The Xperia XZ3 is the best and latest phone by Sony and it has finally arrived in our office, meaning that it's time to unbox it and take a closer look at one of the most exciting phones that Sony has ever made.

Why are we so fascinated with the XZ3, you wonder? We got to see it first-hand at the IFA tech show in Berlin and we were blown away by the display and Sony has also made some welcome changes to the design that make a big difference in handling this phone. This is the first Sony phone with an OLED screen, a beautiful Quad HD+ panel that looks very sharp and features lively, impressive colors that really pop at you.

But before we dive deeper, let's unbox the XZ3 and see what's...

Inside the box:

  • Phone (duh!)
  • Wall charger with standard USB input
  • USB-C to standard USB cable
  • USB-C to 3.5mm audio dongle
  • User manuals


The USB-C to audio dongle is the big giveaway: this phone does not have a headphone jack, just like many other new Android phones this year. This means that you would have to either rely on USB-C headphones (not that many out there and maybe not a great idea) or use wireless earbuds that might be a bit more expensive.We are not even surprised and Sony does not provide much of an explanation as to why it killed the headphone jack, but it's definitely gone.

Xperia XZ3: OLED screen looks beautiful

With this little detail clear, the Xperia XZ3 is really a looker. We have the black version here and it looks gorgeous in those first few seconds, until you use it for a while and notice all the fingerprint smudges, but that's something all glass phones suffer from. Apart from that, the phone is relatively tall and narrow, with a curved back and a curved screen up front, so the phone lays really nicely in the hand.

The OLED screen is 6" in size, features a Quad HD+ resolution (1440 x 2880 pixels) and is capable of displaying stunning colors. It took Sony long to adopt OLED screens, but the wait is over and this screen is a beauty worth admiring.

For all else, this is your standard 2018 flagship: it is powered by the top-tier Snapdragon 845 chip, has 64 gigs of on-board storage (with microSD card support) and features 4GB RAM.

Android 9 Pie!

The XZ3 ships with Android 9 Pie aboard, the latest and greatest Android version, and it adopts most of the features coming with this update, except for the new gesture navigation. This really is a pity: you can only use the virtual on-screen buttons for navigating around and they feel really slow and clunky after using phones with gesture-based interfaces.

This round up our first impressions of the Sony Xperia XZ3: a beautiful phone with a beautiful display.

We will go much deeper with benchmarks, camera tests and more in our in-depth review that is coming up soon, but in the meantime, feel free to ask us: what do you want to know about the XZ3? We'll do our best to answer in the comments and in our final review.