Sony's clearly targeting the younglings with the Compact, especially with some of the bright and "fun" colors. The Z5 Premium is available in black, gold or chrome, all with a mirrored glass back, while the Z5 has white, black, gold and a subdued green, with a frosted glass back.
The Z5 Compact feels sturdier and a little chunkier, but not necessarily in a bad way. The Z5 Premium and Z5 both feel very polished, with carefully considered color schemes and materials. That said, this is probably the tightest iteration on that theme. Sony's "OmniBalance" design theme has been knocking around since the Xperia Z1, and it's really difficult to get excited about: They're rectangular slabs with clean lines they're waterproof and they're uncomplicated. If you've seen any Sony phone made in the last couple of years, I'm sure you've already noticed the Z5 family is a very familiar one. The Z5s' power buttons house fingerprint sensors. The only other differentiator is RAM: The Z5 Premium and Z5 have 3GB the Z5 Compact only has 2GB. All three have Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor inside, up to 32GB of internal storage (expandable by microSD), high-res audio chips and "up to two-day battery life." That's a cute way Sony found to say "you only need to charge this one once a day." How they eke out that battery life differs of course, with the Premium having a 3,430mAh battery, the Z5 a 2,900mAh and the Z5 Compact a 2,700mAh. Apart from their displays, the devices are almost identical.Īs far as specs go, though, the displays are pretty much the only things distinguishing the Z5 Premium from the Z5 and Z5 Compact.
Unfortunately, Sony's saved all of its new screen tech for the Premium, with the regular Z5 retaining the same 5.2-inch 1080p unit as the Z3 and Z3+, and the Z5 Compact getting a 4.6-inch 720p display. Sony's thrown down the gauntlet, and at least in pixel density, the Z5 Premium is the phone to beat.
I'm not sure I want a 4K display in my phone, but I am sure that the allure of an 806-ppi display will be enough to win some over. We'll need to spend more time than the few hours we've had with the new lineup to give a proper verdict, but right now we can say for sure that it looks great. It's got a truly ridiculous, world-beating 5.5-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,160) panel, with rich colors and deep blacks. I'm totally besotted with the Premium's display.