BERLIN — I love Sony. Even when Sony is failing, I love the Japanese company because it designs some of the best consumer electronics products money can buy. Heck, even Steve Jobs admired Sony's ethos.  But the company's newly announced Xperia Z5 Premium Android smartphone and its world's first 4K display is completely outrageous and virtually indistinguishable from a smartphone with a lower-resolution QuadHD or Full HD display — to the naked eye, at least.  Here's how Sony's press conferences at big tech trade shows like CES and IFA work: A Sony executive hops on stage and talks about all the amazing new gadgets they're announcing. The hall is filled and hundreds of seated and standing press. If you're a vet, you'll know to pack your bags up right as he/she is wrapping up and make way to the curtained "hands on" areas where all the new gadgets are.  I was one of those seasoned tech reporters. I was quick and nimble and didn't even sit down (I couldn't because I was almost late). As soon as Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said he was putting on one last video reel, I bolted for the hands-on area to be amongst the first to touch the Z5 Premium and gaze at its 4K display.  I wasn't quick enough because dozens of other reporters had the same idea. And so I had to wait — wait until the ones who got there first finished playing around with the phones so I could take my photos, coddle it myself and write my own hands-on article.  Most of these reporters though they were looking at the Z5 Premium and it's 4K display, but they were actually looking at the Z5 and its full HD display.  See the photo above? It's a frantic scene and everyone is antsy. Everyone wants to touch the phones. Reporters were recording video, taking photos and Periscoping the Xperia Z5 Premium and touting how amazing the 4K display was — only they weren't looking at a 4K display. They were all looking at the Xperia Z5, the 1080p full HD model.  I'm not even going pretend like I didn't get fooled either. Because I did. When it was finally my turn to go "hands on" with the device, I didn't feel like I could see the 4K resolution, but I was swept up in the excitement all around me. I was one of the lucky members of the press to feast his eyes on a 4K smartphone. Holy f*cking yeah!  After handing the Z5 off to the next dude, I floated around the hands-on table to shoot photos of the Xperia Z5 Compact, which is unmistakably smaller, thicker and comes in brighter colors. Then I realized something, the Z5 Premium was being displayed under the glass to show off its luxury colors: chrome, gold and black. It really didn't help that the Z5 and Z5 Premium look so similar in terms of design.  The Xperia Z5 Premium comes in three premium colors: chrome, black and gold.  The more I looked around Sony's booth, the more I suspected we had all been duped. Sony had a separate section where the Z5 Premium wasn't under glass, but mounted onto a wall. Here, Sony was showing off the better color and contrast on the 4K display compared to a "conventional display," which looked like a 1080p panel to me (who knows, maybe it was a QuadHD panel).  Sony had its booth attendents closely guarding these devices, ready to scold anyone who tried to touch them. I didn't get the memo because I touched it and was gently yelled at. NO TOUCHING!. Oops?  No touching allowed for the Z5 Premium.  So I went back to the crowded hands-on area above and asked the Sony reps manning the station and fielding questions which models were actually on display and if the Z5 Premium was anywhere on the table.  Ready for this? Even he thought there was a Z5 Premium on the table. It wasn't until he asked another Sony rep and confirmed what I had already figured out: We had all been amazed by a 1080p display, thinking it was a 4K display.  That wasn't even the worst part. The reporters playing around with the phones went right on yapping about the Z5's amazing 4K display and Sony's reps didn't feel the need to correct them. You don't need to understand German or French or Mandarin to be able to hear someone calling a phone's screen 4K when it's clearly not.  I love high-resolution screens as much as the next nerd, but we all know that most people can't tell the difference between a 1080p display and a QuadHD display when holding their phones out at 10-12 inches (a length considered to be normal) from their face. And now Sony's expecting people to be able to discern the difference between its even more pixel-dense 4K smartphone display and "conventional" phone displays, which I guess is what we're calling full HD and Quad HD?  I call bullsh*t. 4K may make for great marketing and chart comparisons between phones, but it doesn't mean squat in real-world use. Unless you're using the phone in a virtual-reality headset like Google Cardboard (where the phone really is an inch from your face), even a QuadHD smartphone display is overkill.  I still plan on checking out the Z5 Premium when it's released, primarily because it's supposed to have a crazy awesome camera, incredible two-day battery life and a fingerprint sensor built into the side power button. And when I do, I plan to show people a Z5 and Z5 Premium side by side and see if they can tell the difference.  After what i witnessed at IFA, I can virtually guarantee most people won't, and it'll be even more difficult to pick a 4K display compared to a QuadHD phone. Leave it to Sony to make "Premium" a dirty word.  Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
The Sony Xperia Z5's 1080p display was mistaken for the Xperia Z5 Premium's 4K display at the company's IFA 2015 press conference.