Before I get started on the review, there's a couple of things I'll mention first.
I don't own the Xperia Z. I actually have a HTC One which I've had for a couple of weeks but I've been borrowing my mates XZ for a few days so I'd be able to test it out and see what I think of it.
Also, the only reason why I wasn't interested in buying the XZ was because I had a Xperia S when it first came out and I had nothing but problems with it and due to how bad it was, I wasn't prepared to give Sony another chance.
I have had 4 days of using the Xperia Z though so while I haven't had time to cover everything, I did my HTC One review in the same amount of time to make this fair.
Now, onto my review...
UI
Sony's UI has always impressed me and continues to do so with the Xperia Z. I've always been a huge fan of Sony/Sony Ericsson phones, apart from the aforementioned problems, and the UI has played a bit part in that.
It's simple yet effective. I'm glad that Sony have stayed true to themselves in this respect because if they were to try and expand their UI to make it mote gimmicky, like other UI's, then Sony would lose a lot of business.
There's not a lot I can say about this other than it's simple, clean and is exactly as you'd expect it to be.
Design
Again, Sony have stayed true to themselves and made another beautifully designed phone. This is something which Sony has especially done since the 2012 Xperia range.
The Xperia Z looks absolutely great and has a really premium feel to it. It feels really sturdy, which is always a big plus, and looks pleasing to the eyes aswell.
Button/Speaker placement
This section is covering the major downside to the XZ.
Button placement is generally well done and I can see why a lot of people are praising Sony for this layout.
The power button is in a great place and would help a lot of people who have smaller hands BUT even if they had placed the power button on the top of the phone, it really wouldn't have been a problem to me due to the fact I have big hands and could comfortably reach the top of the phone anyway.
The volume rocker was slightly too low down the phone for how I'd prefer it. Ideally, I'd like the volume rocker to be higher up the phone so that when holding it in my right hand, my thumb could easily and comfortably be used to adjust the volume. This isn't a major problem though.
The major letdown regarding the phones layout was the speaker placement. I know this has been spoken about A LOT but it really is terrible. Without trying to turn this into a HTC vs Sony post, HTC hit the nail on the head with the speaker placement on the One. Even if the Z had it's speaker on the lower back part of the phone it would've been much preffered.
Battery
As with my review of the One's battery life, I've tested this for a couple of days whilst being at work and for a couple of days I've had at home, so I've truly been able to test it out properly in a couple of different usage patterns.
Generally, I'm not a really heavy user so I normally get decent battery life with any phone.
Honestly, the battery is on par with the One. For those days I was at work, I was getting around 2 days of usage out of it and for the days I had off, I was getting about a day of usage out of it.
I will note that my general usage consists of mainly browsing the net ans XDA. Normally around an hour of YouTube a day and a few hours of playing Shadowgun Deadzone. I don't really call people because I do it for a job so it gets annoying
I could definitely feel the effects of Stamina mode though and is a great addition.
Sound Quality
Even though I barely make phonecalls, as stated above, I did make a few calls during my time with the XZ and the call quality is amazing. It's really clear, good use of volume and great at cutting out background noise.
When it comes to media playback, however, it could do with some improvements. While playing videos, whether that be recorded videos or streaming from YouTube, the sound quality was great. At that point I couldn't understand what some people had been moaning about.
That soon became clear though when I played some songs saved on the phone. It was ok with standard settings but once xLoud was enabled, the clarity became quite bad. It wasn't terrible to the extent that I would advise people not to get it, but it could surely do with being improved.
Camera
I really can't complain about the camera on this phone either.
As mentioned by PokerFaze, the colours don't quite cut it in comparison to other phones available but it by no means bad.
All images and videos captured look great especially because of the great 1080p screen.
Performance
As far as performance is concerned, there's not a single bad thing I can say. Everything you do on the Xperia Z is as smooth as you'd expect, and then more. Loading multiple big webpages really wasn't a problem. Neither was gameplay. Even though I only tested out Shadowgun Deadzone, the gameplay was great and not a single sign of lag anywhere. It was as smooth as it is on the One and you can definitely feel the power of the Snapdragon S4 Pro in everything that you do.
Size & Weight
There's really not a lot to say about this to be honest.
It's a really comfortable size to easily use, even one-handed and it feels great in your hand.
The weight is also pretty good and again this helps it to feel great and sturdy in your phone. All in all, it's ideal.
Overview
As you can tell, I'm a new fan of this phone even though it does have a couple of faults. As there's no major problems with the phone, it really wouldn't be a deal breaker.
XZ hasn't impressed me enough to make me want to get rid of my HTC One BUT I'm now definitely considering getting this phone to use alongside the One.
I'm really glad that my mate let me borrow his phone for these few days so that I was able to decide that I'll most likely get one.
That's the end of my review and I hope you like it
*NOTE* This review wasn't as detailed as I initially planned but that's just because all the other things I was going to cover, have already been beaten to death in multiple discussions.
I don't own the Xperia Z. I actually have a HTC One which I've had for a couple of weeks but I've been borrowing my mates XZ for a few days so I'd be able to test it out and see what I think of it.
Also, the only reason why I wasn't interested in buying the XZ was because I had a Xperia S when it first came out and I had nothing but problems with it and due to how bad it was, I wasn't prepared to give Sony another chance.
I have had 4 days of using the Xperia Z though so while I haven't had time to cover everything, I did my HTC One review in the same amount of time to make this fair.
Now, onto my review...
UI
Sony's UI has always impressed me and continues to do so with the Xperia Z. I've always been a huge fan of Sony/Sony Ericsson phones, apart from the aforementioned problems, and the UI has played a bit part in that.
It's simple yet effective. I'm glad that Sony have stayed true to themselves in this respect because if they were to try and expand their UI to make it mote gimmicky, like other UI's, then Sony would lose a lot of business.
There's not a lot I can say about this other than it's simple, clean and is exactly as you'd expect it to be.
Design
Again, Sony have stayed true to themselves and made another beautifully designed phone. This is something which Sony has especially done since the 2012 Xperia range.
The Xperia Z looks absolutely great and has a really premium feel to it. It feels really sturdy, which is always a big plus, and looks pleasing to the eyes aswell.
Button/Speaker placement
This section is covering the major downside to the XZ.
Button placement is generally well done and I can see why a lot of people are praising Sony for this layout.
The power button is in a great place and would help a lot of people who have smaller hands BUT even if they had placed the power button on the top of the phone, it really wouldn't have been a problem to me due to the fact I have big hands and could comfortably reach the top of the phone anyway.
The volume rocker was slightly too low down the phone for how I'd prefer it. Ideally, I'd like the volume rocker to be higher up the phone so that when holding it in my right hand, my thumb could easily and comfortably be used to adjust the volume. This isn't a major problem though.
The major letdown regarding the phones layout was the speaker placement. I know this has been spoken about A LOT but it really is terrible. Without trying to turn this into a HTC vs Sony post, HTC hit the nail on the head with the speaker placement on the One. Even if the Z had it's speaker on the lower back part of the phone it would've been much preffered.
Battery
As with my review of the One's battery life, I've tested this for a couple of days whilst being at work and for a couple of days I've had at home, so I've truly been able to test it out properly in a couple of different usage patterns.
Generally, I'm not a really heavy user so I normally get decent battery life with any phone.
Honestly, the battery is on par with the One. For those days I was at work, I was getting around 2 days of usage out of it and for the days I had off, I was getting about a day of usage out of it.
I will note that my general usage consists of mainly browsing the net ans XDA. Normally around an hour of YouTube a day and a few hours of playing Shadowgun Deadzone. I don't really call people because I do it for a job so it gets annoying
I could definitely feel the effects of Stamina mode though and is a great addition.
Sound Quality
Even though I barely make phonecalls, as stated above, I did make a few calls during my time with the XZ and the call quality is amazing. It's really clear, good use of volume and great at cutting out background noise.
When it comes to media playback, however, it could do with some improvements. While playing videos, whether that be recorded videos or streaming from YouTube, the sound quality was great. At that point I couldn't understand what some people had been moaning about.
That soon became clear though when I played some songs saved on the phone. It was ok with standard settings but once xLoud was enabled, the clarity became quite bad. It wasn't terrible to the extent that I would advise people not to get it, but it could surely do with being improved.
Camera
I really can't complain about the camera on this phone either.
As mentioned by PokerFaze, the colours don't quite cut it in comparison to other phones available but it by no means bad.
All images and videos captured look great especially because of the great 1080p screen.
Performance
As far as performance is concerned, there's not a single bad thing I can say. Everything you do on the Xperia Z is as smooth as you'd expect, and then more. Loading multiple big webpages really wasn't a problem. Neither was gameplay. Even though I only tested out Shadowgun Deadzone, the gameplay was great and not a single sign of lag anywhere. It was as smooth as it is on the One and you can definitely feel the power of the Snapdragon S4 Pro in everything that you do.
Size & Weight
There's really not a lot to say about this to be honest.
It's a really comfortable size to easily use, even one-handed and it feels great in your hand.
The weight is also pretty good and again this helps it to feel great and sturdy in your phone. All in all, it's ideal.
Overview
As you can tell, I'm a new fan of this phone even though it does have a couple of faults. As there's no major problems with the phone, it really wouldn't be a deal breaker.
XZ hasn't impressed me enough to make me want to get rid of my HTC One BUT I'm now definitely considering getting this phone to use alongside the One.
I'm really glad that my mate let me borrow his phone for these few days so that I was able to decide that I'll most likely get one.
That's the end of my review and I hope you like it
*NOTE* This review wasn't as detailed as I initially planned but that's just because all the other things I was going to cover, have already been beaten to death in multiple discussions.
