The Gorgeous Sony Xperia Z

For starters… Sony has come a long way since the days of Sony Ericsson.  Instead of chintzy looking pieces of plastic, Sony now is one of the front runners, if not THE front runner, in my opinion for device build quality.

They have continued this with the Xperia Z for T-mobile.  Now I actually got a hands-on of this device for review .   It is a gorgeous color(this particular case), style and form.  I will run through the points below.

(picture from hardwarezone.com.sg)

Build quality:

Now, Far as I’m concerned, Sony is tops at this right now.  The phone is of a poly amide(composite) frame work with scratch-resistant tempered glass on both front and back panels.  The panels covered with a factory installed “skin” or screen protector, but Sony themselves have said it is merely for shatter resistance and NOT for scratch proof.  They recommend installing your own preferred protector of sorts.  The factory installed ones are removable but it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to leave them on.  Removing them apparently, voids your warranty – so just leave it alone and don’t fiddle with it.

The Xperia Z feels very solid in the hand and feels very premium.  I’m used to the Galaxy line of phones so, holding this one was quite a change, and a rather pleasant one at that.  Be mindful though, since the phone has a glass front and back it can be very slick to hold.  Best advice would be at very minimum, to get a clear back skin to offer a little bit more grip and still show off the phone or maybe a bumper case.

 

Specs: (I’m just going to summarize)

• 5″ 1080p HD Reality Display (1920*1080)- Sony’s mobile Bravia engine 2
• 443 ppi  -  16million colors  Opti-contrast panel
• 13 MP rear camera full 1080p recording–Exmor RS sensor     2.2 MP front facing camera with full HD ability and Exmor R sesnor
• 16GB storage expandable to 64GB via micro-sd card slot
• 1.5 GHz quad core processor ( Snapdragon S4 Pro)
• Android Jellybean 4.1.2 (upgradable to 4.2.2 in near future)
• 2330 mAh enclosed battery(non-removable)dust proof/water resistant (IP55/IP57)

Now if you’re looking for a full fledged review– head over to check out my video, this write up is just to point out my personal views on the phone itself.

Now, there are plenty of things I love about this phone, it’s solid build, sturdiness in the hand, picture quality is actually very good ( despite what rumors you may have heard), color of the unit I reviewed was purple – yes I know it’s not very manly but it looks FANTASTIC on the phone.  It’s the same shade of purple that was used for Eva unit -01 from Neon Genesis for you anime fans – will give you some context to what I mean.  I love the pronounced shape of the power button and how it’s strategically placed for either right or left handed use.  Screen is beautiful, not overly saturated like some companies can be with their screens.

Some things I don’t like:….  The frame of the phone is very angular, and while I do like it for it’s rigidity– the sheer shape of it caused minor discomfort to me, interior ring-finger of both hands; whilst I was playing any games for extended period of time or watching a movie.  Phone doesn’t have a dedicated shutter button for pictures.  Everything is done on screen, which can lead to awkward angles trying to capture movies or stills.  The screen stays black when you get a notification.  Now when I say stays black, it doesn’t turn on for a second or two for a quick message preview.  It just lights up the LED in the top right corner of the phone.

Despite the smallish battery, I was still able to get around 10-12 hours of usage with about 1.5-2 hours of screen time while using it fairly heavy with a few games such as Angry Birds, Asphalt 8: Airborne .

The UI of the Xperia is very fluid and smooth, no over abundance of bloatware from Sony or T-Mobile.  A few apps here and there such as: Walkman, PSM, Civil Alerts, T-Mobile my account, T-Mobile TV and so on.

All in all this is a great phone, blazing processor, gorgeous screen, durable, solid and sturdy build (a must for anyone with children ages 2-5) dust-proof and water resistance; all add up to make this one hell of a phone, pity it’s only for one carrier, but not like that’s very hard to do anyways…..