Sony Xperia X First Impressions – 5 Things we like (and dislike)

Sony had unveiled the all new Xperia X Series Smartphones here in Phuket, Thailand in a closed event where they announced that they would be launching three phones from the series in India. The brand has moved from the Xperia Z Series to the all-new X Series; that is primarily focussed more on the Camera department. In our first Impression, we will be talking about our experience with this phone after using it for a day especially regarding what the brand is offering in the Camera department as they have been touting many new features & technology advancements.

To get started the brand has announced that the Xperia X Smartphone’s Camera comes with the Predictive Hybrid Auto Focus, Fast Capture & Low Light Selfies along with a unified design and few other parameters. Let us get into this regarding what we liked & what we didn’t like. The phone has already been launched today in India at a price of Rs 48,990 that’s almost on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 & the HTC 10 that was launched in the last week.

Here’s the First Impressions based on a few points & do make a note that this is not a phone review.

What’s Good in the Xperia X:

1. Design:
   If you take a look at all the flagship smartphones available in the market, we find them either inspired or direct copies of the other devices but in this case, Sony has taken a bold step. If you notice the phone has a unified design that’s extended from the back, sides to the front. Even the lock screen also matches the phone’s color giving it a distinctive look that’s attractive & pretty much unique. This could be the best Xperia Interface we have experienced this date & that shows how Sony has focused more on revamping the whole X Series lineup.
2. Xperia Tips:
   What the brands these days are missing is the Tips or the FAQ’s that used to be shared earlier with their users. We do find Samsung sharing a few tips on their flagship devices, that are very useful to the users who are going to use a different User Interface for the first time. On the first boot itself, you would find a shortcut on the home that says “Welcome to Xperia. START HERE!“. A tap and you get access to a lot of tutorials that can not only help you to transfer your stuff from another phone but also go through the essential options that could help you controlling the Camera in the Manual Mode. Technically you can find dozens of options that can help you understand every single feature, application or the options available on the phone which is very useful. Oh, if you do not like these you can always disable the tips section.
3. Main Camera:

   The brand has been touting the camera features on its latest Xperia X smartphone. The rear sensor that you see has a 23-megapixel resolution, which is one of the largest resolution sensors on a smartphone. The Japanese brand has also used a number of new and innovative camera technologies to make it much easier and quicker to capture those beautiful moments. The all new predictive hybrid autofocus that you see on this rear module is developed in collaboration with the engineers who worked on Sony’s Alpha Series cameras. With this technology users can choose their subject, the feature then predicts its motion based on the intelligence and lets you capture the object in action with no blur. We tried that; it takes a little getting used to, but it’s quite impressive.

   
4. Compact Form Factor:
   I have been using the Galaxy S7 Edge from the time it was launched in India & have been pretty much satisfied with it, though I did prefer a Phone that had a screen size of around 5″ to 5.2″. There was no other phone that came in this size except the recently launched HTC 10 that came with 5.2″ Display & also the LG G5 that comes with a 5.3″ Display. Trying out a 5 inches phone is something new since you feel that the screen size is a little limited but that said, you would also experience that this could be the Perfect Hand Fit Phone. The screen size is not everything but if it is one of your priorities since you may be feeling hard to use a phone with larger display hard to use with one hand then this phone could be on your buying list.
5. Low Light Selfies:
   Sony had quoted that this Phone is capable of shooting one of the best selfies in the low light & they did demonstrate the same during the conference by comparing with a Samsung Phone & an iPhone. We are not sure about the models but they did showcase some amazing captures. Followed are a few photos captured with the front camera of this phone that can give you a quick idea on the capabilities of the same. It does an Impressive job but not anywhere close to the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge or the LG G5 that we compared. The comparison points are here pointed because all these mentioned phones are launched in the similar price bracket.
   
6. Qnovo Adaptive Charging:
   At the Mobile World Congress, Sony had announced the Qnovo Charging technology for their new series that could help the phone’s battery last longer. This is not on the daily usage cycle but an improvement on the charge cycles. Generally, we see that most phone’s batteries start giving troubles when they have run around 300 – 500 charge cycles but with the Qnovo battery technology the lifetime could be extended upto 800 cycles before the phone starts loosing its capacity. Commercially Sony is the first brand that’s bringing this tech and this is primarily a software implementation. Based on the condition of the battery the technology would increase or decrease the charge that would ultimately keep the battery healthier. This is subject to testing but at the moment, this does look very promising & a few we like. (Image Source: Forbes)
   

What we didn’t like:

1. Fast Capture:
   The phone comes with a dedicated camera shutter button that helps you quickly capture a photo by long pressing on it. The problem with this is that the first time you try to run the Camera application, you end up capturing a photo you didn’t intend to capture. Also, the Camera Application Interface is Actually Slow than what was expected. After the shot is done, it would take at least 2-3 seconds for the preview to show up & when you try to access it gets more delayed. These could be something that could be fixed in the future through Software updates but at the moment this is annoying & something we didn’t expect.
2. Pricing in India:
   This is the biggest problem we see with this phone. In the highly competitive Indian Smartphones market, Sony should have probably launched this phone somewhere in the Rs 30,000 price bracket because they also have the X Performance that could have been priced around Rs 50K. The phone with mid-segment device specifications will surely be ignored by a majority of the users unless they are brand loyal & wish to purchase the next best from Sony. Again there are a few obvious advantages when you buy from a Tier-1 brand like the Service support you could get but that does not mean customers would just pay 2x the price.

First Impressions: Sony has done it again, launched an overpriced handset. With everything hanging on this Xperia X line-up of handsets as the company has abandoned their Z line-up. We think that for a price of Rs 48,990, giving a handset with 5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 650 Processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and the 2620mAh capacity battery is a bad idea.

The only appealing thing about this device is its camera package. You can see 23-megapixel image sensor on the rear while the 13-megapixel sensor is in play at front. Now that is some serious photography tools for a smartphone with such compact size and design. The Xperia X isn’t a complete disaster on its own when it comes to specification, but with such ridiculously high pricing, it isn’t fit for a competition, such as Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5.

This story appeared first on Phone Radar. Join the PhoneRadar Forums to discuss, meet experts & share your experiences.