Sony Xperia Z Review

Sony's flagship, the Xperia Z smartphone, is already familiar to Habra, but this time it fell into my hands for a longer test. On the results of several days of living together with this device, I will tell under the cut.

To begin with - a general summary of the characteristics:

Display: 5-inch screen 1080 x 1920 Full HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technology
Processor: asynchronous quad-core Snapdragon S4 Qualcomm APQ8064 frequency of 1.5 GHz
OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with the subsequent upgrade to 4.2.
Memory: 2 GB RAM, internal flash memory - up to 16 GB, microSD support up to 32 GB
Camera: 13 MP with Exmor RS matrix for mobile devices, support for HDR video, Superior Auto mode and noise reduction, thanks to which it is possible to obtain crystal clear images and video in any conditions
Front camera: 2 MP with Exmor R matrix
Battery: 2330 mAh, Battery STAMINA mode, increasing the standby time at least 4 times

Design and ergonomics

The main principle of Xperia Z design is symmetry. Even the power button is made almost in the center of the side panel. However, in addition to the aesthetic function, this location has a practical function: even with short hobby fingers it is easy to reach it from almost any position - which is very important for a five-inch smartphone. The button itself unexpectedly resembles the wheel of a watch factory - it is quite original. She does not act strongly, and under no circumstances does she ever cling or interfere.
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Directly above the button is a slot for a SIM card, closed with a plug. Below is a two-sided volume and speaker key. Just below is the obligatory and inevitable eyelet for the strap.





On the left - contacts for connection with the docking station. The Xperia Z will go on sale with the docking station in the kit, but only the device came to my test, so I can only show photos from the last review:



The contact brought out allows you to connect the smartphone to the dock in one motion, without opening the connectors and other gestures - it is simply put on the base and starts charging. However, at the price of convenience, it turned out that this contact is only suitable for charging, data transmission through it is impossible, so, unfortunately, it is impossible to connect a mouse or keyboard to the docking station.



Above the contact are the connectors for the microSD card and the MHL port, which connects the connector for the HDMI adapter and microUSB. They fit so tightly that they can simply not notice - with a quick glance you can not see that there is something else above the slot for the memory card. At the same time, they themselves are subtle and elegant - those who saw the "armor" of the first Sony Xperia waterproof a couple of years ago, will appreciate this evolution. The best defense is invisible.



At the upper end is also an audio output closed by a plug.



The back panel is covered with a solid piece of glass, in which only the holes of the external microphone and camera are cut out. At the same time, the camera itself is hidden flush with the surface of the phone, without in any way disturbing its symmetry. The glass is additionally closed on top with a thick protective film - just like the frontal one, by the way.

Water resistance in everyday life

Some in vain perceive the waterproof housing as a passive factor. In fact, its availability also opens up new cases for the use of a smartphone. The easiest and most obvious thing is to take it with you to the bathroom, for example. You never know, you are waiting for a call. Although I, for example, used it as an Internet radio - it’s very cool when you have the opportunity to listen to your favorite music or news in the shower. Special shower radios are on sale, but this is the beauty of the smartphone concept: all in one, a gadget for all occasions. However, you need to be careful with the water jets: if you fill the speaker with them, it “stalls” for a while and the volume of the sound drops significantly. Later, when the phone dries up, everything comes back to normal.



Girls and bachelors will appreciate the ability to keep the phone sideways while washing dishes. In summer, the phone will not be afraid to dunk, even under the strongest rain. A technology with a playful name "wet fingers" (wet fingers) allows you to control the touch screen with wet hands - everything works as it should. In principle, you can continue to fantasize, but in my life there is little connected with water, so I’ll stop on this for now.

Iron

As befits a top-end smartphone, Xperia Z hardware demonstrates impressive performance, the numbers of which are confirmed by test results:











On board the smartphone is only a 4-core Qualcomm APQ8064 processor with a clock frequency of 1.5 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. The phone’s own memory is 16 GB, of which 5 gigs is reserved for the OS. The remaining 11 are available for the user's needs.
Memory card slot allows you to expand memory. The officially confirmed supported size of expandable memory is up to 32 GB, but in fact Xperia Z can work with cards in 128 GB. But in this case it is better to check compatibility, just in case.
I believe that Xperia Z allows you to download files from torrents at speeds like on a computer, there is also the merit of impressive hardware.

Connection

One of the toughest stress tests for a mobile phone is the elevator at my entrance. As a rule, the network (Megafon and MTS in my case) disappears as soon as the access door closes behind me. In a rare case, catches to the elevator doors. Sony Xperia Z showed slightly better results - it holds the network to the elevator doors and, fragmentary, catches between floors.
In addition to the mandatory Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the board has already become the standard for top smartphones NFC and LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20).

Soft

Android 4.1.2 is already quite familiar to all fans of this OS, so I will not describe it in particular. I note only that soon the tsiferka after the comma will be replaced by a deuce: we are waiting for the update of Xperia Z to Android 4.2. I haven’t seen him yet, so I can't tell you anything about him.





A nice little thing I noticed: during the next move of the SIM card to a new phone, this time not only the saved numbers, but also the numbers that were previously dialed from the previous phone were synchronized. This is very convenient when you need to call back to a number that is not added to the phone book. There are still no standard features for transferring SMS to Android, but you can use the data recovery application, which by default is in all Xperia.
An unpleasant trifle, which is inherent in this particular version of software from Google - have lost the simplicity of the function of selection / copy / cut text. To copy the URL from the address bar of the browser, I have to share it. And the icons, which replaced the text prompts (copy / cut, etc.), you just need to learn.

Battery

The main consumable item of the battery is predictably a huge display. Two useful things immediately answer for the idle appetite in the standby mode: the power saving mode and the Battery STAMINA, which make it possible to discourage the phone from eating the battery in the standby mode, due to which its duration increases to several days.

Equipment

In addition to the one mentioned above, but the test is not a docking station, complete with Sony Xperia Z are expensive and very good Sony DR-EX300iP headphones with a microphone and remote control. It is checked: if you plug them deeper into your ears, then the subway is not even heard in them (unless, of course, you turn on the music or the radio). I'm not an audiophile, but the difference in sound quality compared to Sony's stock "ears" from older phone models is striking. The same headphones, only without a microphone, are sold separately - approximately 1600 rubles each. Given the availability of the docking station, we can say that the Xperia Z is packed solidly.



The rest is standard: in addition to the ears, we got into the box with the phone got charging and USB cable.

Summary

Honestly, praising Sony Xperia Z is already getting too awkward ((Nevertheless, this is an excellent copy of its kind and really worthy of the flagship of the brand at the beginning of 2013. As always, Xperia has a recognizable look in the asset, dear to many Sony-style. And although Ponte is bad, but if you want to show off your phone - black, white or purple Xperia Z will help with this. And for particularly unimpressive ones, you can dip it in a carafe of water in front of the other person’s eyes. the focus is just a deputy very carefully;)

He finally came out with us, and sold, including the official store of the Sony Store, at a price of 29990 rubles .