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The Xperia Z5 Premium has 4K: A picture-perfect product , or not?
June 27, 2025
While we may never know exactlywhatmajor shake-up was being described, Cut/Copy has arguably, years earlier, defined that whichSonybrought forth at its IFA 2015 conference last week. Indeed so minute a mention was it given during their press event that if you dared shut your eyes for even a split second, you’d miss it entirely: TheXperia Z5 Premiumhas a 4K display. Yes, a 4K display. This is big if not positively enormous. In fact, the only thingsmallabout what’s going on here is a diminutive 5.5-inch screen that will house such a pixel perfect panel.
Ahead of IFA, the tech world has been up-in-arms over the possibility of Sony’s “surprise” with many doubting the possibility of such. As it now official, we take a look at Sony’s motivations for going 4K and whether such a jump was really needed.
Definite differential
If Sony simply stepped up to QHD for the Xperia Z5 Premium, it would be seen as simply one of the crowd. No one really cares about quad HD these days, given that it’s become a status-quo for most top-level flagships. The sure-fire way to get people talking, to turn heads, and to make an impact for the immediate future was to announce a product that packs a true punch, and one that has never been seen before on a commercially released smartphone.
A premium product
The second major reason Sony had to include a 4K display was to literally give the Xperia Z5 Premium a reason to have such a name. Given that all other specsnotrelated to the resolution or screen size areexactly the sameas the two “lesser” models, what real selling point could there be for an extra few fractions of an inch? By bumping things to a truly eye-searingly high resolution, the Z5 Premium appears more than worthy of the lofty name.
Forgotten flagships
While Japanese customers may be reeling over the idea of a new Xperia flagship so quickly afterthe last one released, in other parts of the world the Xperia Z4 was never branded as such, rather it was a mere intermittent update known as the Xperia Z3+. For all these markets, Sony has yet to release a halo product this year and hence the Z5 -all three of them- are filling a great void.
Aside from this, there is the additional consideration that Sony itself basically “forgot” the phablet form factor with respect to flagships. The original Xperia Z Ultra released years ago at this point. Even though there were phablet-sized phones released from the Japanese manufacturer in the time since, none of them were Z-class. The Z5 Premium, therefore, represents a true return to form. And of course there are already rumors swirling of an actual Z5 Ultra, though it may be some time before anything more is known in that regard.
Sony to be taken seriously
4K: What to make of it
So it’s done and dusted. Sony has changed the mobile marketplace, as far as display prowess goes. And yet, something feels quite off. In fact, despite the reasons for why it made sense for Sony to jump into the 4K ring, we can also think of a new of reasons why the implementation here seems a bit odd.
A curious strategy
The Standard Xperia Z5 has but a plain FHD panel. Now let’s clarify for a second here, Full HD is actually a fantastic resolution for something hovering around 5 inches. With that said, Sony has created a very peculiar status-quo. The standard Z5 will inevitablycost a fair sum of money, Sure it comes with a fancy new camera that can take better pictures and a nice sound system. But so does the Z5 Premium.
In fact, it’s hard to even see why Sony even made the standard Z5periodwhen the Z4 exists. Instead, it could have released a Z5 Compact and Z5 Premium, much like how it only had the Z3 Tablet Compact last year, no large-sized one. The answer would be simple: customers who wanted the benefits of the Z5 could just select from the two new options, and those who wanted more of a standard affair could go for the Xperia Z4 which, we point out again, is not eventhreemonthsold.
The benefit here would be twofold: (1) the Xperia Z4/Z3+ would still be of major appeal to anyone who wanted the mid-sized offering and would not be cannibalized by sales of the new product, and (2) the Xperia Z5 Premium and Z5 Compact would thus be truly different from the previous release due to their sizes and the camera resolution increase.
Performance: will there be problems?
So now, Sony has unveiled a 4K display that willalsorun on a Snapdragon 810. And it will use a 3430mAh battery. Take this, and now couple it with the most fundamental question possible: can a new version of Qualcomm’s maligned chip effectively support 4K display resolution without any throttling or major heat issues? The phone only has 3GB of RAM: how far will that go? And the battery, it has enough power fortwodays of use?
Sony wants the world to believe the answer is ‘yes’ to all the above, but something just doesn’t add up. Will the battery life take a hit? Will the product overheat severely? Will the 4K pixel power be reserved for specific media playback functionality, as some have claimed it would? How can this product possibly have the same performance as the smaller variants despite having a larger, more pixel-packed display?
In recent days, a reported teardown of the Z5 Premium was done and claims to show Sony had takenmeasures to avoid overheating. Additionally, over at XDA Decelopers, a story was published that indicates the phabletisn’tactually displaying 4K all the time.The latter issue in particualr would definitely seek to explain just how all this marketing claim “magic” is possible. At the same time though, it also would serve to suggest that while the Z5 Premiumhasa 4K display, many users unaware of the back-end “wizardry” will just assume their device is running at the resolution all the time when in fact it’s usually just FHD.
Is 806ppi even tangible?
The “missing” PR the Premium deserved
Think back to the opening of this piece, at the song lyrics. They were used to illustrate the point that Sony glossed over the 4K aspect of the Z5 Premium with the same amount of disinterest as Tim Cook showed to last year’s iPad Mini 3. In fact, going by various live streams of the press event, it was difficult to evenunderstandtherewasa Z5 Premium given how it, and the Z5 Compact, were basically tossed in as afterthoughts.
Sony’s PR event was based more on a self-conscious attempt to try and tell the world it’s still relevant rather than unveil some truly impressive, unprecedented products. With respect to mobile, Kaz Hirai spent almost the entire time discussing the camera and the audio features, and essentially referred to a single “Xperia Z5”.
Wrapping up
It’s truly difficult to understand what to make of Sony’s 4K bombshell. What should have been one of the most jaw-dropping moments in mobile tech history by the company that arguably defined it for so long, was glossed over like so much fluff. Sony wants the world to take it seriously, to buy its products, and to fall in love with it again.
Sure the fantastic new camera on the Z5 is worth mentioning, but it’s one part of the phone. Then again, saveforthe camera, the Z5 has very, very little to differentiate itself from the Z4/Z3+. With this in mind, all eyes should have been on the Premium and Compact offerings, and fostering a reason for their existence.
Judging fromvarious commentaryaround the internet with this4K display, Sony needed to do a bit more to “sell” it sincerely. Indeed one blogger in particular at Mashable was bold enough to warn his readers “Don’t be fooled by Sony’s 4K smartphone; it’s 100% hype.”
Regardless of if the display prowess was truly necessary, or if a “plain and simple” QHD screen would have sufficed, the Z5 Premium will be a phablet-sized flagship from Sony, the first in quite some time. It has alotof potential, and stands to go head-to-head with the latest offerings by Samsung, and in a few hours, Apple as well. Hopefully the Japanese conglomerate can market the device aggressively and get it released on multiple carriers in the USA and Canada.
What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
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