I can overlook a stodgy design, but I can't ignore how slippery the XZ2 Premium is. Its glass cover and slight bulge make it difficult to balance on many surfaces, causing it to drop to the ground at the slightest provocation. It fell off my couch when I shifted my weight, and even when I set my Pixel 2 down next to it. This is a kamikaze phone you'll constantly have to keep an eye on. The slightly reassuring news is that the phone is covered in Gorilla Glass 5, which helped it survive those relatively short falls without a scratch. But you'll want be extremely careful about where you place it.

I was also annoyed by the location of the fingerprint sensor. The XZ2 Premium is one of the first Xperia phones available in the US to even have a fingerprint reader (again, lagging its rivals). In previous models released in other markets, Sony embedded the scanner in the power button on the edge. On the latest Xperias, though, the company moved it to the rear. The placement isn't as problematic on the XZ2, which has just one camera on the back, but the Premium has two lenses that stack vertically, pushing down the fingerprint sensor. It's lower than where my finger would naturally rest, and I often end up touching the camera instead, which causes me to smudge up the lens.

I did appreciate that Sony retained the dedicated shutter button on the XZ2 Premium's right edge. As on previous Xperia phones, holding this down launches the camera app whether the device is awake or asleep, and it even offers a half-shutter step for me to find focus without having to touch the screen.

Speaking of, the XZ2 Premium's 5.8-inch 4K HDR display is quite lovely. It's bright, colorful and crisp, and I marveled at beautiful landscapes in the high-res HDR videos I found on YouTube. But the screen appears to have an odd blue cast by default. I went into the settings to try and get rid of the display's bluish tone, and none of the preset modes looked right. You can pick from Standard, Professional or Super Vivid or go into the white-balance settings to further fine-tune the colors. It took quite a bit of finessing, but I ultimately got to a fairly accurate profile. I like the degree of precision Sony enables here, but I wish the screen looked better right off the bat.

Complementing the XZ2 Premium's display is a pair of front-facing speakers that produce loud, clear sound. It was easy to hear "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac, even over the dramatic Sex and the City dialogue playing on my TV. (Yes, I have great taste in entertainment.) Adding to the sensory overload is the XZ2 Premium's "Dynamic Vibration" system. Essentially, this is a stronger-than-usual haptic motor that rumbles along to your music or games. The regular XZ2 also has this, and, just as it was there, this feature is inconsistent and gimmicky. You control the intensity by pressing the volume rocker and selecting one of five levels, then wait and see what happens. The vibration kicks in inconsistently, and ultimately it's not very useful.

Cameras

More noteworthy is the fact that this is the first Xperia phone to sport dual rear cameras. Sony is about two years behind the rest of the industry here, and you'd think that the company would have used that extra time to add features its competitors lacked. Alas, there are no surprises here. The XZ2 Premium pairs a 12-megapixel monochrome sensor with a 19-megapixel color sensor and lets you shoot pictures with artificial depth of field -- just like most flagship phones.