The new Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact can be considered as a move in the right design direction, at least when it comes to Sony smartphones. While the company still puts a lot of focus on symmetrical design, the blocky slab is now gone and replaced by curved corners, edges, and back.
Both smartphones use tall 2:1 aspect screens with significantly reduced bezels and are both protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Sony also threw in a matte metal frame around the screen and curved back, made of glass for the Xperia XZ2 and plastic for the Xperia XZ2 Compact. Both smartphones are also water resistant (IP68) and both have rear placed fingerprint sensor.
Despite the significant hump or curvature on the back, the dimensions are kept in decent margins, at 153x72x11.1mm (6mm at its thinnest point) for the Xperia XZ2 and 135x65x12.1mm (7mm at its thinnest point) for the Xperia XZ2 Compact. The larger weighs 198g while the smaller one tips the scale at 168g.
The Xperia XZ2 comes with a 5.7-inch screen while the XZ2 Compact sports a smaller 5-inch screen. Both screens have a 2:1 aspect ratio and FHD+ (2160x1080) resolution. Both are also equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 SoC, so even the smaller one will pack a significant punch.
In addition to the Snapdragon 845 SoC, both will also pack 4GB of RAM and 64GB of UFS internal storage, expandable via microSD card slot, as well as run on Android 8.0 Oreo.
Sony also equipped both its new flagship smartphones with the same camera configuration including the all-new 19-megapixel Motion Eye rear camera with 1/ 2.3” Exmor RS mobile sensor with 4000 to 12800 ISO range, 1.22?m pixel pitch, a 25mm f/2.0 Sony G-lens, BIONZ for mobile image-processing engine, autofocus burst, SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode for 5-axis stabilization, predictive Hybrid Autofocus and more.
The main camera supports HDR Photo, 4K HDR movie recording, 960fps super slow motion video at FHD and HD resolution, have 8x digital zoom, anti-distortion shutter, triple image sensing technology and more.
The front camera on both smartphones is a 5-megapixel one with 1/5” Exmor RS for mobile sensor and 23mm wide-angle f/2.2 lens. It also has the SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode for 5-axis stabilization and somewhat smaller 1000 to 1600 ISO range.
Sony also included the all-new stereo speakers with S-Force Front Surround which should be much louder than on the Xperia XZ1. Unfortunately, both smartphones lack a 3.5mm audio jack, which is rather strange considering that these are quite thick smartphones, but at least they both come with USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jacks.
There aren't a lot of differences between these two smartphones, which is quite surprising. According to what we gather and in addition to the glass and plastic back, the Xperia XZ2 has a bigger 3180mAh battery and support for Qi wireless charging, while the Xperia XZ2 has a somewhat smaller 2870mAh battery and lacks support for Qi wireless charging. Both phones support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology and have Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology.
Interestingly enough - and although both are based on the same Snapdragon 845 SoC - the Xperia XZ2 supports LTE Cat18 with up to 1.2Gbps while the Xperia XZ2 Compact "only" supports LTE Cat15 with up to 800Mbps.
Unfortunately, Sony did not reveal any details regarding the price but we do know that both will be available in black, silver, green and pink color options and are likely to arrive in late March or early April.
