Hello
Everybody ! What’s up?
My
name is …., … and …… today we have the new flagship from sonymobile. Wow, what
is that? Yeah, Sony Xperia Z3. The new Xperia Z3, as barely have six months
passed since the Z2 introduction, and now we are getting a successor. The
Xperia Z3 upgrades only slightly on the Z2, but exactly where it counts. Its
screen brightness and processing power now rival or surpass those of the direct
competitors, while its pretty unibody glass chassis is made even thinner, still
keeping the high waterproof rating. Lets' see how it stacks up..
Z3
is the most comfortable and premium Sony Xperia flagship so far. It available
in 5 colors, black, white, green, copper and the new purple
The
Z3's dimensions are actually the biggest change from the Z2, at least on the
surface, as the phone is measures 5.75 x 2.83 x 0.29” ,making it slightly
shorter, narrower, and much slimmer than the Z2. The OmniBalance design
language of the Xperia series here is stuffed in a very sleek tempered
metal-and-glass unibody. In fact, with its tapered edges and rounded corners,
the Xperia Z3 is the most comfortable Xperia flagship we've held so far.
On
top of all, the Xperia Z3 sports a higher – IP65/68 -
waterproof rating than, say, the Galaxy S5, allowing it to last for more than
an hour in up to five feet deep in water. Furthermore, Sony provides two stereo
speakers at the front, something you don't see every day. To ensure the
waterproofing of the microUSB port on the left, and the microSD and micro SIM
slots on the right, Sony covered them with protective flaps, painted in the
color of the metal rim surrounding the sides.
The
Z3 screen remains a 5.2" 1080x1920 pixels Triluminos display, but Sony is
now touting its ability to hit 600 nits of peak brightness. The screen used
IPS-LCD that has a super-sensitive mode, that allows you to operate it with
gloves on, should someone ring you while on the ski lift.
Running
Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the Sony Xperia Z3 sports the Xperia user interface,
which tends to be rather clean and minimalistic. It does change the look and
feel of most of the stock UI and built-in apps, but does so in a stylish and
uniform manner. Sony's homescreen is very easy to get used to. The manufacturer
has done a good job at creating an intuitive experience that makes things like
icon and widget placement (and resizing, too) easy as pie. Just like in Sony's
other Android phones, the pinch-in gesture initiates homescreen editing, where
you can easily add/discard pages, add widgets/apps, change the wallpaper, or
the theme. A very welcome change that comes with the Z-series now, is the
ability to use the double-tap-to-wake, so you don't have to constantly be
looking for the smallish power key to unlock the display any more.
The
Xperia Z3 is yet another phone that's powered by Qualcomm's technology. In this
case, it is the quad-core Snapdragon 801 MSM8974-AC processor, which is the
fastest in the 801 family, and is clocked at 2.5 GHz.Overall, performance seems
to be great, both around the interface, and within apps, including 3D games.
Memory-wise,
there are the generous 3 GB of RAM, which is still the highest number Android
hits at the moment, while the basic onboard storage is 16 GB, of which just
about 12 GB are user-available. Thankfully, there's a microSD card slot, which
allows you to greatly expand the phone's storage space by installing a memory
card of up to 128 GB.
Chrome
is the browser of choice for the Sony Xperia Z3, and it tends to perform
lovely. As always, loading is super-fast, while navigation around pages,
including scrolling and zooming, is very fluid and trouble-free.
LTE
is supported across numerous bands, so as long as your carrier of choice offers
4G, the Z3 should deliver blazing-fast cellular data speeds. Actually, it
supports LTE Cat4 for download speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s, and upload speeds of
up to 50 Mbit/s, provided the network conditions are optimal. In the
unfortunate (but widespread) case of having no access to LTE, the Sony Xperia
Z3 will default to HSPA+ (up to 42.2 Mbit/s down and 5.76 Mbit/s up).
Further
completing its full set of connectivity options, the Sony Xperia Z3 is also the
proud owner of support for all the latest Wi-Fi protocols (802.11 a, b, g, n, n
5GHz, ac), Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, MHL, and NFC. Whether you want to mirror your
phone's display on a bigger screen, beam content or quickly pair with a
Bluetooth accessory, the Xperia Z3 has you covered.
Like
other Sony flagships, the Z3 sticks with a 20.7-megapixel shooter. At this
point, there’s no real reason to jump up in megapixel count. Instead, Sony is
offering a wider 25mm lens and the same 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor that showed
up in the Z1 a year ago. Additionally, the company raised the max ISO to 12,800
to allow users to take better photos in low light. The Z3 can also record 4K
video and 120fps slow-motion at 720p resolution.
At
first read, one might scoff at the seemingly modest Xperia Z3 upgrades against
its Z2 predecessor. We are kind of liking Sony's approach, though, as it allows
the company to stay on top of the bi-annual Android cycle of spring-fall
flagships, while experimenting and improving with greater frequency. The Z3 has
a thinner chassis, faster processor, brighter display and better photo and
audio quality than the Z2, while keeping everything else great intact. These
might not seem significant upgrades each on its own, but the cumulative effect
is pretty powerful. The only gripe we have with the phone has to do with Sony's
signature thick top and bottom bezels, which makes it largish for the screen
size, yet we are willing to let those slide for the waterproof certification,
and the front stereo speakers you are getting.
If
you are coming from the Z1, the Z3 is a worthy upgrade, as it will upscale your
Sony phone in all directions. For the Z2 owners, the situation is a tad
murkier, as you might not want to shell out two Benjamins more for a tad
slimmer handset with a bit better outdoor visibility, and a more balanced
camera. Looking at the chief Z3 competitors, these boil down to the usual
suspects. The plasticky Galaxy S5 offers a 5.1” 1080p display, whose colors are
every bit as inaccurate as the Z3's out of the box, and a camera of similar
quality, with waterproof chassis as well. The HTC One (M8) has a very premium
build, and flaunts stereo speakers as well, but its Duo Camera is the weakest
in the flagship pack. LG's G3 brags with a high-end QHD display and optically-stabilized
camera in a chassis only a tad wider than the Z3, but its battery life is
shorter than the rest. This competitor trio, however, sports one important
advantage before Sony's newest Xperia – it is now about a hundred or more
cheaper, and the category is pretty crowded for the new Z3 to dent a lasting
impression there.
Alternatively,
you can eschew Android altogether, and take a dive in the iOS pool, as the new
iPhone 6 now comes with a much larger display than before, thinner body,
improved camera, Apple Pay, and is a better value-keeper, for roughly the same
price as the Z3, though you'd have to wave goodbye to the waterproof wrapper,
record battery life, and the stereo speakers of the Z3.
