The Sony Xperia XZ2 represents the biggest change in Sony Mobile’s design language in years and perhaps since the inception of Xperia smartphones as a whole. While the Omnibalance design language held its ground for many years, Ambient Flow is the new look from Sony, and it’s packing in an immediately recognizable design while no longer looking dated as some recently released Sony flagships did. Sony’s still making two sized of its flagships though, with the Xperia XZ2 remaining the larger of the two with a 5.7-inch screen, while the Xperia XZ2 Compact places a much smaller 5-inch screen inside its considerably smaller body, which is nearly 20mm shorter and 7mm narrower.
Inside both phones is a Snapdragon 845 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with microSD card support for expandable storage. Sony sells the larger Xperia XZ2 with 6GB of RAM in some markets, and at least on Amazon represents a $50 upcharge from the “base” Xperia XZ2 model. Both phones also feature a Sony TRILUMINOS IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and HDR10 support, as well as smaller bezels than ever, all while still packing in stereo front-facing speakers. The larger Xperia XZ2 features wireless charging, while the smaller XZ2 Compact does not, but both phones support Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 through the USB type-C port, and Sony QNOVO intelligent charging via the included power brick.
The camera sensor is the same as last year’s, but as we saw in the camera review for the Xperia XZ2, Sony has improved things pretty drastically in many areas, and the new Snapdragon 845 SoC includes a new Image Signal Processor (ISP) that allows for full 1080p video at super-slow 960FPS recording speeds. Sony also can record 4K HDR content using an HDR10-capable codec, so you’re looking at a pretty futureproof camera in any regard. Android 8.0 Oreo runs the show and is still overlaid with Sony’s skin, however, Sony has continued to align its look with the stock feel of AOSP, all while providing users the option to heavily theme its looks if they so desire. Check out the review video below to see our thoughts, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for content as it drops!