day of usage (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Chrome, Outlook, Gmail and Whatsapp) would usually leave me with close to 50% at the end of the day whereas the S7 Edge would be left with about 10% lesser. In this regard, I suppose Sony's light overlay helps as well. The QNovo Adaptive charging, which monitors the battery and constantly adjusts the charging current should help to increase the overall lifetime of the battery

Conclusion

In short, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is more about taking Sony's traditional strength, building on them and adding other innovative new features. All in all, a serious contender for my money this half of 2017.
 
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Audiology93

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Sony Xperia XZ Premium - The 1st 4K HDR smartphone (Camera)

I’ve been given a chance to try out the Sony Xperia XZ Premium thanks to the collaboration between Sony SG and HardWareZone. The XZ Premium comes with the latest Snapdragon 835 SOC coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage(UFS). It has a 5.5” Triluminos 4K HDR display which is unmatched in terms of quality and resolution. At the back, we get a 19 MP Motion Eye camera with Super slow motion which can record video up to 960 fps that is unheard of in the mobile industry. For selfie lovers, the front camera is 13 MP. Sony has added in IP65/68 certification for water and dust resistant just in case any accident happens to your beloved smartphone. Not only is it dual SIM, it supports microSD card using the hybrid SIM-slot so you can choose to use either 1 SIM + 1 microSD or 2 SIM but not 2 SIM + 1 microSD. There is a stereo speaker at the front at the top and the bottom bezel of the phone. The chamfered top and bottom with rounded sides makes holding it very comfortable and won’t feel like it will slip out of the hand.

Camera

The camera is a 19 MP one with 1/2.3” sensor, it is considered large in today’s standard given that other flagship only has 1/2.5” or even 1/3” but it has smaller aperture at f2.0 compared to other flagship with f1.7 or f1.8. The Predictive Hybrid Autofocus works well in anticipating your shots and it ensure that your subject is in focus even when moving. The 960 fps video recording is very fun to play with. I’ve tried to “slow-mo” many stuff and the fidget spinner is one of them. The phone takes picture very fast but there is a sort of “0.5s delay” when saving the picture. I’m guessing it’s the software doing the post processing after the picture has been taken. I find the camera very good especially in day time when there is ample lighting but not the best when it comes to low-light due to the lack of OIS when taking pictures with it, but it is definitely much improved over the older Z5 Premium.

This is a daytime shot taken at MBS
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Room lighting with food
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Night shot. Taken at 10pm outside a carpark
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960 fps video demo


Conclusion

In my opinion, I feel that Sony has done an excellent job with the XZ Premium because they focused in improving on the stuff which I find very important like the battery life and display on a smartphone. There is no point having the fastest smartphone if the battery inside the phone couldn’t even last me a day of use and I have to carry a power bank around and it becomes troublesome. The display looks awesome and I personally prefer it over my LG V20 and Samsung Galaxy S8. But there are some things that I find can be improved and that is the bezel size. While it helps in handling when in landscape, it looks huge when compared to other flagship smartphones and the delay in the camera when capturing pictures can be improved but it does not affect the performance of the camera in any way because it still takes nice looking pictures. Adding in Optical Image Stabilization might help in this aspect since it lowers the shutter speed and might make the processing faster.
 

poor_poor

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Sony Xperia XZ Premium - Review (Camera)

Xperia XZ Premium sports a brand new Sony Exmor RS with Motion Eye 19-megapixel rear camera and f/2.0 aperture. It is capable of recording 4K videos apart from 1080p and 720p videos. It also sports a 13-megapixel front camera, f/2.0, 22mm, 1/3″ sensor size.

The World's first Motion Eye feature can record 960 frames per second, for Super slow motion playback.

Motion Eye Camera – Key Specifications

19 Megapixel resolution
1/2.3” Memory stacked image sensor
25mm f/2.0 Sony G lens
960fps Super slow motion recording capability
Anti-distortion shutter
Pixel size: 1.22μm
Maximum ISO 12800 (Photo) / 4000 (Video)
5-axis stabilization – Steady shot
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Sony triple image sensing technology & camera features:

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Exmor RS 19MP Exmor RS for mobile image sensor – More details and less noise

  • The high sensitive 1/2.3″ Exmor RS image sensor allows you to snap highly detailed shots with low noise

G Lens – 25mm G Lens with aperture F2.0 for bright photos even in dark conditions

  • Praised for its light-gathering capthering capabilities, Sony’s G Lens excels in dark conditions. The main camera has 25 mm wide angle G Lens with a bright F2.0 aperture.

BionZ for mobile – For mobile image processing clearer photos with true colours

  • Sony’s intelligent BIONZ imaging processor employs power full algorithms to generate beautiful images. Is suppresses colour and luminance noise for enhanced colour reproduction, richer tonal graduations and clearer photos.

An important feature of the Xperia XZ cameras is it’s 5-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS), laser auto-focus, phase detection AF (PDAF), Predictive Hybrid Autofocus technology and RGBC-IR sensor. It aims to reduce camera shakes, thus improving night shot quality with a longer exposed shutter speed, automatically tracks your object as it moves and accurately adjusts the white balance based on the light source in the environment.

Image sensor – Fast and accurate autofocus with the Predictive Hybrid AF capability to track objects for sharper photos of moving subjects.

Laser AF – Assists the main sensor to detect the distance to the subject even in low-light conditions to capture sharp images.



RGBC-IR – Adds accuracy to the main sensor’s auto white balance and lets it capture true-to-life colours in bright sunlight or poor lighting.




  • Five-axis video EIS – Sony Xperia XZ is the first smartphone to support 5 – axis stabilization, reducing camera shake occurring in five different directions.

  • PDAF function – The high speed auto focus technology.
  • This technology has the following merits compared with a conventional one (contrast AF)

Predictive Hybrid Autofocus
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poor_poor

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Camera AR effect

AR (Augmented Reality) effects to your pictures and videos! Take pictures and videos with virtual scenes and characters with the AR effect application.
There are many themes you can create pictures with growling dinosaurs, have fairies walk on your desk, attach masks to your friends’ faces, and much more.

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Sony is heavily advertising the camera capabilities of the Xperia XZ Premium with the new triple image sensing and motion eye technology. On paper, the Xperia XZ Premium comes with the familiar f/2.0 19 MP rear camera with 1/2.3″ IMX400 RS sensor, which has the same specifications as the Xperia ZXs. Overall, how well does the camera perform and does it meet the demand of photography enthusiasts?
The wide angle lens field-of-view isn’t new to Sony Xperia phones, but will be well-appreciated by people who love landscape photography. Having a wide angle lens would also means that you don’t need to step far away from your subjects when taking group photos.

The addition of the manual function in the camera application allows us to explore and expand our creativity, creating interesting shots that can’t be achieved with auto mode. For example, we can capture simple light trails along a busy road and introduce intentional motion blur to our photos. Through slower shutter speed, we can also capture images with minimal noise in low light situation due to eliminating the need for high ISO. However, the manual mode is not really entirely ‘manual’ but more of a shutter priority mode. The application allows you to manually adjust white balance, exposure compensation, shutter speed, and focus. For shutter speed, you can manually adjust it from 1/4000 sec to 1 sec.

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Although 1 sec is sufficient for most of the time to capture night scene effectively with relatively low noise, I believe most photography enthusiasts would still love to be able to explore their creativity beyond the 1 sec limitation, such as performing interesting light painting or creating that silky smooth water in your images. This is something that I do hope Sony would consider implementing in future updates.

Camera resolution settings
I highly recommend configuring camera settings to 17MP (16:9) aspect ratio. You will spot the difference between 19MP (4:3) and 17MP (16:9) below.
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poor_poor

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Daylight Photoshoot

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Night Photoshoot
White balance and colour is generally very accurate and well managed even in tricky environments.
The JPEG image quality captured by the camera is very good in ample light situation. For higher ISO such as 1000 and above, images do suffer from loss of sharpness and detail due to JPEG processing and strong noise reduction effect being applied. Unfortunately, there is no option to shoot in RAW, which means that you won’t be able to bring back those lost detail and do your own processing instead.

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Personally, I don’t see the need for such high megapixels, especially on a mobile phone. More pixels would means that the individual pixel size would be smaller. Smaller pixels are more sensitive to camera shake, as a smaller movement will cause the image to move across more pixels. However, if you are able steady your camera by using a tripod, I believe you’ll be pleased with the amount of detail the camera is able to capture in high megapixel setting. If you’re hand-holding the camera, it’ll be better to shoot in 12MP in low light situations.

The World’s First Super Slow motion
The Sony new Xperia XZ Premium can record videos in super slow motion at the recording speed of 960 frames per second. Using this feature, you can record videos 4X times slower than any other smartphone available in the market.


The motion eye feature has a limitation of resolution up to HD (1280x 720).



Full HD video recording

I am surprised by the audio recording, you can find two microphones on the top and on the button and it give you Stereo Recording.
 

Wessleh

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Sony Xperia XZ Premium - The True Sony Flagship! (Camera)

I was given the chance to try out the XZ Premium for two weeks, and two weeks on, all I can say is that I have been utterly impressed. This is the complete phone from Sony that I've been waiting so long for which excels and easily outpaces any other smartphone in almost every aspect.

The camera was definitely one of the best, if not the best camera I've used in a smartphone in recent times. I went to the zoo a day after I got the phone and snapped a whole load of pictures and I never missed a single moment with the XZ Premium. First off was Predictive Capture, which kicked in really well when I was at the zoo. I was preparing to take a photo of an otter when the otter moved into the frame and across. So as it was moving, Predictive Capture actually kicked in before I pressed the shutter button as it took three photos beforehand before I pressed the shutter button, giving me a total of four cute photos of the otter to choose from, which is really fantastic. It's nice when my camera knows what I'm planning to do, and the best part of it all was having the option to save just a particular photo or save all four photos as well, so hooray! Next off was the other new feature, which is the Super Slow Motion. It is the World's first Super Slow Motion video in a smartphone, as the camera sensor of the XZ Premium has a memory stacked image sensor for slow motion video capture. For me, this worked really well in good lighting (in the sun, outdoors, etc) as I was able to capture moments that I would normally otherwise have missed in other phones. One example was during the elephant show at the zoo, where the elephant performed really mind-boggling tricks and I was able to capture them in super slow motion (960fps, which is 32 times slower than normal video capture from other phones, as well as 4 times slower than the slowest slo mos in a smartphone), so that was definitely an eye-opening experience for me as other than the Xperia XZs, no other smartphone in the world can record moments such as this. The shutter speed and picture processing was also really quick (which is not something you can say of Sony phones past), so it's clear that Sony took great pains and made great strides to enhance the camera experience as well. Colours were vibrant and saturated, and even the smallest details were not missed, so is this the best camera in a smartphone? Quite possibly. Attached below this review are some photos that I took with the XZ Premium while at the zoo, and trust me, the camera easily blows other phones out of the water.

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Lastly, the display just screams: "Wow." And it was evident the first time I looked at it. With a 4K HDR display which is literally the sharpest I've ever seen on a phone, colours really popped. Brightness and clarity was so much better than my older XZ as well as the Z5 Premium that was on show at the HWZ event. When we first put the XZ Premium next to the Z5 Premium in display, many of us couldn't believe that both were on full brightness as the XZ Premium comfortably trounced the Z5 Premium. In terms of brightness, clarity, legibility and colour saturation, the XZ Premium won in every aspect. The best display in a smartphone? Probably.


For me, the past two weeks has been a real blast with the XZ Premium, and I really didn't want to part with it when the time came for me to return it. This will definitely be my next smartphone on my shopping list as it easily outrivals the many other flagship smartphones on the shelves today. This is the true Sony flagship I and many other people have been waiting for, and I'm pretty sure that as well, you'll definitely be enamoured with the XZ Premium as soon as you have your hands on it. Lastly, thank you to HWZ and Sony for this once in a lifetime chance for me to be able to test the phone way before anyone else did, it was a really great experience and I'll never forget it.

P.S: I do apologise for some of the photos as all the photos were shot in full resolution (19MP) which made the files a little bigger, and I had to resort to downscaling the resolution and file size in order for me to be able to upload it to image hosting sites and putting it on HWZ.
 

Qubicfactor

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Moving on from the Xperia XZ

As someone who is a current Xperia XZ user, I wasn’t quite sure if the few key differences between the new Xperia XZ Premium and my current phone like the 4K HDR screen and motion eye camera are tangible, or whether it is just more of the same. I was expecting to see only minor improvements to both, and in theory, anything higher than the theoretical limit of 300 PPI shouldn’t be perceptible anyway. When I got my hands on a unit to test, however, I was pleasantly surprised that yes, I could actually feel the difference.

Motion Eye Camera

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The tricky camera shots, at least according to me, are the indoor ones. Any phone can easily take good outdoor shots, but indoor shots are when phones start to drastically increase ISO sensitivity. Choosing to sacrifice a few megapixels for light sensitivity and detail was indeed a right choice. I took some photos of a tea ceremony setup to see if I could capture the fine details as per a past event I had using 4K HDR video cameras, and I was pleased that images of the setup from the Xperia XZ Premium invoked memories from back then.

Capturing something dynamic like a tea ceremony where the host is constantly in motion means that I usually have to get the particular scene retaken, or artificially ask the host to pause so that I can take a shot, but with the predictive capture this is no longer the case. Well posed scenes can be taken effortlessly.

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My Xperia XZ already produces rather accurate colours, but the camera on the Xperia XZ Premium (and probably the XZs, since they use the same camera module) seem to be able to improve on this somewhat, with more lifelike reds. I noted that my Xperia XZ occasionally has a blue tinge at times, but this was never present in any of my XZ Premium shots.

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Outdoor shots are brilliant as well, with reds, greens and blues being distinct and not overpowering. Note how the white clouds stay perfectly white.

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Battery Life
I believe that others will probably choose to test this out via heavy usage, but I chose to put the phone aside for a while, just to see the idle power drain. Note that the SIM card was taken out when the screen shots were taken. The results were nothing short of phenomenal, with the XZ Premium barely sipping power and easily lasting a week on standby.

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Another advantage of the XZ premium over competing phones is the Qnovo adaptive charging, which along with battery care, helps protect the battery lifespan and ensure safety. In the fast charging race, the last thing you want is your phone to be a fire hazard, like a certain other brand.

Conclusion

Had I not bought my XZ just a few months earlier I would have gotten this instead. But even with my XZ I am already contemplating changing to the XZ premium just for the brilliant screen and improved camera. Sony is definitely on to something here, and the Xperia XZ Premium is a fine example of what their engineering can do, and is a welcome change from the gimmicks the other phone manufacturers are starting to resort to in lieu of actual innovations.
 

hwzmarketing

HWZ Marketing
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Updates: 7th July 2017

Congratulations to the following winners!

Top Prize Winner : Audiology93

1st Consolation Prize Winner: carlover76

2nd Consolation Prize Winner: Shadey

Consolation Prize Winners will walk away with a new Sony Mobile wireless headset. We will send out the prize confirmation email to the above mentioned winners, latest by 10 July.

Thanks and Congrats once again!
 
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