Sony's new Android phones can 3D scan your whole head in less than 60 seconds
Time has not been kind to Sony. While the Japanese electronics company enjoys great success with its PlayStation business, the number of people who'd wait in line to get its new Xperia smartphones has all but evaporated.
At IFA 2017 in Berlin, the company announced a new pair of Android smartphones, the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact, that show it hasn’t really learned anything in the last few years.
As competitors switch to bezel-less and edge-to-edge displays (even no-brands like Doogee are doing it) -- with and without notches -- and include wireless charging, Sony continues to fail to launch new phones even with fingerprint sensors or other forms of biometric security such as iris scanning or face recognition in the U.S. In 2017, that’s just unacceptable.
Sony’s Xperia phones used to be pretty damn cutting-edge and competitive, tech-wise, with iPhones and whatever Galaxy phone Samsung was touting. And while the internal specs on the new XZ1 and XZ1 Compact are there -- it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (32GB on the Compact), and a microSD card slot -- the rest of the hardware is underwhelming.
Let’s talk design, because, frankly, I think they look dated. Sony’s stuck with its “loop surface and seamless metal” industrial design. Don’t get me wrong, the phones look very Sony, but the huge forehead and chin bezels above the and below the screens aren’t going to age well, especially with the iPhone 8 around the corner.
And speaking of the screens, they’re are on the small side and just average-looking. Sony used to go overkill with 4K displays in its phones, but the XZ1 only has a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD display and the XZ1 Compact has a smaller 4.6-inch 720p screen.
The XZ1’s screen is HDR-ready, and whenever you watch HDR content from places like Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, it’ll automatically display more dynamic range, so you'll get a better, more accurate picture. But when most everybody has (or will) moved to longer 18:9 or 18.5:9 displays and embraced OLED for the deepest blacks and most poppin’ colors, Sony is still pushing sub-Quad HD resolution screens with a 16:9 aspect ratio. I’m sure there are tons of people out there that’ll appreciate the Compact’s smaller size, but 720p in 2017 for a premium phone? Ehh, no thanks.
Battery life is also peculiar. Both phones have the same 2,700 mAh battery. That’s a smaller capacity than just about every flagship phone, most of which have 3,000 mAh or greater. Granted, the smaller screens and lower resolutions don’t require as much power, but still. I’m concerned at how long these phones will last. Sony’s Compact phones are known for their stamina -- the Z3 Compact had a battery that could last up to three days -- so I am hopeful.
These shortcomings may be frustrating for people who want the best there is, but the new camera features really shows how out of touch Sony is with mobile trends.
Rather than dual cameras -- a feature every flagship phone is embracing in some way -- the XZ1 comes with a single 19-megapixel camera. The “Motion Eye” camera as Sony calls it has all of the jargon-named shooting features like pre-focusing and ridiculous 960 fps (frames per second) slow-motion recording introduced in previous Xperia phones.
New on the XZ1, however, is a 3D-scanning feature. Sony says users can scan four types of objects in under 60 seconds. Instead of spending thousands on a 3D scanner, you could use a special pre-loaded app to scan 3D objects and then send them to a 3D printer or third-party service to print out.
This would have been a genius idea -- a one-stop shop for 3D scanning and printing -- if it was 2013 and 3D printing was still hailed as the next big thing. But it’s 2017 and consumer interest in 3D printers has long evaporated. Even well-known consumer 3D printing brands like MakerBot had to sell themselves in order to survive.
Now, to be fair, the 3D scanning is pretty decent. There are four scanning modes: one for faces, entire heads, food, and freeform objects. The 3D scanning process is a bit tricky, requires a lot of patience (for the scanner and another person if you’re doing heads and faces), and the right background situations (translation: spaces without lots of crap in it).
During my brief time with the XZ1, I was able to get a couple of 3D scans, but not without some hiccups. Mashable photo editor Lili Sams grew impatient and annoyed as I followed the on-screen arrow markers indicating which direction to move the phone around her head for a proper scan. Confusing directions mid-scan also made me want to quit a few times, too.
After a few scan fails, we managed to get a few decent 3D scans of our faces and a bowl of fruit on a table, but the results were far from perfect. If you want the best 3D scan, you’ll definitely be investing more than 60 seconds per scan.
I know, I’m poo-pooing all over Sony’s new phones even though I haven’t thoroughly tested them, but that’s only because it’s so painful to see Sony stumble year after year. Sony used to be the world’s largest and most revered electronics company, but it keeps missing the mark in mobile. It’s unfortunate the new Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact continues that tradition.
Topics Android
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
