It has been a while since we’re playing around the stylish new Sony‘s flagship Android smartphone the all new Xperia Z. It has a premium feel in every part from the innovative skeleton frame in addition to its water and dust resistant body, gorgeous 5 inch full HD 1080p display, powerful Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, 13-megapixel camera and with a right price. Sony is pushing the smartphone hard in Indian market with marketing efforts featuring Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif. With a price tag of around Rs 38K would it be the right smartphone for you? let’s try to find out.
Sony Xperia Z Unboxing Video
OmniBalance Design
The first thing you will notice about the Xperia Z is the premium quality design of the Smartphone. It looks like a rectangular glass bar with flat reflective surfaces on all sides, except on the corners which are round with smooth edges. The front and back side made of durable tempered glass, with a seamless surface. According to Sony it has the new OmniBalance design, which is focused on creating balance and symmetry in all directions. It has a dimension of 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm /5.47 x 2.79 x 0.31 inches and weighs just around 146g which includes the battery.
On the front we have the gorgeous 5 inch display, above which their is Sony logo and front-facing camera. On the side you will notice only the aluminum build Power button project out. On the top we have the 3.5 mm jack slot which is covered, on the right side we have the Micro SIM slot and below the power button we have the Volume rocker buttons. On the left side we have the microSD card slot and USB charging ports. On the back side we have the 13MP Primary camera with LED flash and a second microphone for noise cancellation. Overall the design and quality of material used is superb.
As it has glass surface on back and front, the phone seems to capture all the fingerprints on its surface. So you will need to carry around a cloth to clean it up, to make it look glossy every time. Sony provides screen guards along with the package for the front and back glass surface. One added point for Xperia Z is the high IP55 and IP57 rating means its Water and Dust resistant. Its water-resistant up to 1 meter and can be submerged for more than 30minutes.
Full HD Reality Display
It’s one thing no other smartphone manufacturer can beat Sony, Xperiz Z got a 5 inch 1080p Full HD Reality Display which has very high pixel density 443 pixels per inch. It means the display is bright and razor-sharp providing crisp pictures and no jagged edges. The text, app icons and other image on the screen look extremely sharp, thanks to the second generation Mobile BRAVIA Engine. I brings in new real-time contrast optimisation to the sharpness and contrast enhancement, high-quality colour management and noise reduction.
On our test, the display looks quite clear on every viewing angles and on direct sunlight, content on the screen was legible and readable. But due to the glass surface there is some sorts of discomfort when sunlight get directly reflected through its surface.
Powerful Hardware
Xperia Z is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core CPU which is clocked at 1.5GHz with 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 chip for graphics processing. The Snapdragon S4 Pro processor is asynchronous, which means each core is powered up and down independently. It has 16 GB Internal memory and supports external storage with microSD card, up to 32 GB.
Xperia Z comes with 13 Mega Pixel camera with Sony Exmor RS sensor with a next-generation BSI light sensor. The front full HD camera comes with Sony Exmor R mobile sensor which allow you to take pictures in lowlight conditions. The camera app features different Scene selection modes like Superior auto which will allow image to be optimized for 36 different scenes, Normal mode, Video mode, Burst mode that allows you to shoot unlimited number of images at 10 frames per second and 9 MP resolution, Picture Effects and Sweep Panorama.
In our test pictures taken during day time were of absolutely great quality with almost accurate colour rendering and provided good details. Pictures look crisp and clear and got a default resolution of 3920×2940 pixel. You can always play around with the exposure level, ISO balancing, metering and scene modes to get the perfect picture. Another interesting thing we liked about the camera is the HDR mode to take videos, with which you can take videos even in high contrast situations, like in front of a window or with the sun behind your subject.
With Clear Audio+ the device produces exceptional music clarity and overall the phone delivers excellent sound quality even at high volume levels.
Android JellyBean with Sony unified UI
The hardware runs smoothly on Android 4.1.2 JellyBean OS alongside Sony’s Xperia User interface. In our test apps performed seamlessly well, we opened up number of apps and randomly switched between them, we didn’t feel any sort of lag, thanks to Android Jellybean butter project and quad-core CPU.
Sony’s Xperia User interface is more closer to Stock Android UI, when compared to HTC Sense UI and Samsung Touchwiz. It has a unified UI bring the same user experience on Sony tablets and smartphones, along with its media apps. We really liked the lock screen animation of Xperia Z, which resembles a window blinds with your touch scroll. It has lock screen apps which directly brings you to Camera app and Walkman app, but it seems we can’t change the app shortcuts.
Xperia Z comes preloaded with a handful of Sony’s app like Sony Music app, WALKMAN App, Xperia keyboard, Album gallery app and other usual app suite found in other Xperia devices. Another addition is the Sony LIV app which allows you to stream Tv shows from SAB, Sony Entertainment and Max.
Sony has inbuilt a power management system for Xpera Z, the STAMINA mode, that’s intelligently manages battery usage by automatically shutting down battery-draining apps whenever the screen is off and starting them up again when the screen is back on. It pretty much worked in our case, allowing us to use the device for more than one and a half day.
Connectivity and Battery Life
Xperia Z inbuilt with a lots of connectivity option, it’s a quad-band GSM and supports only 3G in India, Sony has not provided support for 2300MHz 4G LTE band in India. Other connectivity option include dual-band Wi-Fi and WiFi Hotspot functionality, Wi-Fi Miracast, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, GLONASS and aGPS.
The smartphone comes with a 2330mAh battery and in our daily average usage, it lasted one and half day. While on heavy usage, like watching a full movie, 3 hours of music playback, browsing net on 3G connection, 1 hour NFS game play and 1-2 hours on phone calls, the battery lasted for around 12 to 14 hours a day, which seems to be pretty good for a smartphone with full HD display.
Verdict
Sony Xperia Z is one of the best Android smartphone you can currently buy in the Indian market, for its gorgeous 5inch Full HD display, premium look and build quality. With water and dust resistance certification, surely it can be used in any rough condition. It has a powerful hardware that can bring enormous power to play around with your apps. The 13 MP camera with its next generation Exmor RS sensor avoids you to have any extra digital camera.
On the bad side we feel the glass front and back surface is too glossy to hold on making it slippery some times, especially if its wet and also it quickly grasp all you fingerprints, so you will always need to carry around a cloth to clean it up. Another negative side is that the phone gets too hot after limited usage of GPS and during continues video playback, this seems to be a software problem which can be solved with an update fix from Sony.
With a price tag of Rs 38,990 (you can get lesser in some online stores) in India Sony Xperia Z, beats out all competition for the high-end smartphone market. Sony is giving special promotional offers for buyer, a free Premium case and a Sony Headset ( MDR-ZX100A) costing around Rs 3500.
Sony Xperia Z Specification Quick snap-
- 5 inch full HD 1080p reality display with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution (441PPi)
- 1.5 GHz Qualcomm APQ8064+MDM9215M Quad Core with 2GB RAM
- Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
- 13.1-megapixel camera with HDR for both picture/video and 2 megapixel front-facing camera
- 16 GB Internal memory and External with microSD card, up to 32 GB
- 4G/LTE , UMTS HSPA+, GPRS/EDGE Connectivity
- NFC, Bluetooth 4.0
- 2,330-mAh battery
We are rating Sony Xperia Z with 4.5/5