Best Sony Phones
Sony's top-end handset is the Xperia XZ Premium, a 5.5-incher with a whopping 4K display resolution, HDR viewing support, a powerful Snapdragon 835 processor an 4GB of RAM. As well as boasting a striking design, with a mirrored glass back panel, Sony's flagship offers front-facing speakers and an impressive 19-megapixel camera capable of shooting 960fps slow-motion video.
Bottom line: The XZ Premium gives you the bragging rights of owning a 4K phone, while also being a pretty great all-around handset.
One more thing: The Xperia XZ Premium, like all Sony phones sold in the U.S., has its fingerprint scanner disabled permanently in software. (Blame Sony's signing of dumb exclusivity agreements for that.) Flashing another region's software, at your own risk, will bring it back to life.
Why the Xperia XZ Premium is the bestSony's biggest and most powerful handset.
Sony's 2017 flagship goes against the trend of slim, bezelless devices with a deliberately chunky chassis and proportions which amplify the pace around its 5.5-inch display. If you dig the design, you'll get a phone that's well-made, and unmistakeable alongside the iPhones and Galaxies of the world. A speedy upgrade to Android 8.0 Oreo is another bonus, with the XZ Premium being one of the earlier adopters of Google's new OS. And that software comes with few distractions and UI design that's very close to vanilla Android.
Throw in a frankly ridiculous 4K display and a camera that can capture some truly impressive slow motion video footage, and you've got one of the hidden gems of the Android world in 2017.
Best small phoneSony Xperia XZ1 Compact
If you're not feeling the XZ Premium's enormous display, you can take things to the other extreme with the XZ1 Compact. The latest in Sony's popular Compact series of phones takes the internals of the XZ1 and XZ Premium and downscales the display to a 4.6-inch 720p LCD, with the exact same design as the larger models.
As with previous models in the series, the XZ1 Compact is the no-compromises small phone experience many Android have been waiting for.
Bottom line: It's everything you like from the Xperia XZ1, with a smaller screen.
One more thing: This is pretty much the only phone with such a small display that still packs flagship-quality specs.
Best mid-sized phoneSony Xperia XZ1
Want something in the "goldilocks" zone between a big phone and a small phone? The regular Xperia XZ1 takes the same core specs of its siblings, and adds a 5.2-inch 1080p display with HDR support and calls it a day. Everything else, including the Snapdragon 835 processor, the 19-megapixel slow-mo-shooting camera and Android 8.0 Oreo, is the exactly the same.
Bottom line: The XZ1 is not too small, not too big, and offers the same killer specs as others in this series.
One more thing: A 5.2-inch display at 16:9 is still the sweet spot for many people for easy one-handed use.
Update, December 2017: We've overhauled our picks with new recommendation for late 2017 in the XZ and XZ1 series.