Sony Xperia Z - My Mini Review.

[Anonymous]

First I would like to thank Chiara and Toby for considering me to receive the Sony Xperia Z handset to review.

Sony Xperia Z.

In this review I will add a few facts and figures but this will predominantly be based on my hands on experience of the phone in general everyday use.

My first thoughts on removing the phone from the packaging was that I was impressed with the sleek design, and that it looked like a slab of solid granite.

On the left hand side of the phone is the charger port, Micro SD card slot, and the charging dock connectors. On the top of the phone is the 3.5mm headphone port. On the right side is the sim card tray slot, power button, strap hole, speaker, and the volume rocker switch. On the back we have the camera lens, second microphone, camera light and NFC detection area. On the front is the front camera lens, ear speaker, ambient light sensor, notification light and main microphone.

The decision of having the power button on the right hand side of the phone is one I like as this offers ease of access whilst holding the phone, however as the power button on the Sony Xperia Z is sensitive, it is easy to activate the phone accidentally.

The phones build quality is solid to the feel and the materials just shout out quality and excellence in workmanship. The Capacitive touchscreen is very responsive and the haptic feedback is a nice touch. However I would not want to see what damage could be caused by a drop to the ground, so it is wise to purchase a suitable case for your needs.

From looking on the Internet shopping sites and the High-Street Outlets their are some really nice leather ones from a few pounds upwards. Certainly worth the outlay !

The Sony Xperia Z phone is dust resistant with durable glass on both the front and the rear, minimal plastic panels around the sides, and is water proof up to one metre, for up to thirty minutes.

But in all honesty as the phone is not my property I did not test the waterproof spec on this phone. The flaps covering all the various ports did appear to support that they would do their job comfortably. There’s also a little pop up notification on the display that advises the owner to replace the protective flaps when taking it off charge etc. This can be disabled if you find the warning not necessary.

Sony did recently have a public stall set up in my local Shopping Centre, and were inviting people to drop this model of phone into pitchers of water. 

It felt so wrong actually doing this but after fishing it out it worked just fine.

The Sony Xperia Z is a recent entry in the Japanese companies wide range of Android Handsets, which was released on the 9th of February 2013 and became available in the Uk on the 1st of March 2013. It is available in Black, Purple and White. The phone comes with varied specifications that anyone would be more than happy with. The handset I used had the Android Operating Platform Version 4.2.2 Jelly Bean loaded into it.

Specs Time : 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 13.1-megapixel camera and 2.2 megapixel front facing camera, 4G cellular connectivity, and 16GB of built-in storage, with 11GB being actually available to the user , which can be expanded by using a MicroSD card.

The phone's dimensions are 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm and its weight is 146 grams (including battery). It comes with a Lithium-ion battery, rated at 2330 mAh. The phone accepts a Network Micro Sim card.

The 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon CPU is super fast and included features like an HDMI-out and NFC support ensure that the Xperia Z is at the forefront of current mobile technology. 

The Xperia Z’s 5-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel Reality Display oozes with colour and vibrancy and packs a pixel density of 443 ppi. The geeky figures aside the screen of this phone is just stunning and easily beats my iPhone 5 hands down. The difference in screen size really does count and more real estate really does mean more ! 

I found no trouble viewing the phones screen whilst indoors and outdoors.

I used an App called AnTuTu and the phone benchmarked at……. ‘Great’ 20312.

The Sony Xperia Z also scored 8958 in the 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited Android Bench Mark.

The Sony Xperia Z offers 13.1 megapixels of imaging prowess. Sony’s phone produces some fantastic images providing awesome shots no matter what the lighting conditions are. The Camera features are very comprehensive.

I will add a couple of examples of pictures that I have taken with the phone to show a small example of what the imaging is like. Apologies for my not so fantastic choice of photographic choice of material !

With the bright 5-inch screen and quad-core CPU I was expecting that the Sony Xperia Z would not give me a full days usage. The official battery spec claim is Talk time up to 11 hours, and Standby time up to 550 hours. 

I did turn the screen brightness to 50% and had the ‘adapt to lighting conditions’ toggled on, but even after using it quite heavily throughout the day for making calls, sending texts and surfing the Internet both on Wifi and O2’s 3G Service, I was impressed to attain a full days usage, without having to put the phone on charge to top up.

Obviously we all have different usage patterns so as a rule of thumb, if I squeeze out a days usage before having to charge then I’m happy.

I made several voice calls and had no drop out on these calls with the clarity of the call being clear, and the people I spoke to reported hearing the conversation with no issues. The phone app is a pleasure to use, with the dial pad being large and crisp with contacts being nicely integrated into it.

The contacts app opens up to full screen and is easy to use.

The audible alerts from incoming calls and the other various notifications are loud and clear.

The status bar at the top of the screen is neatly set out and the icons are easy to pick up on, with the pull down notification screen being useful to look over what's happening with the phone, along with various other alerts such as e mail and twitter.

I typically receive strong O2 Network Signal and 3G Data coverage where I live, commute and work, and found that the phone held onto signal with ease and 3G was constant even in some fringe coverage areas I visited.

The inbuilt browser was easy to navigate with and is fast. Google Chrome was a breeze to use too.

The touch keyboard on the phone is well spaced out and I found no issue using this to type text messages and e mails etc, but would think a person with large fingers may have some issue. I really liked the way the phone suggested words as I typed, which after some practice made it much more easier to use.

The music player was more than adequate with the sound being crisp and clear.

Music can be viewed by Artist or Album. The ClearAudio+ option makes for an awesome audio experience,Various sound settings, equalisers -manual and pre-set, surround sound, clear stereo, Xloud etc. They really do make a difference to what you are listening to and you have the choice to 

Video playback on this phone is flawless which is not a surprise with what is under the hood of this handset. 

Personally I use both the Calendar and Notes Apps on any phone heavily, and found both of these on the Sony Xperia Z to offer what you would expect from this calibre of smartphone. Both are easy to navigate and use.

Sony has introduced the ‘Stamina Mode’, which disables all Mobile Data activity when your screen powers down. When engaged at night, Stamina Mode is good enough to ensure that battery drain is as little as possible. This mode can be adjusted to your own individual wants and needs. For example you can choose which Apps to retain a mobile data connection ,when it is engaged.

The power management of the phone offers a low battery mode which disables functions to save power. All helping you to get as much out of the phone for as long as possible.

Any avid mobile gamers will not be disappointed with this phone. I downloaded the following games ; Fifa 14,Tiny Death Star, Air Supremacy, GT Racing 2 - The Real Car Exp, JetPack Joyride and Subway Surfer games. The gaming experience was fantastic, with the phone handling these with ease.  

By special request Toby asked if I would download the App ‘Droid SkyView, which is an Astronomy-based App. I have to say the phone handled this one extremely well. It showed me how much I really don’t know about what's up there in the Sky, the stars ,constellations, and planets, and all in 3D ! 

AVG was downloaded from Google Play to add an extra layer of security to the phone and was very interesting to play around with a security application on the phone.

One question I asked myself while using this phone was……… would I use this phone myself and came to the conclusion that after testing it out for two weeks the answer is ……………..Yes.

The Good.                                                            The Not so Good.

Awesome design.                                                 Usual Fingerprint magnet.

Waterproof and dust-resistant.                             Non Removable battery.

Super Powerful Quad-Core Processor

MicroSD card slot.

Vibrant Screen.

Good Gaming Experience.

NFC.

4G LTE