Weight
• 146 grams
Dimensions
• 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm
• 5.47 x 2.79 x 0.31 inches
Battery
• Talk time (up to): Up to 11 hours [1]
• Standby time (up to): Up to 550 hours [1]
Display
• 5.0 inches TFT
• 16 million colours, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Inside
• Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
• 1.5 GHz Qualcomm APQ8064+MDM9215M Quad Core
Camera
• 13 megapixel Exmor RS camera with Auto focus and flash
• 2 MP, Exmor R, front facing camera (1080p)
Durability
• IPX5/7 (Water-resistant) & IP5X (Dust-proof)
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| Holo like UI |
Now that the
word is out on the Galaxy S4, I still stand by my previous post, the Xperia Z
is by far the most visually stunning device out of the three major Android
flagships for this year. Incredible design both hardware and software wise. The
only major hang up I had about my Galaxy S3 was Samsung’s awful user interface,
the outdated, puke coloured mess is vile and was fortunately easily covered up
by applying theme packs as my device was rooted. Sony though have come up
trumps in this department, sticking very close to the beautiful Google Holo
theme that comes from stock Android 4. Not only this, but they have incorporated
an in built theming system that will allow you to change the main colour used
over the whole system including text messages, pop-up’s and the keyboard,
allowing you to really customise the phone.
Staying with
software, the only thing Sony have fallen back on is their desktop launcher, although
a great step up from previous devices, it’s laggier than a game of Call Of Duty
on a dial-up connection. I never use default launchers anyway, as I have grown accustomed
to the advanced features of Apex Launcher available on the Play Store, but for
those who stick to default desktops, I really hope Sony improves this in a
future update.
The next
thing I would like to praise is the camera. It’s a fantastic 13MP shooter and
on the first day I got it, I used it to take pictures of my girlfriend and me,
and when reviewing the shots she commented on them rivalling her DSLR!
 |
| Photo taken with Xperia Z |
Although
lacking on some of the advanced features offered by the HTC One and Galaxy S4,
the Xperia Z still has some great offerings and some special effects, my favourite
being a mode where you tap to focus on an object and only the colour of that object
is shown with the rest of the picture being grayscale. The real stand out part
of the camera for me though is the low light performance allowing for great
night shots far better than any other phone which is a great asset as in comparison
to the likes of the Galaxy S3 for example, the flash on the Xperia Z is fairly
sub-par.
Camera colour picker
Again with
software, Sony have included the Small Apps launcher they started with the
Xperia T which I love. When activating the recent apps list you also get a
launcher bar with icons that open mini floating apps that can be moved and
resized over any other app. Pre-Installed are things like a calculator, notepad
and stopwatch, but with an API available for developers there are many other
Small Apps on the Play Store such as a web browser and SMS viewer.
The 5 inch
1080p Reality Display is brilliant, watching video and playing games is a dream
on this phone and the experience is made even better for photos and videos that
get enhancement from the Mobile Bravia Engine 2. Many reviews will slate the
display on this phone for having terrible viewing angles, and though this is
fairly true, anyone actually using their phone at ridiculous angles is a
fucking moron and as such, it does not actually hinder the use of the device.
 |
| Battery life |
Another part
of this phone that seems to get slated is the battery life, which for me holds
no truth at all. I use my phone a lot during the day and for many battery heavy
tasks and with using the built in Stamina Mode to manage the phones power, I have
been averaging about 15 or so hours before reaching the last percent’s of life
which I think is more than admirable for a smartphone with a quad core
processor and a 5 inch full HD screen.
The water
and dust resistance is one of this handsets key selling points and one of the
main reasons I opted for it over the other flagships. Even with the security of
updating my insurance details though, I have yet to be brave enough to put the
IP57 rating to the test but I’m sure I will at some point and show the results
in a future post.
Included in
the box with this phone is one of the best sounding pair of bundled earphones I
have ever used, the sound quality is excellent and easily surpasses many
expensive sets out there. My only gripe with them is they’re of the ‘around the
back of the neck’ variety which I simply cannot stand, but will suffer with
until I can afford to replace my broken Beats Tours.
I do have
just a couple of complaints, all minor, and well, no phone is ‘perfect’. The
first is the speaker, it’s pretty quiet and the sound quality is pretty awful.
It doesn’t bother me too much as I don’t tend to do much that requires the use
of the speaker, its fine for game sounds and the odd YouTube video. If you are
the type who likes to play their music out load while on the bus though, this
phone isn’t for you, but with that said, being alive isn’t for you either so please do us all a favour and go die somewhere, no one wants to hear your music. Tangent/rant aside, the second complaint is all the annoying ‘help’ messages Sony have included. One likes to tell me every
time I unplug the charger that I should switch the plug off from the mains to
save energy. Another likes to hassle me every day to move content to my SD card
even though I have 2.8GB of storage left on the internal memory. There needs to
be an option to turn these off as it drives me insane sometimes. Lastly it’s
the lock screen. Sony have designed a great lock screen with quick access to
the camera and music controls, along with a really nice animation when swiping
to unlock the phone, however this is all lost if you want to add any security
such as a PIN or password, you simply just get the security screen. An absolute
waste and annoyance as you lose the quick access. I really hope Sony address
this in an update and allow the ability to have the security screen appear
after the main lock screen and also include the ability to take photos without
unlocking.
Overall this
phone is an impressive fight back into the market from Sony which has been
somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Samsung and HTC of late and I recommend it
to anyone due an upgrade now. It’s beautiful and with exception to the stock
launcher incredibly fast and reliable. A brilliant camera, fantastic screen and
IP57 rating make it my definite phone of choice for 2013 and I think is more
than enough to rival other flagships for this year.
