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Sony Xperia Z5 camera review

Lars Rehm | Published: Feb 9, 2016 at 13:00 UTC

110

Connect smartphone reviews are written with the needs of photographers in mind. We focus on camera features, performance and image quality.

With its 5.2-inch 1080p screen the Xperia Z5 is the mid-size and mid-resolution model in Sony's updated Xperia Z line. Essentially, it differs from the Z5 Premium and Compact only in screen size and resolution. But for the first time since the Xperia Z1 there has been significant change in the camera module and a 23MP 1/2.3-inch multi-aspect BSI CMOS sensor is paired with an F2.0 lens and dual-LED flash. A new hybrid AF system, which combines contrast and phase detect technologies, should mean improved focus performance as well.

The camera app has also received a long overdue makeover. The user interface has been simplified and the 23MP full resolution mode is now also available in Superior Auto, which previously had been limited to 8MP. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip set provides top-end computing power and as before, the new model is waterproof with a coverless microUSB port. Sony has maintained the predecessors' angular design language and only made minor changes to the Z5's appearance. Read our full review to find out how the hardware and software modifications impact camera performance.

Key Photographic / Video Specifications

23MP 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS BSI CMOS multi-aspect image sensor
F2.0 aperture
24mm equivalent focal length
Hybrid AF
Dual-LED flash
4K video
5MP front camera, 25mm equivalent focal length
Dedicated shutter button

Other Specifications

5.2-inch 1080p display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC
3GB RAM
32GB storage
MicroSD slot
2900 mAh battery

Our 9-page review

We've considered every aspect of the Sony Xperia Z5 with the photographer in mind. We examined the user interface of the native camera app and its special features. We experimented with the camera's performance when taking stills and video, and had a play with the device's many special feature modes. Click any of the links below for more information of specific functions and continue to our conclusion for a final summary of our findings.

PAGES

Next page: Design & Hardware

Comments

Total comments: 110

Is there an advantage for us sony mirrorless camera users if we have a sony phone?... or is the iPhone or samsung still better for WiFi and nfc connectivity.

0 upvotes

I don't get it. All the praise, and it's almost as horrendous as my Z3's.

0 upvotes

I can easily agree regarding the Z3. I'm very dissapointed. Although the detail level is good in bright light, colors are completely wrong (always to magenta) and when ISO just slightly increases, the images are mostly unusable and don't have any good colors. However, seeing this review, at least it seems that Sony is adressing some issues regarding the colors. But I still agree with you, I think there are better options out for a camera phone.

0 upvotes

Have been using Z5 for ~2 months and i'm keeping it.
no shutter lag on mine , i like the camera button thing very very much. the 24mm has become a nice scouting camera for my landscape/street photography

0 upvotes

Hi,
I was seriously thinking of moving from my Z1 Compact to the Z5 given the specs & the DXO review. However, like others on here I'm concerned about the IQ of the photos I've seen so far. Would it be possible to post some straight out of camera photos please, so that I could see "real world" examples. Paul

0 upvotes

Sure,
these must be some pretty special sausages because a security guy "reprimanded" me about taking shots of dried sausages ..well
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/0627397243/photos/3397884/z5
an older one
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/0627397243/photos/3397880/z5

0 upvotes

Thanks for these. Unfortunately I'm still not convinced. They seem very clear towards the middle but soft / out of focus / smeared towards the edges. Hmmm?

0 upvotes

i think what you mention as smeared is what i call wide angle field curvature . same problem with the big boys though ( : http://petapixel.com/2015/04/02/testing-the-sigma-24mm-f1-4-art-lens-against-lenses-by-major-manufacturers/

of course you dont want field curvature but with wide angles it's there and it's for the photoq to manage. it potentially disturbs the scene , yep i know.

1 upvote

"The Sony Xperia Z5 is certainly no slouch in general operation and even challenging tasks are undertaken swiftly and responsively. " - Yeah, the app opens fast, but what about the shutter lag? My HTC Butterfly s seems less laggy than the Z5, which always captures one frame after you press the shutter.

1 upvote

Previous model Z2 and Z3 phones already did not use glass.

Maybe the new plastic looks less convincingly like glass, but that's not new.

0 upvotes

From http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-z5/

"Xperia Z5 delivers a design difference you can feel. A metal frame with precision engraving. A smooth, simplified form. And a frosted glass back that’s both gentle on the eye and cool to the touch."

0 upvotes

Yes, they wrote the same thing about the Z2 and mine turned out to have a plastic back anyway, after I walked around with it for 6 months believing it was glass.

There is a distinct possibility, that they ship different versions to different regions. Some may have glass, others may have plastic / polycarbonate or whatever it is.

Certainly, glass could both be a good thing or a bad thing - less easy to scratch but could shatter.

I tend to put a protective foil on both sides and call it a day. :)

Comment edited 33 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Your Xperia device might have been a clone. It should be fairly easy to check, refer to relevant xda forums or ask Sony.

0 upvotes

No, it wasn't a clone, I took it to Sony and I think they would have both told me and refused to repair it if that was the case...

0 upvotes

I have a Z5 Compact and in low light, high-contrast scenes the camera produces horrible blue tints on the edges in dark areas. It's especially noticeable in videos shot in such conditions and you can easily find out more by googling "Sony Z5 blue tint".

Could you test to see if your unit produces such noise? The artifact is simply not acceptable and I find it strange that no review site mentioned it so far. Maybe you should diversify and standardize your tests?

0 upvotes

"The main difference is that the back is now plastic instead of glass which means it doesn't quite have the same premium feel as before. On the upside, it's not constantly smeared with fingerprints and arguably less likely to shatter in a fall"

I thought the back was glass, as definitely is my E6653. Was the OP reviewing another model perhaps?

0 upvotes

I thought for a long time that the back of my Z2 was real glass, because I read about it being glass. I only found out it wasn't glass after it came off from the internal battery swelling and pushing it out (after 6 months of ownership). As I went to remove the back panel completely, I found it was far more flexible than any real glass could possibly be.

If you really "know" that your back is glass, because you had it off at any point, it would point to the possibility of the Z line being equipped with different types of back panels, depending on what markets they are going to. (My Z2 was bought at the Hong Kong airport, for example)

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

0 upvotes

Created an account just to post this. Was hoping to find a review of the camera from someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.

But those photos dont look good while you say its an excellent camera???

Look at this comparison with the iphone 6S plus: http://www.techradar.com/au/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/sony-xperia-z5-camera-tested-in-depth-1309361/6

Thats absolutely abhorrent!

3 upvotes

Sony's 20+ MP sensors do not take photos, they take smeared greasy paintings.

3 upvotes

Show me.

0 upvotes

Joe, did you look at the samples taken at ISO40?
Flagship phones from other brands do much better and even the One Plus 2 does and that phone now costs 30% less than the Z5.
But you have to look for yourself to see it. There are more than enough samples in this review.

0 upvotes

Joe, do some Googling. I had Sony XH50V, some pictures at ISO100-200 are like paintings at %100 magnification. Sony MUST produce 8-10MP sensors, then I'd reconsider them.

0 upvotes

Uh, that camera's nearly 3 years old. A LOT has happened since then, especially with Sony sensors.

0 upvotes

What happened for example? I see no noticeable difference between HX50V samples and newer Sony compact cameras actually.

0 upvotes

Surprised at the soft corners visible at "normal sizes".

2 upvotes

a lot of people have complained about it, especially on the left side where on several units it is very noticeable. I had mine repaired by Sony but now it seems some dust got into the lens (visible when light shines at a certain angle)

0 upvotes

"Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution." I have a Sony Z3V, and the camera on this thing blows me away, I can print 8 by 10 or larger, something I've never been able to do before from a phone, and my note 4 and IPhone 6S Plus are no slouchs. The resolution and sensor size simply make a big difference, Sony really did cram a point and shoot in there. However I found quickly that if you shot an intelligent auto or at higher ISO's it was a noise reduction mess. You have to shoot in Manual, you have to drop ISO. Action shots are off the table. On PhoneArena when they did the camera comparisons the Sony fans were shouting that, and it is true.

0 upvotes

and yet at 100% the photos are a smeary mess, did you look? as long as you are happy I guess, but I for one am definitely not, the photos look unnatural with masses of processing evident.

2 upvotes

I can't remark on these photos,no didn't take em, the ones my Z3v spits out are pretty awesome, but you have to use certain techniques. I imagine the same applies to the Z5 straight out of the phone they're a mess.

0 upvotes

its frustrating cos the Sony sensors are good, but the processing is arrgghh!!!

3 upvotes

I think that some of tests are done on a monochromatic image, and that's why they are not accurate and you see different results from real life pictures, but I am not sure.

0 upvotes

And still no attempts by DXO or dpreview to examine the imagers inside Microsoft Lumia 950/XL. It even has DNG-output and you CAN choose to set EVERYTHING manually.

3 upvotes

There are plenty of other sites that reviewed them and they are subpar. The Nokia 1020 is in a distant past and has nothing to do with today's Lumia phones. Best camera samples I have seen are the ones from LG V10.

0 upvotes

@Catalin Stavaru Bashing, no arguments = propaganda.

1 upvote

@solarsky Look at gsmarena blind shootout tests. People voted for pictures without knowing the manufacturer. Lumia 950XL came out last in both day-time and night-time pictures. They compared LG V10, Note 5, iPhone 6s Plus and Lumia 950XL.

Comment edited 58 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

@Catalin Stavaru You're not addressing DNG-RAW-output. This is a website for photographers.

1 upvote

Well, get Microsoft to send me one and I'll get on the review right now. It's not always as easy as you think...working on it though...

0 upvotes

@Lars Rhem Ich hab selbst schon längst ein Lumia 950 XL. Frag doch mal Bekannte ;-)

0 upvotes

Ich weiss auch, dass man das Ding schon lange kaufen kann, aber leider hat keiner meiner Bekannten eins. Es ist eben um einiges einfacher, die Geräte zu testen, die man auf dem Schreibtisch liegen hat. Bei den Herstellern, die da Schwierigkeiten machen, dauert es dann halt leider etwas länger. Ausserdem arbeite ich im Normalfall ca. 2 Wochen an einer Review, so lange geben selbst die besten Freunde ihr Smartphone nicht her :)

0 upvotes

Can't you get one from your parent company? How hard can that be? They advertise using your reviews so I figure they can give you one for 2 weeks, maybe a restocked product.

0 upvotes

Honest question:

How important is aperture on such a small sensor? (Smartphone cameras om general).

For example, on FF or APS-C, f/2.0 vs f/2.8: There is a noticeable difference if the final image (Noise, bokeh etc..,) based on that 1 stop difference. Does the same apply to such tiny sensors?

0 upvotes

the sensors are generally too small for it to make much difference in terms of bokeh. But it certainly does make a difference in terms of noise. That said, pretty much all higher-end models come with apertures between F1.8 and F2, so the difference is minimal.

0 upvotes

THe faster aperture also helps keep the shutter speed up. Since you can't freeze movement with flash on a phone, you tend to get a lot of motion blur as the light drops. An extra stop means twice the shutter speed and half the motion blur problem.

0 upvotes

I'm surprised to see even f/1.7 lenses today. The f/1.8 lens on the Note 5 is edge to edge sharp. I wonder if we can even go faster. Could we have a f/1.0 lens (or faster) some day, and still keep the edge to edge sharpness, with it bulking up the phone? If we can shoot something about 3 feet away and have a little bit of background blur, it would be nice.

0 upvotes

Aperture helps for speed and in low er light but the IQ from the Z5 (look at 100%) is a smeary mess even at low iso's I cannot believe the DPR think the IQ is remotely good, so much processing, so unnatural in look, no, DPR got it very wrong!

1 upvote

It's a Sony product, should we expect anything different?

0 upvotes

Horrible low and high ISO images.
Absolutely no detail, oversharpened.
I have the Sony Z2 and it's a lot better than this.
It's not even comparable with the now ancient Nokia N8 i used
to own.

0 upvotes

How can the phone get such a high score, when the photos look just awful?

3 upvotes

What did you expect from a phone camera? People these days have such high standards.

0 upvotes

The sensor seems capable, but the destructive noise reduction and oversharpening makes the camera worthless. Other companies like samsung and apple leave their images intact. And those images look good, even when they are taken with a smartphone.

0 upvotes

Look at the whole image. You can't pixel peep phones and come away happy.

1 upvote

the old Nokia 808 still blows all these away for detail, and that natural DSLR look, pity the module didnt find its way into a phone with a OS that wasn't 'killed' off. But the Z5 pics look horrid, what was DPR thinking in this review???

0 upvotes

I can only imagine how good the IQ would be if the camera hardware is on an iPhone. SONY is let down by poor software again.

0 upvotes

200GB, I haven't seen anything bigger 128GB cards ..... which are actually usually less only 118GB formatted. So even with a 64GB internal memory which is really 58GB, that gets no where near 200GB.

My Note 4 has 150GB total and I carry a "128"GB Samsung flash drive which connects smartly by a USB to go cable when desired.

The answer is that internet and data are far more useful when you are out in the world doing something. I don't even have a home Internet connection. Trust me the home is a better place without it.

Like I am going to download my own data from cloud to get access to it. Thank you Sony and ironically HTC for supporting microSD and open access to your own data on your own phone.

Samsung, I and sad to part ways with you, my Note 4 will be the last.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-200GB-Micro-SDSDQUAN-200G-G4A/dp/B00V62XBQQ

3 upvotes

rumors are Samsung is going back to microSD support with the new Galaxy S7. Keep your eyes on our MWC 2016 coverage in a couple of weeks time :)

1 upvote

@ bubblyboo ...... nice product ...... and not that expensive considering. I wonder how much 200GB would cost on an Iphone ...... 2000$?

Comment edited 7 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Interesting, in Canada good fast Internet service costs 70$ minimum per month for 75GB from Bell.ca. That is 840$/year. Generously, the average Canadian wage is 50K a year and that has a huge bimodal skew. Other unlimited plans are so slow in most areas that "unlimited" is actually very limited.

I use Bell LTE and admit it provides fast and very reliable service, albeit at a cost. Before the CRTC ruling in 2014, I paid 75$ /month for cell service and 6GB of LTE data. This works well for me mostly. After the CRTC ruling I would have to pay an extra 2000$ over 2 years to get the same service. Obviously Bell and Rogers was making a killing on all the dirty tricks the CRTC ruled against.
As you can see, in Canada, data is actually quite expensive and far from unlimited. Especially true considering a HD movie sucks 3GB per hour.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 6 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Yep... got a 200gb Sandisk in my Z5 Compact...gives me 183GB of additional space after formatting... plus the 20gb free on the phone... its fantastic...

0 upvotes

Still wishing For a weatherproof AND stabilized mobile. The AF inconstencies here sound worrisome.

0 upvotes

Upcoming Galaxy S7 might be what you've been waiting for :)

0 upvotes

iPhone 6s+ is water resistant but not water proof. There is also Galaxy S6 Active that's waterproof as long as you haven't drop it yet.

0 upvotes

Lars and Pelasdf, thanks for your suggestions.

0 upvotes

more worrisome is the horrid IQ!!!

0 upvotes

My Note 5 shooting in Pro Mode (ISO and shutter speed control, etc.) looks much better than those overprocessed photos from Sony.

0 upvotes

Nice controls... ISO, exposure compensation, white balance.

Apple and iPhone, I know you are not going to change, but it's worth considering...

0 upvotes

The fallen angel... Nice photos Lars, thanks.

1 upvote

I had the 6.4" Sony Z Ultra and hated plugging it in to charge it and purchased the Samsung Edge + that is much smaller but has a great looking 1440p 5.7" AMOLED display and fast wireless charging. I only pay AT&T $30 a month for unlimited talk and text and use wifi for data . I have no problem with that since I have Comcast and they have millions of Xfinity wifi hotspots. Photos and 4K videos are much better than my old Sony and it's tied with the Z5 at #1 in Dxomark ratings.

size comparison with the Z5:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1684/24291191674_b750ce4513_o.png

Comment edited 55 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Then why you bought a 6.44" Z Ultra in the first place? It is like you walk into a tree and you blame the tree for exist in front of you.

0 upvotes

Get a clue, the 6.44" Z Ultra was my old smartphone that came out in 2013 .

0 upvotes

Madrid... nice :)

0 upvotes

well spotted :)

1 upvote

Smartphones are just so last year. :-) Even iPhone sales are slowing.

0 upvotes

At ISO 40 with some resizing and subjective judgement: I think the camera is getting about 4MP of image in good light.

Maybe just a touch below the Iphone 6 in other words, at ISO25.

So about the same overall.

0 upvotes

Ok, so where is this camera compared to the Lumia 1020 and 1520? I still do not see any improvement over those fairly 'old' camera phones.

e.g. Lumia 1020 iq:
http://lumiaconversationsuk.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/nokia-lumia-1020-pro-highres-18.jpg

Lumia 1520 iq:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/reviews/146542-image/Nokia-Lumia-1520-Review-109-samples.jpg
http://www.letsgomobile.org/images/reviews/0207/nokia-lumia-1520.jpg

Just sayin...

3 upvotes

That's what I don 't like in Lumia's phones ... take a look at the buildings at 100% (Copacabana beach - http://www.letsgomobile.org/images/reviews/0207/nokia-lumia-1520.jpg). I have Lumia 1020 and a Samsung Note 5, I'm sharing a compare in OneDrive in a few days.

Comment edited 4 times, last edit 2 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

You mean the OOF part? Show me another camera phone that does that better. One that also shows better results with details within the focal plane. If you scale down a 1020 image to the resolution of the sony, it will show more detail. (and that's obvious, because of it's larger sensor). I'm not saying drop your dslr's and go shoot with a Lumia because no camera phone is great. But to me the pureview lumia's are still unmatched compared to other camera phones. And if a phone is the only thing you have at hand to snap a photo, it better be a Lumia.

0 upvotes

Note 5 and S6 Edge in Pro Mode. I have 1020 and Note 5, they're better than my Lumia. You can check a good post here ... http://smartcam.club/node/3306. Wait for my personal compare between 1020 and Note 5 in Pro mode. ok ?

0 upvotes

and the Nokia 808 is even better, I think the Z5 photos look disgusting, check at 100%, a smeary, processed mess, the Lumias of old blow this and others of its ilk away!

3 upvotes

Jostian I have a 808 too, for me ... the best in town until nowdays ! No OOF like my 1020.

Take a look !

Z5c...... http://f-picture.net/lfp/i008....
808 pureview...... http://f-picture.net/lfp/s017....

Z5c......http://f-picture.net/lfp/s018.radikal...
808 puereview.......http://f-picture.net/lfp/s019.radikal...

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 7 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Hi Sergio the links dont show so I cant check it out, if you are on the DPR forums send me a pm with the links I like to check them out.

1 upvote

Sorry ! Here the links
Z5
http://f-picture.net/lfp/i008.radikal.ru/1602/d2/a6f88e6c00d3.jpg/htm
808
http://f-picture.net/lfp/s017.radikal.ru/i404/1602/77/42018f8463a2.jpg/htm

Z5
http://f-picture.net/lfp/s018.radikal.ru/i502/1602/ba/72317fe5e949.jpg/htm
808
http://f-picture.net/lfp/s019.radikal.ru/i605/1602/68/0637974c3cb7.jpg/htm

Sony is a shame !

0 upvotes

Yes the 808 is even better, i know. Though because of symbian you get a camera where you can call with (sort of). If you talk about IQ only, that's probably the best way to go, otherwise a 1020 and 1520 that will probably run windows 10 mobile soon will be a really good compromise. Again, compared to this sony or many other of the current flagship phone models.

0 upvotes

Hi Jostian, look how 950 XL and S6 Edge Plus are really close ... https://www.flickr.com/photos/smartcamclub/sets/72157664454370225

0 upvotes

Who's the best Lumia 1020 or Note 5 ??? https://www.flickr.com/photos/135916561@N06/

0 upvotes

tough choice (Note 5 or 1020), I prefer the 1020 for the more natural look to the photos, but its a tough call indeed. from a camera perspective the edge goes to the 1020 but as a package (with Android being a better and more mature OS) the Note 5 may be a better package.

1 upvote

That has got to be the worst executed comparison i have ever seen between 2 camera's. I can clearly see you are a fan of the Note 5, that's ok. But i rather stay with the facts.

0 upvotes

I was going to buy this phone, but the 24mm focal length is stopping me. It's too wide.

0 upvotes

lol you can crop you know right?

1 upvote

it's a multi aspect ratio sensor. You get the 24mm in 16:9 but it's around 28mm when you shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio.

3 upvotes

then the natural question Mr. Rehm is which aspect ratio gives which resolution?

0 upvotes

It's 23Mp in 4:3 and just over 20MP in 16:9 but this being a multi aspect ratio sensor it actually has almost 25MP in total.

0 upvotes

npires, on your gear list I see 4 lenses. Why not just use the wide angle and crop the photos then you need telephoto?

1 upvote

Actually Z5's focal length (35mm equivalent) is very much 24mm in 4:3 aspect ratio. In 16:9, it's about 23mm. So the field of view is much wider than any other phone. The lens is in ultra wide-angle category.

This is the main reason i purchased a Z5 Premium. I love ultra wide-angles. Being able to carry a high quality ultra wide-angle in my jeans front pocket is amazing. Image quality overall is very good.

Only problem i have is with the camera software. The camera app is very limited and UI is unintuitive. What's worse, 3rd party camera apps do not function properly on this phone because of Sony's bugs in camera software. I hope Sony will fix the software soon.

0 upvotes

@BubbleGum - You were probably being sarcastic but yes I do. Unless you're shooting anything other than for web cropping wide angle is fine for my needs. Most mobile phones lens are 28mm so the 24mm is hardly that much wider than other phones.

0 upvotes

5.2" display and no active-pen support, I'll stay with Samsung Note.

0 upvotes

no OIS? Actually wondering with 23mp if their downsampled DIS is so good they may not need it to fill that screen.

0 upvotes

DPReview gotta be mad, I click on the photos and at 100% there is a fuzzy haze (smeariness) to ALL the photos, no detail (very unnatural looking) no matter what the iso...if this is the best that phone camera's have to offer I shudder! What is DPR smokin'?

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

12 upvotes

Agree. When you look at the photos of galaxy s6 on gsm arena and then photos taken with the sony, there is no comparisson. Obviously, the sensor alone does not make a camera. The processing on the sony is awful. My cheap chinese no name phone took better pictures.

0 upvotes

But how can people who review for a living be so wrong? That's what i want to know, how can there be such a difference in opinions to the IQ of the photos?

1 upvote

The image quality is excellent at base ISO 40 when subject is in focus and shutter speed is fast enough. Don't look at first photo at ISO800 - no smartphone would do significantly better.

The problem here is that out-of-focus and unsharp areas at the edges get some ridiculous over-sharpening coupled with aggressive noise reduction, so these are smeared.

However, if you look at any daylight photo, everything that is in focus is very sharp and clean, and that is at 23MP, which is quite an achievement. This is also how DxO measured IQ - whole test chart is in focus.

So, the image quality should be fine, as long as you don't do close focus, so background is also within depth of field.
But, I agree - processing is very poor otherwise.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 1 minute after posting

0 upvotes

to me the over-processing destroys detail, at 100% even the low iso shots are fuzzy, look at the train shots at 100%, just smeary...

0 upvotes

That's what I see too. No detail, just smearing and artifacts all over.

0 upvotes

I wanted to point out that train shots are at ISO 200-500, and for best details it's better to look at something like last shot, where bottom part of the monument is well lit and in focus, but then I realized that something must be wrong with camera settings that DPR used.

If you check full size galleries on other sites, this smearing doesn't exist:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vladsavov/sets/72157659861564436/
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z5-review-1326p8.php

Even this shot at ISO 2000 is decent:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vladsavov/22032733680/in/album-72157659861564436/

So, I'm not sure how DPR managed to make these shots look so bad.

0 upvotes

Maybe I am blind but this is the umteenth Sony smartphone camera that gets high praises yet to me it looks like a crazy noisy image that had a lot NR done resulting in subpar IQ.
Compared to the S6, G4, Nexus 6 or OnePlus 2 this just seems blotchy and oversharpened.
Maybe Sony just doesn't hit my taste but to me it seems as though this sensor should have a lot less MP. Downsampling helps but is this the goal?
Well, to each his own.

7 upvotes

Dpreview is losing credibility with "reviews" like these.

0 upvotes

Exactly! photos look like a fuzzy mess at 100% nothing natural at all about the look, certainly not how I want my photos to look. DPReview, this is not what we expect from you!!! your credibility took a hit here.

0 upvotes

The extra detail of the 4K video over 1080p is quite noticeable.

0 upvotes

Is this a case of sponser bias? Is there some underlying reason Sony is getting reviews that are not deserved?

1 upvote

All I know is that his is not the first review of a Sony flagship that shows the same kind of IQ problems without them properly being addressed in the review.

I'd like to hear Lars' take on this. If he can comment on a post that states the samples were taken in Madrid, I'm sure he can also comment on the many posts that see the same things I am seeing.

1 upvote

Total comments: 110

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