The Sony Xperia XZ1 Smartphone Review

Last updated on September 24th, 2020 at 01:35 pm

Modern technology has a come a long way from what it first started out as in just a small span of time. I remember when there was no cell phones and now our cell phones are smartphones and smarter than ever! 

You can read my first impressions of the Sony Xperia XZ1 here, with all it’s new photo and video features it’s one to quickly fall in love with for quality and special effects. 

Today, I will go through those amazing photo and video features for you with some examples of each in action. It’s better to show you the power of the device than just tell you about it. 

PHOTO PREDICTIVE CAPTURE/BUFFERING:

Let’s first talk about the motion eye camera with predictive capture. It will start buffering photos one second before you even press the button. It’s like you get that first second back just in case you press too late and provides you with four images to pick from on each frame. With kids this is a huge deal for me, mostly because of eyes shut. I am constantly catching one of the kids in one photo with their eyes shut then on the next photo the other kid has it’s eye’s shut. It’s a battle I don’t win often getting them both open and looking at me but with the four photos to choose from on each frame I have plenty of chances to get that shot I am after. Like these photos below more often than not it was the middle photo that caught both pairs of eyes open before one of them blinked again. 

ACTION SHOTS:

The Sony Xperia XZ1 has another lovely feature called Autofocus burst that tracks and captures sequences of moving objects in sharp focus saving those blurred photos for your other smartphones. It kept B in full focus while running as fast as he could through the beautiful garden at the Park. The ducks that were waddling and swimming away look as if they aren’t moving at all at the pond. MM getting super excited to pet the donkey at Farmer Teds last week and jumping all over and just glanced at me for a second and bam, I caught her, full smile with an animal she adores so much. It’s one of my favorite photos below of her. She is the biggest animal lover ever. 

SLOW MOTION VIDEO:

Next I would love to drool over the amazing motion eye camera that records 960 frames per second. I know, WOWzers! The Super Slow Motion playback let’s you capture footage that is four times slower than videos from other smartphones. It enables you to captures all those amazing facial expressions that would otherwise be missed like in my little video. I would have never saw that huge wide spread grin that MM gave her brother waiting for him to pop his party popper or that gorgeous sun rays that followed MM across the playground. It gave me a chance to record that laughter without the sound just by slowing their dancing down and every time I watch it I can hear their giggles in my head as I look at their faces. I never realized how much and how hard they laugh together even when it’s something as silly as dancing at the park for the ducks.

Slow motion like this is perfect for those special occasions too. Blowing out birthday candles, diving in the pool at their first swim meet, scoring that soccer goal for the team can be captured in such a lovely way with this feature. 

STEADYSHOT VIDEOS:

Along with the amazing slow motion feature of videos above, the Sony has an impressive steadyshot feature with 5-axis image stabilisation. Taking those shaking movements in five different directions so your video is clear and smooth. In the video above you can see I am running after the kids at the playground or walking with them at the park. Normally my videos I have used other smartphones to film our days out would need stabilisation editting software to help the frame be less shaky from my movements. 

The thing with photographing my children on a daily basis like I do, you will quickly find that kids move very fast, all the time. It’s like nonstop movement that you want still and the toughest challenge is to not get anything blurry in your photos. I have struggled for years if they are doing anything really fast like running across the park or riding their bikes in front of me. Their dancing moves as they love to do so much always have at least one arm or leg completely blurred. 

So what do I think overall…

The phone is modern and sleek in design. It’s lightweight and easy to use with connections to my google accounts and easily uploads all my photos and videos to my google images folder. 

Photos are crystal clear and the color is true to form. Even at night the photos stay clear and bright which is a bonus in my dark house that lacks a lot of natural light. 

Videos are smooth with some great features like the slow motion that will wow you and captures moments you haven’t in the past that you will remember forever. I won’t be forgetting MM’s huge smile to her brother here or her squealing face as Daddy pedalled fast on the go-carts with her on his lap. These are moments to capture and remember and features like this make it even more special.

I would say it’s super user friendly for all things text, emails, calls etc. The slow motion feature does take some getting used to when you are using it. Knowing when to press it and how long it lasts (only few seconds) before it shuts off and you need to press it again, should be noted when using it. Once you get the hang of it though you won’t need to think about it. 

Having only ever used an iphone smartphone it was great to get to test and learn more about the Sony Xperia XZ1 and all that it has to offer. Sometimes people are scared to try new things and branch out but sometimes it’s worth it for advanced technology and better features.

Some of our favorite little family adventures captured with the SONY XPERIA XZ1 below:

*Paid Collaboration