Sony Xperia XZ3 long-term review

Conclusion

Sony is focusing on being different, but we feel that in a lot of areas its smartphones end up being different just for the sake of it. This focus seems relentless and may have distracted the company from instead paying attention to what most people actually want in a smartphone. Right now, to be a clear success in sales, a device absolutely has to nail the basics. As far as we can tell, those are, in no particular order: a great screen, amazing camera image quality, nice and modern looks, smooth and stutter-free performance, and ample battery life.

The Xperia XZ3 delivers on some of these, but it doesn't really nail all of them. Or at least not to a level comparable with its foremost competitors. On the other hand, it's filled to the brim with gimmicks and needless all-caps trademarks for normal features that other companies put in without going through the trouble of naming them something outlandish like STAMINA, X-Reality, or TRILUMINOS. Sure, the company's definitely toned down its trademark love in recent years - we're thankful that it isn't plastering Walkman or CyberShot logos on its phones anymore, but we can't stop wondering how much time and resources have been spent in this area and could've been put to better use by simply making the XZ3 excel at the basics.

This handset is definitely good, but not a lot more than that. It's ironic that most of its shortcomings aren't huge, and we could've more easily overlooked them if this was a phone that launched costing half as much as it did. For a mid-ranger, it does a lot of things right. For a flagship priced accordingly, it disappoints, always being close to what it should be but never really there.

Sony finally embracing OLED screens like the rest of the industry is definitely welcome, and the cameras are good, but not in league with other top-shelf phones. The battery life is decent, but nowadays we're expecting more.

Performance isn't bad but the constant lag and numerous stutters hinder the experience a lot. With a top of the line SoC inside, there's really no excuse for this. Again and again, we come back to the feeling that Sony should have devoted much more attention to essential aspects like these, instead of making sure you can tap the edge of the frame to get an app shortcut screen.

And then there's the design, which simply looks dated. For a company that insists on sticking with a unique six-month release cycle for its flagships, this is beyond ironic. In terms of looks, the smartphone world has evolved a lot in the past year or so, but Sony hasn't caught up to even the beginning of that. You still get bezels top and bottom - big, impossible to ignore bezels.

The blocky look is more of a personal choice, and it has been getting consistently less blocky in time, but the position of the fingerprint sensor on the back is just inexcusable. That's something that every XZ3 owner will use dozens, if not hundreds of times a day, and every single time you'll get slightly annoyed when you try and use the camera sensor as the fingerprint scanner - because it is the camera that's in the perfect position for that.

The bulging design of the phone's rear does nothing to make it easier to hold, in fact, it's one of the more uncomfortable devices we've played with. Yes, it avoids a camera hump and that's a plus for some, but we feel like the price to pay for this is way too high, considering that the position of the camera where the fingerprint scanner should have been is probably also connected to the insistence of not having a traditional bump.

This is all pretty negative, but don't misunderstand - the XZ3 is a good smartphone, it's just not good enough. Not to properly compete head-on with its respective competitors, and definitely not good enough for the flagship price that was being asked for it for most of its life. With the inevitable price cuts following the announcement of the Xperia 1, the XZ3 is easier to recommend now, but not as a top of the line handset from late 2018. If you look at it as a mid-ranger and don't especially value software snappiness in your phone, it's a good choice.

There's just nothing mind-blowing about it, and we can't help but feel that Sony is intent on basically performing a magic trick with this device, drawing your attention away from the fundamentals and onto nice sounding features and perks that almost anyone can, in fact, live without. Did it work? You will be the judge.