Gadgetory

refresh is the name of the game Sony is taking a second stab at delivering a flagship Xperia for 2016 the acts performance left us underwhelmed so let's see if the xperia x Z can at least get us up to whelmed if not excited first for you Hardware junkie you can pause the video now to see what the XE is packing and getting that out of the way Sony's made another attractive slab of a phone here new for the XE some gentle curves around corners and edges it's softer for Sony but still represents one of the more modern and sharp edged looks for any current smartphone as someone with smaller hands it's always nice picking up a premium device with a medium sized screen though taller forehead and chin bezels keep it from feeling petite this phone feels better pieced together than our X performance review unit but there are still a lot of seams for a unibody device backplate edges we're assuming radio antennas probably live down here this 5.2 inch LCD isn't one of the brighter displays we've reviewed and resolution is only clocking in at 1080p again Full HD is perfectly usable but at this price point the XV is battling brighter higher resolution displays from many competitors we also have to address the fingerprint issue in the United States the scanner hardware is included but it's software disabled for those heavier members of our audience you can flash different software to activate it but this is not something we think users should have to perform to correct Sony's issues so as far as we're concerned for this review this phone doesn't have a fingerprint scanner this is the first Xperia SP type-c connector though which we're happy to see it's maybe a bit embarrassing how quickly I've gotten spoiled by a symmetrical connector and how cranky I get these days when I need to track down a microUSB cable some of this layout is just a bit funky compared to what most people might be used to like the really low mounted volume rocker or the front-facing NFC yeah I left the sticker on on the last Xperia we reviewed I kept forgetting it was here it'll be familiar to the Sony faithful though and will always be fans of hardware camera shutter buttons now moving to software Sony's custom UI touches are subtle we're mostly stock adjacent here some extra organization options in app drawer a more colorful Settings menu and some custom Sony services pre-installed though at the end of the year we have been spoiled by recent experiences with Android 7 nougat where the x/z is still on marshmallow so we're hoping this phone gets updated soon it is a snappy performer sliding through the user interface no surprises there with a Qualcomm 820 chipset onboard it's not going to take any performance crowns but it's a more than capable daily driver this is well understood hardware and for most titles the phone performs well but looking at a game like future fight which isn't particularly well optimised for Android we're definitely seeing stutters and dropped frames Wi-Fi performance is leaner than several of the metal back phones we've recently reviewed falling behind the LGV 20 and Huawei mate 9 this phone struggles to reach my router at the edges of my Wi-Fi reception LTE performance is similar falling behind our galaxy s7 and mate 9 on ET and just edging out the HTC 10 it's not poor performance but it's not the best speaker performance is solid though Sony's been turning out competitive phone speakers for years and the XE continues to represent well against other stereo solutions especially considering this is a water-resistant device the headphone story though still isn't much improved from the X performance these quality numbers are hovering nearly identically with the galaxy s7 it's a somewhat weak amp with mid-pack noise floor and dynamic range performance we don't hear anything here to suggest that Sony will be improving their audiophile reputation anytime soon and we've got numerous requests to produce a real camera review but even for the additional sensors we just don't see where this is significantly different than what we experienced with the xperia x and x performance where we do see improvements the focusing system is far less confrontational and the newer object tracking really does help you stay locked onto your subject we're happy to see a better layout for manual options this is usable now and really comes in handy when auto modes let you down and 4k video recording returns which was a horrible oversight for the X performance still for having some of the best camera Hardware we've ever seen sony software leaves a lot to be desired moving between modes is painfully slow and often you tap or swipe with zero response or enough of a delay that you go to rese wipe in the camera skips the mode you want intelligent auto mode regularly misses the exposure which would best fit your subject and you still feel like you're fighting this app more than using it to actually create something if you're going to rely mostly on auto camera modes this shooter has a tough time competing against the iPhone in the pixel video can be captured in a higher resolution but in 4k mode you can't focus it's all full auto and why is the 4k mode a separate internal app from the rest of the camera why can't I just change the resolution in the video settings whoo the image stabilization doesn't seem to be much improved either when trying to hold still using the intelligent stabilization there's still a lot of twitch and we just can't ignore that experien hot after recording seven minutes of HD video in an air-conditioned room we got an overheating warning telling us that features were being disabled now we've linked our xperia x performance camera review in the description below for folks who want to dig deeper but somebody probably won't be topping our list of best cameras for 2016 using a slightly smaller 2,900 milliamp hour capacity we wouldn't be surprised to see leaner performance but the X Z runs really lean with moderate use on our media test streaming 30 minutes of HD video over Wi-Fi at 190 Lux we drained 9% of this battery one of the poorer performers we've run this year and that is reflected in daily use where it was difficult making it to dinnertime without a recharge a shooting some camera samples drained this phone significantly faster the recharge story is also a bit disappointing 30 minutes on a sony charger resulted in a 22% top off certainly not the speediest you can get a little jump from a short stint plugged in but for a slightly smaller battery we were hoping to see faster charging to compensate so let's wrap this up where does that leave us with the Sony Xperia XE judged by our previous experiences with Sony this year this is a significant improvement this feels a lot more like a proper flagship and a truer successor the Xperia Z it also seems like Sony is reacting to the market a bit more aggressively cutting the price of this phone unlocked to 599 dollars it's still an expensive device which rightfully has difficulties competing directly against HTC 10's Galaxy s7 s after recent price drops but will still call this progress ultimately weighing what this phone has to offer in this tier it's still a tricky recommendation we think this will play better with Xperia Z fans looking to upgrade and stay under the Sony umbrella but folks coming from other manufacturers well there might be better options for your cash as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews like these and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for PocketNow i'm juan carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review