The Xperia Z line of devices has been one that Sony has constantly been updating and iterating since the original was released back in 2013. Since then, we’ve seen what feels like hoards of Xperia Z smartphones hit the market in familiar designs and similar feature sets. While this has been true for a long time, the Xperia Z line has always offered up great battery life, good build quality and a quality camera experience. For the past two years, since the launch of the Xperia Z1, the camera on the Xperia Z has been mostly the same, until today.
Sony officially unveiled the Xperia Z5 trio in Berlin today, during their IFA 2015 press conference, and with the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner and that same, familiar design was a bump in camera specs. The 21-megapixel sensor that has been used in the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3 and Zperia Z3+/Z4 line of products has been replaced with a 23-megapixel sensor in the Xperia Z5. This is not just about megapixels however, as this new Exmor RS sensor is cut from the same cloth used in their Alpha line of interchangeable lens cameras. There’s an f/2.0 lens covering said sensor, and the Xperia Z can now focus within 0.03 seconds, making it one of the fastest focusing smartphones ever created. That resolution of 23-megapixels can’t hurt, either. Below are some sample shots quickly taken while roaming the halls in Berlin.
Our quick, and admittedly limited, impressions don’t do the new sensor justice, but it seems like Sony have made slight improvements here and there. The big improvement is in how quick the camera is to focus and take shots. This has steadily gotten better since the Xperia Z2 launched, but the Xperia Z5 is quicker in almost every way, and the same functions and modes are still here. Plus, the inclusion of ClearZoom, allowing users to zoom in without relying on soft, blurry digital zoom entirely.
Below, Sony have offered up some ‘official’ camera samples of what the Xperia Z5 line can do, but we can’t speak of whether or not they’ve been edited in any way. You can check out our hands-on post as well as other Sony news and everything else from IFA 2015 here.
