Has Sony finally nailed it? From our time using the Xperia Z handset, Sony seems to have achieved exactly that.
We found the Xperia Z to be a sophisticated phone. Its 5-inch full HD screen is ultra sharp with 441 pixels per inch resolution (the iPhone 5 Retina display is 326 ppi). Combined with its 13.1 megapixel back-facing camera, the Xperia Z is a smartphone primarily designed for consuming media.
This is a partially waterproof phone – at one metre for up to 30 minutes, All ports are concealed by small plastic flaps, which must be closed to seal the unit.
Last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where the phone was unveiled, there were demonstrations of people dropping the phone into fish tanks and other water-filled receptacles.
And at its Australian launch in Sydney last week, there was a promotional video of people throwing coloured goo around and splattering the device, with the Z coming out shiny and clean after being hosed down or washed.
In real life, unless you like reading eBooks in the bath, you wouldn’t dunk your $749 phone or let it get wet regularly for the sake of it, but it’s good to know the phone will survive incidents such as dropping it in the sink or even the loo, or getting it wet in the street. The phone also is dustproof and should survive at the beach with flaps firmly closed.
I’d however be making sure the plastic flaps are properly closed at all times. These flaps incidentally don’t look that strong and nothing like those used on many waterproof cameras.
The phone is big and before you pick it up, you’d be deceived into thinking it is heavy to hold. But at 146 g, it is almost the same weight as the iPhone 4S (140g). It’s thin (7.9 mm) and has a shiny appearance that looks solid and well engineered, although there seems to be a slight gap between the screen and the body – it’s not seamless.
It has a minimalist look around the edges. There’s a microSD card slot capable of supporting cards of up to 32 gigabytes and a microUSB charging port on the left, and a volume rocker, microSIM port and metallic on-off switch on the right. Home and back are soft buttons on the screen.
The Xperia Z uses Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) with an update promised to 4.2. It's not the latest Android rather Sony’s unique strain of Android, so you’ll need to wait for the company's updates.
On the other hand, Sony has tweaked the Android interface to make it more user friendly and it is. Managing screen widgets and home pages for example are nicer on the Xperia Z than with vanilla Android.
The device has a fast quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, and is Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) capable so you can stream media from your phone to other network-connected devices.
The phone works on 4th generation long-term evolution (LTE) networks, has 16 or 32 gigabytes of internal memory, shoots full HD video, and has a more than useful 2.2 megapixel camera at the front as well. It’s not only good for video conferencing, the camera app lets you easily switch to shooting from the front so first person video narratives are easy to make.
As for the main 13.1 megapixel camera – it takes great shots in the daytime and colours, look accurate and realistic – not over saturated. Shots in low light are OK but even super auto mode won't help you when taking high contrast shots, despite the big 13 mp sensor. Photo settings include burst mode and panorama.
The camera shoots HDR (high dynamic range) photos and video. In the case of video it shoots parallel overexposed and underexposed streams and merges them to maximise detail.
The 2330 milliampere hour battery seems more than adequate. Moderate use – some calls, reading email, browsing, and listening to music – saw us go through about 60 per cent of charge in a day. With standard power management operating, we could watch 4 hours 10 minutes of video, which isn't so great.
The Xperia Z has a feature that helps to extend battery life called "stamina mode". After watching video and switching to stamina mode, our estimated standby time shot up from 5 hours to 3 days 3 hours.
Stamina mode disables WiFi and mobile data when the screen is off, but you’ll still receive calls, SMS messages and calendar notifications. I’d leave stamina mode off if you are waiting for urgent emails however.
The Z has another interesting power saving feature - location-based WiFi, which switches on automatically only when you are nearby saved WiFi networks. That means you can switch it off when out-and-about – for example when commuting to the office – and not worry about remembering to turn it on again at work.
The piece de resistance with the Xperia Z is its connectivity, in particular its use of Near Field Communication (NFC).
When listening to music on the Walkman app, tapping the phone near the NFC symbol on a set of Sony headphones will transfer the audio output to them. The same applies to speakers and other Sony NFC-enabled peripherals including tablets. Sony has more than 50 NFC based products to pair the phone with simply by tapping.
Likewise if you have a compatible Sony TV, you can transfer video on the phone to the TV by tapping the TV’s remote with the phone. I found the phone and the NFC headset I tried out have a sweet spot – you need to tap them together at the right points, but it works. Tapping a second time turns the connection off.
In the case of audio, the act of tapping turns on Bluetooth and then pairs the devices. You can program NFC tags to perform a range of different functions.
Being a Sony device, the Xperia Z is certified for playing PlayStation mobile games.
In all, there’s lots to like about this high-end smartphone. For anyone who is a big consumer of media on their handset, this is a device to have. It will be available on all networks with Vodafone confirming a March 13 release date.
