A week with the Sony Xperia Z...

So it has been a whole week since I upgraded from my beloved Samsung Galaxy S3 to the Sony Xperia Z so I guess it’s about that time that I write something about it. First off, the obligortary spec sheet:

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)

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 The only major hang up I had about my Galaxy S3 was Samsung’s awful user interface, the outdated, puke coloured mess is vile and was fortunately easily covered up by applying theme packs as my device was rooted.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.

Sony Small Apps

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.