One of the Sony Xperia Z’s most noteworthy features is its 13MP Exmor RS camera. The upgraded sensor and lens combo has been talked about since last summer, and Xperias Z and ZL will be the first mainstream Western phones to ship with this new camera assembly.
At CES in Las Vegas today, we took the opportunity to snap a few shots on the Xperia Z, in addition to testing its 1080p and HDR video recording capabilities. The show floor is a difficult environment for photography, but the Xperia Z seemed to hold up pretty well. Notably, the noise that affected earlier Xperia cameras in less-than-ideal lighting conditions seems to have been addressed in Sony’s latest Exmor RS.
Later, we tried out the Xperia Z’s 1080p recording and HDR video capabilities, capturing just under a minute of footage in the elaborate Sony CES booth. Both left a positive first impression. Regular video footage, which can be recorded at up to 1080p, is crisp and clear, and the built-in mic was sensitive enough to capture subtle background noises. In HDR mode, you lose some fine detail, and very dark areas can result in some noise becoming visible, but the overall effect is very impressive. Note the details in the light fittings above the booth that are visible in the HDR video, but not the regular one.
I’s still early days, and the device we used to capture these photos and videos was far from final, so there’s likely room for some improvement between now and launch day. But for a general idea of what to expect form Sony’s latest smartphone camera, you can check out all our photo and video samples after the break.
