Top 5 Sony Xperia XZ2 features

The Sony Xperia XZ2 was just announced at MWC 2018, and we wanted to take some time to go over some of its best new features. Sony has always pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in a smartphone, and the XZ2 is no different. Here are the top five Xperia XZ2 features.

960 fps Full HD video recording

Last year, Sony shocked the world when it introduced 960 fps video recording in the Xperia XZ Premium. It’s an incredible feat for any camera, let alone a smartphone, as normally only extremely expensive rig can do video in this frame rate. The recordings capped out at 720p resolution, which wasn’t terrible, but hardly ideal in an industry shift  towards 4K.

Read more: Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact hands-on | Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact officially announced

This year, the XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are taking it up a notch. Both are maintaining the same ultra-high 960 fps, with the ability to now create 1080p Full HD video as well. This cuts playback time down from six seconds in HD to three seconds in Full HD, but having this ability on your phone is quite staggering. If you’re a video producer or vlogger looking to add some experimental video to your shoot, this phone could be an invaluable asset.

Reactive vibration motor

Haptics have been getting better every year. Now you can feel the difference between a “tap” and a “buzz” from your device. Companies like Apple have made this a marketing feature for its products, with quality good enough that you can tell the difference between app notifications based on the strength of the haptics.

Sony wants to take this one step further, redesigning its vibration motor to react with movies, music, games, and other media. The company wants you to be more immersed in your media, and this does a great job. We can’t imagine you’ll want to hold your phone every time you watch a video or listen to music though, so Sony has included an additional slider in the volume menu which allows you to adjust these haptics as you see fit.

Updated 3D imaging

The last iteration of the XZ line gave us a 3D imaging feature, which allowed users to create 3D models of objects using the back camera. Rotating around your subject a couple of times would create a fully editable 3D file which you could take into software like Blender, Maya, and Unity. Sony has now enabled the front-facing camera to make it even easier to create 3D selfies.

Sony also increased the quality of these models, giving more detail to the objects you create with the camera. Even the front-facing camera produces much cleaner 3D models, which should look great when transferred to modeling programs. This is quite a niche feature and most users probably wont use it, but it could rapidly speed up the workflow of a 3D artist.

10-bit 4K HDR video recording

In 2017, a huge amount of video producers moved to Panasonic GH5 because it could record 10-bit 4K video. Very few cameras can do this, which makes Sony putting it in a phone so incredible. No other phone can do this currently. You probably won’t shoot an entire video with your phone, but having the ability to shoot in this profile gives videographers additional options when working in post-production.

You can play this video on any HDR-capable panel. YouTube now supports HDR content as well, which means this feature could end up being incredibly valuable for people looking to produce content for that platform.

Dual front speakers and internal DAC

Sony has fitted this device with dual front-facing speakers to give you the best audio experience possible. This is coupled with an internal DAC, which enhances the audio quality of your music and videos. The headphone jack was unfortunately removed this time around, but the internal DAC and support for high-resolution audio codecs like aptX HD will hopefully help users feel better about potentially going wireless.

Sony is also including a dongle in the box with each unit, though all of the audio processing will be done in the phone itself.

Those are our top five features in Sony’s new Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. There are plenty of other things to like about this phone, so stay tuned for our full review to see all the new features once we’ve had some time with the device.