Sony has updated its flagships piecemeal – the XZ added 2160p video
capture that the X Performance was missing, the XZs improved the camera
yet again and now the Xperia XZ1 upgrades the chipset to 2017 standards.
Did Sony cover everything you wished for with this latest iteration of X phone? The obvious thing that it’s missing is a bezel-less design that is standard for late 2017. A dual camera may be another, but by the sound of it the new Pixels will stick to one cam per side so dual cameras are not yet mandatory.
Still, we haven’t forgotten that Sony has been the one pushing things we now considered standard – things like waterproofing and stereo speakers. While those are no longer unique, no other brand has touched Xperia’s 960fps slow-motion mode.
And love it or hate it, the Xperia design is certainly recognizable. Plus, the Triluminos display (now with HDR10 support) is one of the best LCDs on the market. We don’t mind so much that it doesn’t have QHD resolution.
Want to know what we think of the Sony Xperia XZ1? Check out our video review below.
Okay, your turn – is the XZ1 the premium device it claims to be or is it a dud?
Did Sony cover everything you wished for with this latest iteration of X phone? The obvious thing that it’s missing is a bezel-less design that is standard for late 2017. A dual camera may be another, but by the sound of it the new Pixels will stick to one cam per side so dual cameras are not yet mandatory.
Still, we haven’t forgotten that Sony has been the one pushing things we now considered standard – things like waterproofing and stereo speakers. While those are no longer unique, no other brand has touched Xperia’s 960fps slow-motion mode.
And love it or hate it, the Xperia design is certainly recognizable. Plus, the Triluminos display (now with HDR10 support) is one of the best LCDs on the market. We don’t mind so much that it doesn’t have QHD resolution.
Want to know what we think of the Sony Xperia XZ1? Check out our video review below.
Okay, your turn – is the XZ1 the premium device it claims to be or is it a dud?
This turbo-powered, glass-clad, sharp-shooting and fast-charging
piece of a smartphone classic seems to have everything. Except... time.
No, it's not going anywhere. It's just that its days as one of the
hottest things around are numbered. Now, we're sure you know what we
mean, so let's slow down and start over. Time isn't always a luxury -
just don't tell this to an iPhone 8 Plus.
Apple isn't just on the verge of breaking clean from the past. The
future has already begun with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. But it doesn't
belong to them.
The iPhone 8 Plus is fresh off the assembly lines, but the iPhone X
is just around the corner, while the iPhone 7 Plus is still relevant and
cheaper.
So, what's up with the iPhone 8 Plus? Not much, at least over at the
front side. Everything else is as we left it on the iPhone 7 Plus: the
footprint, screen size, sizeable bezels, physical Home key, sensors, and
the selfie camera placement. The oleophobic coating against fingerprint
smudges is a given, and that's something we wish to see on every
flagship out there. Oh, and the 8 Plus is still IP67-grade water
resistant.
The rear glass is the highlight of the refined design. It's flat for
the most part but also ends on a subtle curve where it meets the
aluminum frame. There are no antenna bands you can notice, as these are
now well hidden beneath the glass.
Apple likes to tout its new reinforced glass panels used on the
iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X as the toughest glass on the planet. If drop
tests all over YouTube are anything to go by, the new Apple phones
somehow fail to live up to the hype, though. Even worse, our own 8 Plus
got its screen scratched by the smaller iPhone 8 we stacked on top of it
for a quick comparison picture.
The iPhone 8 Plus with its prominent screen bezels is one of the
largest 5.5-inchers on the market. It's not huge by any means, it just
feels oversized, and it is heavy. But handling the 8 Plus is as premium
experience as ever, the build is solid, and the profile thin enough. The
aluminum frame boosts the grip, while the glass panels are sweet on the
eyes. Even though the 8 Plus is not comfortable to work with just one
hand, the added one-hand-friendly gestures will surely help in improving
the overall usability.
The HTC One m8
The secondary camera in this system works similarly. With the second
camera, the system can now tell roughly how far the objects in front of
it are with respect to each other. This information is then used to
separate the foreground subject from the background.
Sample from the HTC One m8. Didn’t always work this well.
While sound in theory and occasionally in practice, this technique
has its pitfalls. Unless your subject is a cardboard cutout, it will
have depth to it and because this depth is not as much as the depth
between the entire subject and the background, the camera occasionally
ends up blurring the edges of the subject as well. Even when it does
work reasonably well, it never quite looks natural, especially since
most smartphone cameras that have this feature apply an even blur on
everything in the background whereas with a DSLR, the intensity of the
blur increases with the distance from the focus point.
Huawei P9
Every time you take a picture, the camera system combines the output
of both cameras and layers them into one image. In theory, the two
images when combined will have greater detail and reduced noise.
Alternately, you can also just shoot from the monochrome camera and get
slightly better image quality at the cost of all the color information.
Monochrome image from P9
There is no real disadvantage to this system and we do appreciate
that it’s the only one of the systems discussed here that tries to do
anything about the actual image quality instead of adding additional
features but still, we would rather take some zooming ability over
marginally improved image quality.
LG G5
We have mainly seen this on LG phones, with Motorola recently incorporating it in the 
Wide-angle on top and ultra wide-angle below from G5
With good implementation, this system does have the potential to be a
really cool second camera system for particular scenarios and we wish
more manufacturers adopted it.
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
Since the iPhone 7 Plus, manufacturers have stuck to using a 2x
factor for the second telephoto lens. This means the secondary lens has
twice the focal length of the primary lens, giving you an instant 2x
optical zoom.
Wide-angle above and telephoto below from the iPhone 7 Plus
Shooting with a telephoto lens also has other advantages. Telephoto
lenses are more suitable for portraits than wide angle as they have less
distortion and is more flattering to the subject. Most manufacturers go
one step ahead and also implement the background blur effect that we
saw with the very first system we talked about today (the primary lens
now acts as the depth sensor). The combination of a telephoto lens and
background blur gives far superior results than just applying background
blur on wide-angle images.
