Sony Xperia Z review

Has Sony finally got a smartphone right?

With a cutting-edge camera, a super-slim design and the ability to withstand life's knocks and bumps (and Android Jelly Bean to boot) the Xperia Z is a phone that's got us fired up about Sony Mobile again.

Earlier handsets such as the Sony Xperia S and Sony Xperia T were extremely promising from a brand striking out on its own - but it's with the Xperia Z that Sony is really banking on making a cataclysmic dent in the makeup of the smartphone market.

If you don't believe us, just look at its marketing hype - Valentine's Day saw ads on several, consecutive pages of major newspapers in the UK and you can't pass a billboard without seeing it in glorious Technicolor, accompanied by a strong statement that Sony has "reinvented the phone."

The Android Jelly Bean-toting (albeit only 4.1) Sony Xperia Z comes with some of the best specs on the market - and it's one of the most eagerly awaited handsets of recent months. Launching before the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony is clearly hoping to steal an early march on its competitors.

And the early signs it will do so are promising: a quad-core 1.5GHz Snaprdragon Krait processor, 13MP camera, 16GB storage (expandable, woohoo!), 2GB RAM, water and dust-resistant, 1080p HD screen with Bravia Engine, LTE, to name a few. You couldn't make this stuff up - this is the company that had a part in the Satio, after all.

As soon as we took our review unit out of the box, we were mesmerised. This feels and looks like a premium, high quality product. Sony is one of the few manufacturers that can take what is, effectively, a plain black square and make it into something beautiful. Manufactured from piano black, high gloss glass both front and black, it could have come from the same stable as the Google Nexus 4.

Though maybe we are overestimating it, viewing the Sony Xperia Z through geek-tinted goggles - because while we were blown away, others came out with the line that Sony will be hoping doesn't cross too many punters' lips: "looks like every other smartphone out there though, doesn't it?"

One thing the Sony Xperia Z certainly does have in common with every other smartphone out there is the fact that it is a pure magnet for fingerprints. You'll struggle to keep it clean all day long without either surgical gloves or a can of Mr Sheen in your bag.

As is fast becoming the norm, you can expect to pick the Sony Xperia Z up in white too. On top of that, O2 in the UK is exclusively offering a purple variant.

If you're coming from something like a Samsung Galaxy S3, it'll feel similar, if a little larger, in terms of size: the Sony Xperia Z rocks in at 139 x 71 x 7.9mm/5.47 x 2.79 x 0.31 inches, so there's little room for anything else in your hands.

Coming from something smaller like, say, an iPhone 5, you'll certainly notice the difference. But it's amazing how quickly you'll adapt.

At 146g/5.15oz, it's by no means the lightest handset out there - but the Sony Xperia Z exudes a heftiness that belies a quality device. It's on a par with Apple's offering when it comes to the thickness.

The ports are spread out with the headphone jack up top, the SIM slot and volume rocker on the right - either side of a silver standby button - while both the microSD and charging ports are on the left, alongside contacts for accessories. A watertight port covers each.

The front of the Sony Xperia Z is minimalist - showing off only a Sony logo and front-facing camera. The rear is a little busier, with various tech info printed on it, plus the Sony Xperia logo, an NFC badge, camera light and the all-important lens. That back is stuck fast - as is becoming the custom, you'll have no luck if you want to remove the battery.

Turn it on, and you're not disappointed. Coming from the blackness, the 5-inch screen springs into life. Whether or not you'll like it is down to personal choice.

Some who've used the Sony Xperia Z describe the screen as a disappointment because Sony has gone for TFT - albeit with 1080 x 1920 pixels, giving a pixel density of 441ppi, which would explain why it looks a bit washed out. If you've come from a Super AMOLED screen you'll definitely feel the difference.

We're still fans - this is a razor sharp display from one of the world's premier screen manufacturers, although it doesn't have the wow factor of the HTC One's Super LCD 3 screen.

The only thing that lets it down is viewing angles - if you look at the Sony Xperia Z's screen, dead on, it's sharp enough. If you look at it from the side, it has a strange ability to look incredibly washed out. It's no huge problem - but it does mean the impressiveness of the screen is diminished compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One.

4G and LTE: everything you need to know

One of the selling points of the Sony Xperia Z is that it is also water resistant. There's something slightly unnerving about taking a £529 phone and dropping it in the sink - but that's exactly what we did. And it worked absolutely fine.

Clearly, you'll need to make sure the ports are covered using those watertight protectors, that much goes without saying.

And here's some more good news: the price of the Sony Xperia Z is dropping quite quickly, already making it cheaper than the likes of the HTC One and could soon sneak under the £30 contract mark for a half-decent whack of minutes.

While it's actually the same price as the comparable SIM-free 16GB iPhone 5, the cost is now closing in on the iPhone 4S on PAYG, so we can't help but feel the Xperia Z is finding its natural pricing level.

Sony may have broken free of Ericsson but it's clearly decided that the Sony Xperia brand is one worth keeping. And in line with that, some similarities remain other than the name.
It means that when you turn on the Sony Xperia Z, if you've used one before, you'll feel at home. Quite a clever move from Sony, which clearly doesn't want to alienate potential upgraders.
Thankfully, elements such as the shocking Timescape widget have been retired. Smaller, more obvious things like the clock widget stay.
The Sony Xperia Z ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Yes, it's not the most up-to-date handset as enthusiasts devour Android 4.2 on Nexus devices, but it's the next best thing, and Sony has promised an update shortly after launch.

For all the money and resources that Sony is pouring into getting this phone into the mainstream, the Sony Xperia Z won't be left sitting on the fringes here, allowing the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 superior bragging rights.
Sony's take on Android is customised - but not too much compared to some phones we've seen before.
You get five home screens with no ability to add any more, though such is the Android way, you can always install your own launcher if you want and change that.
By default, you get shortcuts to apps Sony feels you'll treasure most - but again, you can move/delete/add to these as you see fit. One of Android's great strengths is its infinite customisability.
On top of that, Sony gives you its own widgets, such as Music Unlimited or links to its online stores. Most manufacturers do this - clearly, they want to draw you into their own ecosystems. But these can be moved or deleted too if they get in the way.

If you're wondering how you navigate, the answer is on-screen. Everything is done via the screen. Sony has bowed down to Google in this respect.
Where some OEMs will still include their own soft keys, the Sony Xperia Z eschews them for the standard Mountain View options of back, home and multitasking - on-screen buttons that appear and disappear as they are needed.
One thing you'll notice is that this is one speedy son-of-a-Sony. Naturally, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor - and Android's Project Butter enhancement - we'd have expected it to be quick on all but the most extreme of tasks, so we found little here to induce complaint.
Zipping between home screens is a breeze, and we encountered absolutely no lag.
We're fans of Sony's 'Small Apps' integration. It's a simple idea - tap the multi-app button at the bottom-right of the screen and the Sony Xperia Z brings up not only your open apps but a selection of mini apps that you can launch on the screen in conjunction with what you're doing.
They're basically widgets that stay on-screen, rather than being tied to the home screen.

Sony gives you access to things such as a small note app or a countdown timer with a few options and the ability to download more from Google Play.
If developers buy into the idea, it could work out well, but we sadly don't think they will.
Due to the sheer number of Android variations, there's no financial incentive for developers to build things like this that will only work for one section of the market.
Android's excellent notification bar is here, enabling you to pull it down and view your latest messages and notifications.
Thanks to Jelly Bean, you can now pinch to expand notifications or swipe to clear individual ones. It's all very intuitive and nice to work with.
Sony's also furnished the Xperia Z with shortcuts to toggle settings such as those for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - the kind of thing you take for granted when you have but rue when you lose.

You can also change themes from within the settings, which is a nice touch. It adjusts more than just the wallpaper and alters menu colours too.
That's one of those things you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it, but it's nice to play with. HTC does something similar with Sense, and we think it's great.
Apps are accessed via the app drawer, which you get into from the dock at the bottom of the home screen.
There's not much we can tell you about this if you've used an Android phone before - the apps sit there and can be reordered by alphabetical means or otherwise. Unfortunately, if you have OCD like us, this is the bit you may find yourself wincing at.
See, with the iPhone, you'll find your app icons presented uniformly. They're the same size and shape and it all looks very neat and tidy.
Yet with Android there are no restrictions, so you end up with app icons in all shapes, sizes and colours, and it can look like the inside of a child's toy chest. It's a shame because the Sony icons look beautiful, but as soon as you start adding your own shortcuts, your home screen may start to resemble a scrapbook instead.

If you're an Android fan, you'll pick it up easily. And if you're not, it's pretty intuitive, enabling you to delve in as much or as little as you like to change things or leave them as is.
We also have to give a quick heads up here to Google Now - first introduced in Jelly Bean 4.1 and all present.
It's supposed to help manage your life by telling you how long the journey home from work will take or what the weather's like. You can track parcels or view photos of local beauty spots.
It's a great idea in principle but it still all feels a little bit Beta.
Google Now is not a Siri-rip-off. Rather, it's Google's interpretation of a mobile assistant. We just can't help wondering how that interpretation was reached, at least until it starts to really offer you information that is tailored for your life, rather than sometimes accidentally waking you up to tell you that it's time to leave for a meeting on the other side of the world (a problem if you have a shared international calendar).
We have to hand it to Sony here for not making changes for change's sake - Android has a great contacts system and thankfully, Sony has recognised this by keeping it and giving it a mere cosmetic lick of paint.
Contacts download automatically when you first log in to the Sony Xperia Z. They come from your mandatory Gmail account, which is free to set up.
And for those who wince at the thought of being forced to have a Gmail account, you don't have to use it. But it is it an ideal way of backing up those numbers and addresses, should disaster strike.
Accessing said contacts is simple: you just tap the phone icon on the screen - which is also how you get into the dialler - or you can start to type the name of your contacts into the Google search widget on the home screen.
That's if you don't have a contact widget or shortcut installed on your home screen.

This is where you see one of Android's benefits over iOS, which still doesn't allow these sort of shenanigans without going around the houses.
Contacts are displayed beautifully with photos brought in from Facebook, Google or other sources, which is a real cosmetic plus.
Alas, Android doesn't bring them across in high res, so when you get a call, your contact can look rather pixelated, which ruins an otherwise beautiful appearance.
Putting new contact names into the Sony Xperia Z couldn't be easier. Just bring the keypad up, type in the number and hit 'Save.'
You can also add details ranging from their birthday to whom their spouse is.
Social networking isn't supported by default. This highlights the differences with an HTC handset, which tends to want you to sign into a million accounts on setup.

We can't complain too much about this, since we are glad to not to have to endure Timescape anymore.
And anyway, if you use Twitter, Facebook and others it's much nicer to be able to just sign into and use the networks that you - the user - wants to use.
It takes mere seconds to download official or third-party apps, and then you'll find you can hook everything up.
Calling a contact is as easy as tapping the person's name.
We found the performance on calls to be excellent. We sometimes lose track of the fact that a smartphone is a phone, and call quality can range from the brilliant to the unacceptable.
We had absolutely no issues with the Sony Xperia Z's call quality and found that not only did calls connect easily, but they stayed connected even in places where we'd expect them to drop.

One other thing we should mention here is something often not touched upon, but present here, and that's HD Voice. Many handsets support it these days, but it is network-dependent.
We can confirm, however, that it is a brilliant addition to the Sony Xperia Z.
It just makes it a far more pleasant experience when chatting to people - both for them and you.
Audio volume was loud enough for us when talking to buddies, and they reported no issues hearing us.
Again, this will be assisted by the HD Voice element, which helps with noise cancelling.
There is one, admittedly pathetic, point we'd like to raise: the edges of this phone are actually a little sharp and holding the phone close to your ear isn't a comfortable experience. Good that the sound boosting is actually pretty good, then, eh?
one of Android's strong points. So open is the system that you can download third-party apps such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter and so on and they will integrate deeply into the OS - from Calendars to Contacts and Messages.
The beauty is that you can control, in many cases, what access is granted and where.
Apps don't tend to be closed off from each other as they do with Apple devices, and it makes for a much more different (some may say 'fluid') experience.
Android's standard messaging app - which handles SMS and MMS - is very competent, if not a little dull. Most Android manufacturers tend to take it and plonk it into their handsets - sometimes tweaking the odd colour here, or the odd setting there.

Sony has pretty much done that with the Sony Xperia Z, though it has added a few nice functions too.
When composing a new SMS, you can now doodle a little note or picture and then it'll send it as an MMS. Or you can send your location with a Google Maps attachment.
You can do this anyway by going into the Maps app and sending your location from most Android handsets, but it's just a little extra option on the Sony Xperia Z to be able to do it direct from the message app.
Other than that, it's pretty bog standard but does the job well.
Email is handled in two ways - Gmail and Email.
The beauty of using the dedicated Gmail app means that users who are really deeply integrated into the system can use some of its key features on the go as well as on their desktop.

We're talking features such as labels, archiving and advanced search facilities.
The search function really is fantastic compared to others we've seen, but we have to berate Google here for the fact that it still hasn't sorted out the displaying of HTML emails.
They just don't format for the phone's screen, which is pretty ridiculous considering this is Google's own app. Apple's iPhone Mail app has been able to do this since 2007, to put it into context.
You also are not given the ability to automatically download images in emails, which slows down the whole HTML email experience a little. Again, you can do this on iPhones. But Google just won't give here.

To be fair, this is of Google's doing, not Sony's. But this is a Sony Xperia Z running Android, and as such, it will be judged by people as a complete package. The two come hand in hand. Sorry, Sony. That's just how it is. Have a word with Mountain View if you don't like it.
Of course, lots of people don't use Gmail - and if that's you, you do get your own email app here.
It's the standard Android email programme - same as you get in stock Android handsets - but the Sony Xperia Z gives it a little lick of Sony's paint.
You'll find it supports the majority of IMAP/POP3/Exchange accounts and is actually very similar to the Gmail app in many ways.
Helpfully, you can set the account to push emails or poll periodically. This is great if you get a lot of work emails and don't want the Sony Xperia Z beeping constantly.
The Sony Xperia Z's keyboard is a contentious issue. We've heard some say it's a nightmare.

But we would go completely in the opposite direction and say that to some users it will be one of the best keyboards they've used. It is the same keyboard that Google gave us on the Nexus 4, again with a lick of Sony Xperia Z paint.
The first time we used it, it started up and asked us to configure some options. After that, we were off and away.
You can have the keyboard as a standard QWERTY, or add a few extra shortcut buttons too. Or go the other way and have it like a good old phone keyboard with T9 input.
The big thing here is swiping. You can slide between letters without taking your finger off the keyboard, which leads to words appearing in lightning speed.
It's highly intuitive and learns incredibly quickly. Predicted words appear with a choice for you to pick between those you want before committing.
Indeed, the only issue here is that the cursor can end up covering the word you try to select if it's not the one the Sony Xperia Z thinks you want, which can be annoying. It can also randomly flick the cursor around and cut words you're typing in half, or just get annoyed when you try to correct a predicted word.

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Of course, for those people it's not a problem, as Android has loads of options to let you customise your own keyboard - just head out to the Play Store and look at the likes of Swiftkey and more.

The only other gripe we had is the size of the screen. When it comes to typing messages, it just feels too big.
For people with big hands, it can feel a bit obstructive. For those of the daintier variety, it may seem enormous.
One-handed use is possible, but you just don't get a solid grip and we nearly dropped the Sony Xperia Z several times.
Yes, we have shatterproof glass (apparently), but we don't necessarily want to test that theory.
Google's voice dictation has also received a boost and now recognises more dialects than before. We love the way that words appear as you speak, rather than you having to wait until the end of your sentence and stop and wait.
Unfortunately, Siri still has the edge on actually matching words accurately, which is odd because Google has been offering voice recognition on its handsets since the Nexus One (even if you did have to feign an American accent to get anything done, and even then, it was on a wing and a prayer.)

Sony is one of the beasts when it comes to cameras, and some of its previous phones in conjunction with Ericsson were real belters. But it claims to have moved up a notch with the Sony Xperia Z and catapulted itself right to a premier spot. We're not convinced.
We must have a retro throwback here to the days of the Sharp GX30. A Megapixel camera! What sorcery was this, we wondered? Now, we get 2.2MP on the front snapper alone - which tends to be used for vanity purposes on Instagram, or for Skype action. Previously, this wouldn't have mattered, but with LTE support, sending higher quality video is much easier and much more of a reality. 2.2MP is therefore pretty appropriate.

And that's pretty much the poor relation here when you consider what's on the back - a whopping 13.1MP camera, shooting at 4128 x 3096 pixels and capable of some amazing images. Or you'd think so. Sadly, we would describe our results as average at best.
We'll get the primary niggle out of the way first - there's no camera shutter button. It's such a waste. We have that great standby button on the side, which you could easily mistake for a camera shoot button. But if you want one of those, you're out of luck.
You'll need to get the Sony Xperia ZL for that - and while Android phones don't generally have a shutter button, the fact it's on the Xperia Z's sibling (and Sony has got previous form here) means we're sad it's missing.

The quickest way of getting to the camera is to fire up the phone and swipe from the lock screen. That's one press and one swipe - it's not that much. But it's just a bit annoying not having the immediacy we'd hope for on such an otherwise brilliant device, and it's not the fastest camera to load either.
And to add to that, we found a few times that it didn't work due to some unexplained software glitch. It was solved with a reboot - but doing that means your window for taking the picture may have then passed.
Sony does negate this slightly by offering some quick launch options so that when the camera loads, you can choose to have it automatically launch and capture a photo or video, or just launch. Again, this had an annoying habit of not working until we'd rebooted the Sony Xperia Z.

When the camera does fire up, the screen is phenomenal. You really notice the richness of those colours and the refresh rate as you move the phone around is nothing short of astonishing. What's more, you don't have to manually change scene mode (unless you want to), with a pretty intelligent Superior Auto mode able to tell what you're trying to do. It worked spot on for us every time.
We like some of the other enhancements too, such as the smile options. Smile detection is so last year - so the Sony Xperia Z goes even further and enables you to choose between big smiles, average smiles or small smiles. Who knows how it'll cope with a big smile from a tiny mouth.
You're also able to change the capture mode to touching the screen (at the expense of tap to focus - though in fairness, the tap to focus is pretty hot) and have the camera upload photos to Sony's service automatically. Who needs Photo Stream? Android's just as capable.
And there are lots of scene modes to pick from. Nothing particularly new - from Panorama to Burst Mode - but all things we like to play with from time to time.
As for the actual camera, results unfortunately just didn't wow us. Photos tended to look better on the screen before they were actually shot, but then when transferred to a computer screen, they just looked cheap. Colours are presented well, but there seemed to be a lack of sharpness, and even mildly zoomed in, they came out more like something from a budget or mid-range handset.
Shutter speed is good, but not mind-blowing. Sony touts it as fast-capture and goes on about its Exmor RS sensor, which boasts high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities and is designed to reduce noise in low-light images. For your average Joe Bloggs, we'll just say this - photos are OK for a phone camera but you won't end up using them for anything more than casual use.