Gadgetory

out of the xperia x line the xperia x performance is the highest end model and is ultimately the biggest flagship that sony has so far for the year 2016 the design isn't really too surprising at all it looks very similar to Sony phones we've seen in years past and almost identical to the more mid-range Xperia X with the only difference being the brushed metal aluminum backing otherwise it's a rectangular slab with glass on the front and tapered edges along the corners and sides that make it pretty comfortable to hold and because it has a much smaller 5-inch display compared to most other flagships with larger screens it's really easy to operate in one hand the overall bill does feel very solid and sturdy but it isn't without its quirks the brushed metal backing is a nice touch but similar to the LG g5 it doesn't feel like metal and it feels hollow as if the internals aren't quite filling up all the space inside here have a listen and you'll see what I mean my other gripe with this phone are the physical hardware buttons and this is an area that sounds minor but can really make all the difference in a phone's build quality both the volume keys and physical camera shutter button are not clicky and tactile at all and the mushy feedback makes them feel extremely cheap the placement of the volume rockers are also not exactly ideal they're in a very awkward spot right below the power button making them uncomfortable to press with your thumb and simple things like taking a screenshot feel a lot more difficult the position of the volume keys is most likely where it is for the purposes of controlling digital zoom with the camera but I don't think digital zoom is enough justification to be in such an under Kannamma cloak ation everything else is fine though the power button is nice and large and easy to press and then you have your usual headphone jack up top micro USB port on the bottom and the SIM card / micro SD card tray on the left side in typical Sony fashion the X performance is ip68 dust and water resistance so you can dunk it in water use it in the rain and it'll be perfectly fine one feature that it does not have though is a fingerprint sensor and if this phone came out a couple of years ago where fingerprint sensors weren't as prevalent that probably would have been okay but this is 2016 and fingerprint sensors have pretty much become a standard on high-end flagship smartphones and we're even seeing budget phones that cost a fraction of what the X performance cost that include fingerprint sensors so it's a little bit of a head-scratcher why Sony chose not to include one another oddity with the X performance is the placement of the NFC chip so most phones typically have their NFC chips on the back but the X performance has its NFC chip on the front in the upper left corner and the biggest problem with this location is that it makes things like touching your phone to transfer content to somebody else's phone connecting to a Bluetooth speaker or using mobile payments a little bit more awkward and cumbersome because you can't see the display and this is just another one of those quirks that really makes you question why Sony chose to do the things that they did with this phone so normally you have to go like this but with the X performance you have to go like this and this is typically where you have to tap the display to finish the beam I don't think that's going to fly over too well with most people most high-end flagship smartphones these days are packing quad HD displays but with the X performance Sony chose to stick with 1080p and on a five-inch screen 1080p is perfectly fine it's extremely sharp colors are vibrant it gets plenty bright that is easily visible in direct sunlight and the viewing angles are also quite good just like previous Sony devices you have the option to tweak the white balance and vibrancy of the display to whatever looks best to your eyes so there's nothing inherently wrong with the display at all it's a very good-looking screen but this is a $700 smartphone and pretty much every phone in this price range if not all are coming with quad HD display so the point where it's basically become a standard in high-priced flagships so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense by Sony chose to go with 1080p and it's especially puzzling considering this is the same company that released a 4k smart phone last year let that soak in for a minute on the more positive side despite certain features being omitted or the questionable hardware decisions there are some things to like about this phone first off it has dual front-facing speakers which are always awesome to have on any smart phone they're not the loudest front-facing speakers I've ever heard and could be a notch or two higher in volume but overall they produce a nice clean sound without any Distortion and they've been a pleasure to use while gaming or watching YouTube secondly Sony did pack the X performance with flagship specs you've got these snapdragon 820 processor 3 gigabytes of RAM 32 gigs of internal storage and the micro SD card slot that I mentioned earlier for support up to 200 gigabytes of additional storage despite having a gig less of RAM than most other flagships I haven't noticed any real-world differences between the X performance and other flagships on the market that are rocking the same chipset it's fast and fluid touch responsiveness has been great and it plays games and jumps between multiple applications with very little problems it's safe to say that performance is not an issue here and it definitely lives up to that part of its name battery life on the X performance is good but is it anything crazy spectacular it's got a twenty seven hundred milli amp hour battery which falls short of that magical 3000 milliamp hour mark but it's enough to last me a full day as long as I keep that usage to mostly basic tasks like reading emails texting web browsing social media and maybe an hour or two of watching YouTube anything heavier than that like long gaming sessions coupled with a heavy camera usage and I often found myself how to recharge at least once in the middle of the day it does have quick charge for faster charging speeds but despite having a Snapdragon 820 it's utilizing the much older quick charge 2.0 if you're really hurting for battery and can't get to a charger Sony stamina and ultra stamina modes can effectively stretch your remaining battery life by limiting your phone's functionality on paper the xperia x performance is packing some impressive sounding cameras the front camera is a 13 megapixel shooter that packs plenty of detail and resolution it's more than you really need for video chats and works extremely well if you'd like taking selfies on the rear is a 23 megapixel camera with single LED flash but despite having such a high megapixel count the X performance doesn't do 4k video recording another feature that most flag ships have that the X performance lacks and instead tops out at 1080p at 60 frames it does however come with a continuous tracking autofocus feature that Sony called predictive hybrid autofocus which lets you tap on the screen to lock onto a subject and it works pretty well provided the subject isn't moving too fast the camera interface is fairly easy to navigate swiping on the display will cycle between superior Auto manual video and the usual slew of fun slash gimmicky Sony camera features that we've all seen before like inserting your face into a picture or the various AR FX that can make dinosaurs crawl all over your living room or laser beams shoot from your eyes having manual controls in the camera app is always a nice feature to have but Sony's manual mode only gives you the option to tweak white balance and exposure whereas other smartphone cameras on the market give you a whole lot more HDR is also only accessible in these settings when shooting in manual which seems counterintuitive and doesn't make a whole lot of sense since the majority of photos that people take on their smartphones are usually in Auto picture quality on the X performance is generally pretty good in bright lighting conditions pictures are very well detailed vibrant and colorful but it does tend to make bright colors like pinks and purples look unnatural it also has a problem with over crushing shadows so dynamic range definitely could be better but HDR can drastically reduce the shadows and bring back a lot of that missing detail low-light performance isn't terrible and certainly far from the worst but it isn't anything to really write home about the camera still produces some perfectly usable photos but you can easily see these soft details and noise starting to creep in as the lights get dim software-wise you looking at android 6.0 marshmallow but Sony's Xperia Y and software is definitely one area that Sony has always been pretty good with it clearly isn't stock Android but it does maintain a somewhat stock look and feel and Sony's UI has been updated with a much flatter look which blends in a lot better with Google's material design the X performance comes with the usual Sony apps like life log and PlayStation integration for remotely playing your PlayStation games on your phone but aside from that it isn't overly bloated with a bunch of apps that you'll never use Sony also doesn't bog down the experience with a ton of features either but there are some pretty useful ones such as double tap to wake custom icon packs and a built in theme engine to customize the look and feel of the interface although there's only a handful of themes to pick from the only software tweak that didn't find particularly useful is the suggested and recommended apps pane which you can access by swiping down on any home screen or through the app drawer but thankfully this is a feature that can be disabled so there's no question that the X performance is a good phone despite some of its quirks and odd hardware decisions by Sony but that's not the problem here as I mentioned a couple times already this phone cost $700 putting it in direct competition with the s7 HTC 10 and the LG g5 and the phone's price is the biggest thing working against it if it's going to cost $700 it needs to be able to do all the same core things that those phones do like have a fingerprint sensor a quad HD display and 4k video recording then on the other end of the spectrum you have phones like the one plus three that have a fingerprint sensor and double the RAM of the X performance while only costing a fraction of the price even if it's phone were to cost four to five hundred dollars I'm still not entirely sure it'd be that great of a deal but for the things that it lacks it definitely isn't worth 700 bucks if you buy this phone you will enjoy it but knowing that there are better deals out there that either cost the same price or a fraction of the price the X performance is an investment that isn't going to give you the return that you deserve as always thank you guys so much for watching this video if you enjoyed this review of the expert forum it's please give it a thumbs up down below and let us know your thoughts on the X performance in the comments is it overpriced is it lacking features let us know down below and also subscribe to the channel which is also down below if you haven't already so you don't miss out on our future videos and check us out on social media Instagram snapchat Twitter Google+ all that good stuff will be linked down below follow me on Twitter as well and check the website and Jory calm because we are your source for all things Android it's been a long day without you my friend and I tell you all about it when I see you again come a long way from where we began oh I'll tell you all about it when I see you again