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Review – Sony Xperia Z3

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I came across the Sony Xperia Z3 at last year’s IFA in Berlin, where Sony showed it off as there latest flagship, the best Android in existence, and all that usual jazz. Now I might sound a sceptic, but it probably roots from the fact that while I used to be a Sony Ericsson man in the past, the Xperia series, starting from the X1 to their Android offerings just didn’t stand out. In fact, for a long time it seemed all they had to offer was the ability to take it in the shower, and as anybody who has tried that knows that touch screens and water do not mix very well. So when Vodafone offered to send me one, my instant reaction was ‘Oh alright then!’ .

 Little did I know that Sony were out to prove me wrong, and to change my mind.

The Box

The first thing you notice about the phone is that Sony are not using the standard brick styled phone case. Instead, they use a slimmer, flatter but a larger square box to present you the phone. The box highlights one aspect of the phone, and that is the camera, letting you know all about the 20.7MP on offer.

As someone who looks to his phone as a portable camera, it works. It is subtle, but attractive nonetheless.

Out of the box

The phone looks good, and does well in the ‘ooh shiny’ department.  Thin, square edges with four curved corners define the rectangular shape.

The back is a glossy glass like surface that has the camera in one corner, the NFC symbol, followed by the Sony logo. Right at the bottom you see the word Xperia as well. The problem with shiny? A finger print magnet, and a slippery surface. If you can love with these two, it’s good.
The front shows off the screen, which is great, with 1080 x 1920 display and great colour contrast.  In fact, if you go in settings you can adjust some colour modes to give you the best experience. I found the default one the best. Two speakers also exist, both in top and bottom of the phone. No buttons though, so the Android Home, Back, Recent buttons take up screen space. It of course, is mostly the way these days.
The bottom is just a smoothed curved edge, while the top shows off the headphone jack. Unlike other ports on the phone, this doesn’t have a protective cover on it.
The left edge has the Micro USB port, under a cover, and what looks like a port for wireless charging and such docks. It is essentially a couple of gold pins sticking out, much like you see on the side of your Pebble.
The right side holds a little cover for your SIM and micro SD card, and you have your power button, your volume rocker, and my favourite, a dedicated camera key.

Inserting the SIM

The SIM experience of the Xperia Z3 is actually not so simple. First of all, this takes a nano-SIM, which isn’t that uncommon, but isn’t very common either. At least not yet.

Secondly, the experience is not intuitive at all. You basically have to open the Micro-SD window, pry out the SIM tray with your nail, and put it in the ‘chip side’ up, and insert it in again. Since you should only be doing this once or a rare few times, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The Xperia Experience

What you get with the Sony Xperia phones is something very close to vanilla Android, but not quiet. Out of the box, you get lots of Sony widgets all over the desktop. I ended up deleting a lot of them, keeping a few, and then realising I don’t need them either and deleting them too.

Beyond that, the experience starts getting rather pleasant. Deletion of apps is something you can do from the Apps menu, and once activated it is much like iOS, where you delete it by clicking the X in the corner. They don’t shake in a shared manner though.
The best part is that you get the option to delete a lot of the apps that are Sony branded, though not all. This is a breath of fresh air compared to the likes of Samsung who only hide the app, a nd disable it.
Otherwise, the UI is extremely streamlined, smooth and quick.
What I am struggling with, however, is highlighting of text.  Once again Sony seem to have taken a bite out of the apple that is iOS (pun intended) and given you something that feels like the magnifying tool that comes up in iOS when you hold your finger over any bit of text.
There are fun bits that speak Sony to me. Things like the Walkman app and TrackID are gentle reminders of the lovely Sony Ericsson days, and new bits such as letting you add live AR to your videos.
Guess my favourite feature, though, would be the fact that I can double tap the screen to turn it on. A lot of phones are starting to offer this, including the LG G3, and I just love it.
All in all, the experience is so good that it has become my main phone these days, despite coming with a SIM I don’t use. Hard to put a finger on it, perhaps the power beneath the bonnet, but it just works and works well as a package.
Specs in brief:
  • Dimensions: 146 x 72 x 7.3mm
  • 152 grams
  • Android KitKat 4.4
  • 5.2″ screen
  • 20.7MP Camera, with 4K recording as well as 120fps recording
  • 2 day claim of battery life
  • 2.5GHz Quad Core Processor
  • 4G connectivity

The Power

Speaking of power, this is definitely one powerful beast, as the numbers above suggest. For me though, there is one test that proves performance. The Outlook app! It is slow, but gives just enough features for you to keep using it. It takes ages to load, but once open, it works well. I try it on any phone I am reviewing, and for once it works well on this one! Despite me running my full three personal email accounts with years of messages and all the folders synchronising.

 The camera

 The camera on this phone is amazing. I am blown away with it, specially with the low light shots. Here are some shots that were taken in the dark, with no lighting, and no flash. These were taken on ‘auto’ mode as well, as I didn’t do anything apart from turn off the flash:
2015-01-21 19.06.46
Then there is indoor photography, with a flash, which also works great, and there is some amazing results in outdoorsy photography too.
Following are a few photos that I have taken over the last week, which kind of show what you can do.
2028-10-24 19.30.32
Near Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
2015-01-25 13.20.11
Pub Fire2015-01-24 15.11.01
Near Spelsbury, Oxfordshire.
2015-01-24 13.29.34
Horsey!
2015-01-24 13.23.14
Macro Eye
2015-01-23 08.43.06
Morning, near Diamond, Harwell.
2015-01-22 21.10.57
I made some Chickpea curry!
2015-01-22 18.06.13
Looking at the moon!
The Harwell Campus site at night
2015-01-22 17.17.32
Same
2015-01-21 19.39.36
Trying background blur.

Waterproof

The phone brings with it IP65/IP68 rating. No Sony Xperia advert these days comes without a smiling person taking photos or shooting videos under water. But, as I already mentioned above, touch screens and water do not mix. So, how does all that happen? Dedicated camera button!

 Essentially what you get is something that will survive water, allow you to take photos and videos under it, but not much more. While it can go with you to the pool or bath, you won’t be sending emails under water using this.

More information

More information on the phone can be found at Vodafone’s Sony Xperia Z3 page:

Verdict

The Sony Xperia Z3 has just jumped to my favourite Android ever. Great all around device!

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