For years now, Samsung has been the market leader in the flagship space with both the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series of phones. A few years ago, Samsung used to the have competition from the brands such as Sony, HTC. But both the brands have seen a downfall after the resurgence of the Chinese brands such as the OnePlus, Xiaomi who are offering flagship-level phones at affordable rates.
However, both the brands are not away from the market though. While HTC made a statement that it can still manufacture good smartphones with the HTC 10 and this year's HTC U11 is a piece of innovation, which would probably change the company's fortunes.
Japanese smartphone brand, Sony, who was earlier known for the innovative smartphones has vanished in recent times. The company tried out numerous things, but nothing worked out and apparently changed the name of the lineup- Xperia X. Sony's latest flagship is the Xperia XZ Premium, which was rated as the best innovative smartphone at the MWC 2017.
The smartphone was launched in India yesterday at Rs. 59,990, slightly higher than the Samsung Galaxy S8's price tag. The Xperia XZ Premium doesn't feature a futuristic design and infinity display but is a worthy contender to the latter overall. Here are the four things what makes the Sony Xperia XZ Premium a serious threat to the Samsung Galaxy S8.
4K HDR Display
The Xperia XZ Premium's marquee feature is the 5.5-inch 4K HDR display. While the Galaxy S8 comes with a QHD+ Edge-to-Edge Infinity display, the XZ Premium has a 4K display with a resolution of 2160 x 3840 pixels, carrying an insane pixel density of 807 PPI. Also, the XZ Premium is the world's first smartphone to carry a 4K HDR (High Dynamic Range).
The 4K HDR technology is being used the company in its Bravia range of TVs. Sony says that the display will offer vivid and rich colours, compared to the QHD panel seen on other smartphones. Furthermore, there are few other Sony enhancements such as the Triluminous, X-Reality engine to tune the display further.
19MP Motion Eye Rear Camera
The Sony Xperia XZ Premium comes with a 19MP Motion Eye rear camera along with f/2.0 aperture, 25mm lens, Electronic Image Stabilisation, PDAF, and LED flash. The highlight of the rear camera is the ability to record slow-motion videos of 960fps. The 5-axis image stabilisation helps while recording videos. The camera also has the ability to record 4K videos.
On the flip side, the Galaxy S8 also comes with a decent rear camera of 12MP, which the same camera setup seen in the Galaxy S7 series. The 12MP Dual Pixel camera has support for Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and can record videos of 4K quality. However, it can't record the super slow motion 960fps videos though.
The Snapdragon 835 chip
This might sound something odd, but Indian consumers always look for Snapdragon chips. The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is the first smartphone in India to come powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, whereas the Galaxy S8 uses the Exynos 8895 chip, which is equally powerful as the Snapdragon, in fact, a little more powerful.
But, consumers in India always criticised Samsung for bringing the Exynos variant of the phone. So, it's an advantage for the Xperia XZ Premium in the chipset segment.
Stereo Speakers
The biggest lack in the Samsung Galaxy S8 series is the stereo speakers. Before the launch event, it was rumoured that the Galaxy S8 would come with stereo speakers, but Samsung disappointed everyone by adding the same mono speaker we've always had. The Xperia XZ Premium comes with stereo speakers on board, which is a significant advantage.
