Sony Xperia Z5 Premium's 4K Display Mostly Shows Content in 1080p

I was a bit skeptical when news initially leaked that Sony would be incorporating a 4K display in their upcoming flagship smartphone. Besides a lack of 4K content that’s easily accessible, battery life and heat played the most prominent role in my dismissal of the news. With the Xperia Z5 Premium, Sony proved that they had the technical prowess to design a smartphone with two day battery life and a 4K display.

However, that appears to be the case mostly because that 4K display isn’t driving 4K at all times. I explain after the jump.

There is no doubt that the Xperia Z5 Premium offers a beautiful display. The extra bump in resolution is especially in full display when looking at photos shot with the phone’s 23-megapixel camera or the 4K video it’s capable of recording. However, with those two scenarios aside, the Xperia Z5 Premium displays all other content in 1080p or even lower in order to maintain the two day battery life. That means no up-converting your games or other content in the same way Sony’s 4K TVs would.

From Sony

Xperia Z5 Premium features a 4K display with a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels based on SID Standard and enables all video and image content to be enjoyed in 4K resolution. All other content is displayed at 1080P or lower resolution in order to optimise the performance and battery stamina for this device, ensuring you can enjoy the 4K resolution when you need it most.

Though it might appear as a bummer, this process more or less puts Sony’s technology in line with my initial prediction. Unless Sony had developed a breakthrough in screen technology or battery (and likely both), there was no way they could provide a 4K display that’s always on. With the Xperia Z5 Premium, we have a hybrid system that pushes 4K when needed and scales when not. Frankly not a bad compromise as I’m not sure how much better those Vine videos or your Facebook feed would look with upscaled technology and no matter the improvements, it likely wouldn’t justify the offset in battery life.