Our quick take

Alternatives to consider…

Sony Xperia XZ2 - 4.0 / 5

Xperia XZ2 shakes up Sony design

  • 153 x 72 x 11.1mm; 198g IP65/68 waterproofing Curvy ‘Ambient Flow’ design Gorilla Glass 5 both front and rear

  • Best smartphone 2018: The best phones you can buy today

Xperia XZ2 display almost hits it out of the park 

  • 5.7-inch Full HD+ display 18:9 aspect, 2160 x 1080 pixels HDR compatible and upscaling

Sony Xperia XZ2 hardware specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 4GB RAM 64GB storage + microSD slot USB Type C 3180mAh battery, Qi wireless charging

Xperia XZ2 camera: Is 4K HDR capture exciting?

  • 4K HDR video capture SteadyShot stabilisation (not in HDR) 960fps super slow-motion in Full HD

Sony XZ2 camera performance

  • 19-megapixel Motion Eye camera (1/2.3in type sensor with 1.22µm pixels), f/2.0 aperture

You give me good vibrations! 

  • Boosted stereo speaker performance Sony Dynamic Vibration System Hi-Res, LDAC, aptX HD

Sony software leans toward Android

  • Android Oreo 8.0 base operating system Some Sony apps pre-installed

To recap

A fresh new design, lots of power and a great display lead the charge. But the camera experience feels muddled, while the battery life isn’t that great. However, it does offer better value for money than some rivals, making it one of the better Sony devices we’ve used in recent years.