Sony XPERIA Z, woah!

[Tsuchiya]

Be honest guys, what is the "give" on this phone? Looks great, impressive specs. Pretty much what I'm looking for in my next phone. In the past though Sony phones seem impressive but there is a "give".

For those interested in buying, O2, 3, Carphone Warehouse and someone else are offering Sony Prestige headphones for free when you pre-order.

 

[MRU]

Be honest guys, what is the "give" on this phone? Looks great, impressive specs. Pretty much what I'm looking for in my next phone. In the past though Sony phones seem impressive but there is a "give".

For those interested in buying, O2, 3, Carphone Warehouse and someone else are offering Sony Prestige headphones for free when you pre-order.

Yeah those headphones look great.

From Expansys (where I've ordered mine) and Clove.co.uk you get the NFC Wireless speaker

From Amazon you get just the phone.




Looking at all the reviews and hands on there isn't much of a give. They have done a lovely skin on top of Android Jellybean and their own apps look great. Everyone seems to praise it's skin as being as barebones as one would want but still offering their own take so at least you get decent weather and music widgets etc.. out of the box (unlike stock Android)..

I think the biggest 'give' is the cover for the ports and how durable they will be after many times opening and closing, especially the heaphone jack and the micro usb.

I've decided to bypass the headphone jack one, despite getting excellent headphones in the box by purchasing the SGH20 headphone earbud set.

The only other give I guess is if 5" is too big for you.... I won't know until I use it daily.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I fear the boxy frame may be bad for ergonomics. Especially one handed use. I'm constantly accidentally palm touching the screen when I use my nexus 4 one handed.

 

[JaySoul]

Just had a real play around with it for 15 minutes. I'm very tempted.

The free headphones (worth £299) offer is only on certain contracts - and you can actually buy the headphones on Amazon for £180. It's not for me.

The free bluetooth speaker is much more worth it if you're going the SIM-free
option (which I would).

This is the first handset that really has pretty much everything on lock - but the only caveat is that Samsung will go hard with the S3's follow-up.

 

[TacticalDesire]

The give is the washed out looking display with poor viewing angles. Not saying its bad by any means

 

[akuma13]

Just read the phonearena.com review http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Sony-Xperia-Z-Review_id3247/page/1

They gave it a solid 8.5 but nocks the call quality, camera and nitpicked on the display. The Oppo find 5 seems to have the same guts as the Z but scored an 8.0. I'm leaning towards the Oppo Find 5 because it has a better IPS display, better call quality, larger battery and i'm sure much cheaper than the Z.

 

[gto55]

Review by CNET
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/sony-xperia-z-review-50010121/

Meanwhile at cupertino...

 

[sk1wbw]

Galaxy S4. Samsung marketed the S3 like crazy, I expect the S4 to be no different. And marketing is what gets many consumers.

Uninformed consumers. The S3 is like every other phone running Android these days. Same specs, different name.

 

[Fireblade]

Uninformed consumers. The S3 is like every other phone running Android these days. Same specs, different name.

The average apple customer this is.

 

[sk1wbw]

The average apple customer this is.

According to the average Android fanboy. I've probably been using Apple hardware longer than the average age of the average poster on these forums. Trust me, Android fanboys are worse. They all think exactly what you just said.

 

[MRU]

Review by CNET
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/sony-xperia-z-review-50010121/

Meanwhile at cupertino...

Great stuff...


Some confusion as I'm not sure if the dock is now included or not. Some reviews state yes, other say optional and of the myriad of unboxing videos only seen two that did...


I'm hoping it ships early from Expansys

 

[Peterg2]

Here is what I consider a review from one of the top review sites. Not at the level of anandtech, but still a very credible site:

http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z-review-887.php

 

[Mackan]

Just read the phonearena.com review http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Sony-Xperia-Z-Review_id3247/page/1

They gave it a solid 8.5 but nocks the call quality, camera and nitpicked on the display.

Seems to be valid concerns. Could even see the bad viewing angles in the videos, and the camera left things to be desired. There's always some lack of quality on the Android phones in my opinion, compared to the iPhone.

 

[MRU]

Again though I wonder if these very early reviews were asked on the reportedly demo / preview hardware which are meant to have a cheaper screen?

I don't know whether to believe that speculation however, I'm just increasingly concerned as it gets closer for my CC to be charged €669!

I know I'd be pissed if after spending close to $900 if it was anything less than perfect.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

One of the few Android smartphones I think has an amazing design. It's also packing quite the performance. Much better than Samsung's ugly Galaxy S3.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Is there any particular reason why the Xperia Z isn't coming to the USA on an official carrier?

Or is Sony just keeping those plans under wraps for now? They've announced it for, what feels like, almost everywhere else in the world. What gives?

 

[blairh]

Is there any particular reason why the Xperia Z isn't coming to the USA on an official carrier?

Or is Sony just keeping those plans under wraps for now? They've announced it for, what feels like, almost everywhere else in the world. What gives?

I think I told you this a few weeks back. The Z is not compatible with any American LTE bands. It will be a hard sell at retailers without LTE. Instead the ZL should be coming to AT&T in Q2.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I think I told you this a few weeks back. The Z is not compatible with any American LTE bands. It will be a hard sell at retailers without LTE. Instead the ZL should be coming to AT&T in Q2.

Right. I guess what I mean is, Sony has no plans to make one with U.S. LTE radios?

I'm just blown away that this is their game plan with America...

 

[Peterg2]

Right. I guess what I mean is, Sony has no plans to make one with U.S. LTE radios?

I'm just blown away that this is their game plan with America...

Same in Canada. We will only be getting the ZL, at least initially.

 

[blairh]

Right. I guess what I mean is, Sony has no plans to make one with U.S. LTE radios?

I'm just blown away that this is their game plan with America...

No way to know for sure, but I doubt it. Once they announce various Z models, I think there are two variants, then I don't see them releasing another one at a future date.

Honestly if the ZL comes to the States I don't think the omission of the Z is a big deal. I know it's missing the water resistance but they are extremely similar devices. Personally I like the ZL better. Better backing, smaller bezel.

 

[Akash.B]

No way to know for sure, but I doubt it. Once they announce various Z models, I think there are two variants, then I don't see them releasing another one at a future date.

Honestly if the ZL comes to the States I don't think the omission of the Z is a big deal. I know it's missing the water resistance but they are extremely similar devices. Personally I like the ZL better. Better backing, smaller bezel.

Even though it has a smaller bezel, it is thicker as a result of it. I think Z is 7.9mm while ZL is 9.3mm

 

[blairh]

Even though it has a smaller bezel, it is thicker as a result of it. I think Z is 7.9mm while ZL is 9.3mm

The ZL is 9.8 mm thick. Regardless I still prefer the ZL personally.

 

[MRU]

Well sorry to say... HTC just nailed it for me...

I've had so much doubt put into my mind, especially with this

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2108274

and freaking me out about the screen...

The fact is this is a phone that will cost me €669 ($900) and I'm not willing to risk being a poor screen (never having a Sony before and reading relatively poor reviews of past Xperia handsets) I'm not sure I'm that much of a gambling man as much as the rest of the phone I like.....


So I'm cancelling my pre-order (for now) ......

 

[Peterg2]

Well sorry to say... HTC just nailed it for me...

I've had so much doubt put into my mind, especially with this

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2108274

and freaking me out about the screen...

The fact is this is a phone that will cost me €669 ($900) and I'm not willing to risk being a poor screen (never having a Sony before and reading relatively poor reviews of past Xperia handsets) I'm not sure I'm that much of a gambling man as much as the rest of the phone I like.....


So I'm cancelling my pre-order (for now) ......

And this is despite your concerns about previously owned HTCs?

I followed this live from here - http://www.androidcentral.com/ and, like with the Xperia Z/ZL, the battery size 2300 mAh gives me pause.

 

[MRU]

And this is despite your concerns about previously owned HTCs?

I followed this live from here - http://www.androidcentral.com/ and, like with the Xperia Z/ZL, the battery size 2300 mAh gives me pause.

I know, but it's kind of 'better the devil you know' kind of thing