Sony Xperia XZs

Design and Build

The Xperia XZs' design is exactly the same as the previous-gen flagship, the Xperia XZ, save for the larger lens port for the Motion Eye camera. It consists of 3 different materials, called "Loop Surface": a nylon frame, scratch-resistant front glass panel made of Corning's Gorilla Glass, and an aluminium alloy metal back. The subtly curved rear cover is made from ALKALEIDO alloy, a trademark by Kobe Steel,^[4] complementing the smartphone's, recognizable shape that debuted with the Xperia XZ. Up front are dual front-firing stereo speakers, one on top along with the front selfie camera, ambient light and proximity sensors and notification LED, and the other one at the bottom bezel.

The Xperia XZs' dimensions are also exactly the same as the previous flagship, 146 mm (5.7 in) in height, with a width of 72 mm (2.8 in) and a depth of 8.1 mm (0.32 in) and weighs approximately 161 g (5.7 oz) even with the new camera setup.^[5] The device sports a 5.2 in (130 mm) 1080p IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 424 ppi, featuring Sony's TRILUMINOS™ display and X-Reality for mobile technology. Unlike the Xperia XZ Premium, the Xperia XZs is powered by the same quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996) chipset that came with the Xperia XZ, with 4 custom Kryo processors (2x 2.15 GHz and 2x 1.6 GHz), but is upgraded to 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM instead of the previous 3 GB and relies on the Adreno 530 for graphics rendering. The device also has an internal storage of 32 GB for the single-SIM variant and 64 GB for the dual-SIM variant, both are LTE Cat. 9-enabled. It also has a microSD card expansion of up to 256 GB (in a hybrid slot for the dual-SIM variant).

Camera

Sony debuted in the Xperia XZs and the XZ Premium the world's first 3-layer stacked image sensor with DRAM for smartphones.^[6] Known internally as Sony IMX400, the new sensor features a RAM chip sandwiched in between the sensor and control circuitry layers which serves as a large and fast buffer to where the sensor can temporarily offload a significant amount of captured data before transferring it to the device's internal memory for processing.^[3] This enables the camera to record super slow-motion videos at a frame rate of 960 fps at a steady 720p resolution. Recording at super slow motion is only limited to 0.18 seconds per buffer though, about a blink of an eye, due to limitations.

The Xperia XZs is the first of the two new models to launch the now officially called Motion Eye™ camera. It has a 19 MP 1/2.3” Exmor RS for mobile sensor with a 1.22 μm pixel pitch, f/2.0 aperture and 25mm wide G Lens. It also features 4K video recording, which supports SteadyShot video stabilization alongside the standard 1080p/30fps and high-speed 1080p/60fps and a 120fps recording in 720p options. The front selfie camera has a 13 megapixel sensor (1/3.06") with 22 mm, f/2.0 lens and 90 degree wide angle lens, same as the Xperia XZ but now features SteadyShot™ with Intelligent Active Mode (5-axis stabilization) like on the XZ Premium.

The Xperia XZs is also backed up by Sony's Triple Image Sensing technology first introduced in the Xperia XZ, comprised by the Image sensing (CMOS sensor with PDAF), Distance sensing (Laser AF sensor) and Color sensing (RGBC-IR sensor) systems. It features a hybrid autofocus that utilizes Phase Detection (PDAF) to lock focus on a subject within 0.03 seconds, and also includes phase and contrast detection along with predictive motion tracking. Like the previous flagship, it has a laser autofocus sensor for tracking and locking focus on an object faster than regular autofocus modes alongside the RGBC-IR (RedGreenBlueClear-InfraRed) color sensor that assists the white balance function of the camera by providing additional data about the light conditions of the surrounding environment. It also has SteadyShot with Intelligent Auto in addition to the five-axis sensor-shift image stabilization first seen in the Xperia XZ.

The Motion Eye™ camera also has a new feature called Predictive Capture. When it detects fast-paced movement, the camera automatically captures a maximum of 4 photos before the shutter button is pressed, and lets the user select the best one afterwards. This is done without any user intervention and is possible thanks to the same built-in RAM chip on the image sensor used in capturing its famed 960 fps super slow-motion videos.

Battery

The Xperia XZs is powered by the same non-removable 2900 mAh battery as the Xperia XZ, with a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, though at only USB 2.0 speeds compared to the XZ Premium's USB 3.1. It has Qualcomm's QuickCharge 3.0 and Qnovo adaptive charging technology built-in. This allows the device to monitor the cell's electrochemical processes in real time and adjust charging parameters accordingly to minimize cell damage and extend the battery cell's lifespan. It also comes with Battery Care, a Sony proprietary feature, that controls the charging process of the phone by learning and recognizing the user's charging patterns, preventing the phone from damaging the battery's cells from excessive heat due to overcharging. For example, when charging overnight, Battery Care stops the initial charge to 90 percent and then continue charging until full where it left off the next day.

Connectivity and Audio

The Xperia XZs comes with the standard 3.5 mm audio jack for plugging in wired headphones. It also has LDAC, an audio coding technology developed by Sony,^[7] that enables the transmission of 24bit/96 kHz High-Resolution (Hi-Res) audio content over Bluetooth at up to 990 kbit/s. And like the Xperia XZ, it has the standard set of connectivity options: Bluetooth 4.2 with aptX and Low Energy, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with 2x2 MIMO antennas for speeds up to 433Mbit/s, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot, screen casting via Miracast, Google Cast and DLNA, GPS and A-GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou satellite positioning. The Xperia XZs has no FM radio.