Gadgetory

so the Xperia Z right don't you think that that's a great phone it's a good comeback for Sony I think it's an awesome foundation you should be really popular but yeah I'm glad you like it all right so you know this is a review unit I'm supposed to review this so if it's broken no one's gonna love me anymore all right just oh this is actually uh oh I forgot so it's a lot of resistant fun we're good then we're good man hey this Joshua car from Android Authority what's going on everybody you've been waiting for it we've been waiting for it and it's finally here because this is the Sony Xperia Z oh come on Sony is looking to crack the top three list of smartphone Giants with this latest and greatest offering the Xperia Z but does it bring a lot to the table well the short answer is yes the Xperia Z does get a lot right in many key aspects so let's see what Sony is packing into its new flagship phone obviously the first thing you notice is the design this angular or rectangular design is honestly something we don't see enough of it's like with cars everything is curved now but we missed the old days of boxier designs pretty much the entire phone is covered in tempered glass and gives the phone a great black slate look with a flat look all around it is certainly one of the best phones that Sony has ever put out the flatness has helped by a myriad of port covers that are obviously there to help with the water resistance everything is covered by a removable piece of material the ports include a headphone jack at the top with a charging port and yes a micro SD card slot around the other corner the real story here however is the button layout which Sony has gotten right considering the larger form factor due to the 5-inch screen all buttons are on the right side which are the volume rockers and the power button they are right where your thumb would land and it makes the handling of the phone even easier that silver power button is also a great focal point that adds to the phone's already great look that rectangular feel believe it or not actually helps with the handling of the phone it's easy to grip the flat sides of the phone and it never felt uncomfortable well with the 5-inch screen you will have to perform some hand gymnastics but at least the button layout helps one thing you should know though the glass coverings are incredibly fingerprint prone if you show this phone off to your friends maybe you should have a cloth handy speaking of the screen it's definitely what you expect this TFT capacitive screen displays at 1080p resolution and has a density of 441 PPI those are pretty much what you would want from a screen gracing what is supposed to be a top-tier device speaking of 441 PPI all is very crisp and sharp here as you can see from the text as expected video viewing is great on the Xperia Z the Bravia Engine does seem to do its job making the viewing experience even more wonderful though a good refresh rate has a hand in it too if you've ever seen a bravia televisions incredibly smooth motion due to that refresh rate you get a taste of it here unfortunately despite the fun you'll have on this display I do have to nitpick on the color rendering colors lack of vibrancy then they actually look quite washed out it gets a little bit worse when you get outside in broad daylight you will need the phone at the highest possible level to make it comfortably viewable outside and the viewing angles actually don't help things get further washed out when angled and you'll get the best out of the screen only when you view it dead-on that being said however this is a screen that still brings a great viewing experience a good example comes from the HD trailer that is built-in when you watch it the trailer looks like it's playing on a tiny theater screen the colors even though they may not be quite too vibrant or what we usually see from a trailer at the theater it's kind of like you're seeing it exactly the way Sony really wanted you to and you know what that's really not bad at all of course you won't be able to enjoy all of this without the power to back it up thankfully Sony knows what's going big in the android market and put in just what the Xperia Z needed the Snapdragon s4 pro processor clocks in at 1.5 gigahertz and is backed by the tried-and-true Adreno 320 graphics processor and then 2 gigabytes of RAM is what you will get from multitasking now this is a graphics package that powers some of the top current Android smartphones so it's no surprise that it appears here as far as the benchmarks go they are really very great the Xperia Z is the first phone I have seen or reviewed that breaks the twenty-thousand barrier in the n22 benchmark application quadrant and Vilmos scores are also very high and you can see them in my written review the big story in the hardware however is the microSD slot many people have lamented over the lack of removable batteries and expandable memory and even top-tier offerings so even though you don't get to pop out that battery you do get to pop in a micro SD card if you need more storage than the 16 or 32 gigabytes that might be built in this is yet another detail that sony gets right in the Xperia Z speaking of the battery it holds the typical hope of proper capacity for a 5-inch screen as has been the case for pretty much every five inch phone on the market today it yields mixed results tests have shown it to have a great amount of talking time in a decent amount of web browsing time but video playback which is the test I use yielded just over five and a half hours of straight viewing the Xperia Z should be able to go the distance and day to day usage with no problems nightly charging is a reality we all live with but at least you won't run out of juice in an opportune moment there there are some nice options for stamina mode and power savings so taking advantage of those will likely extend your time with the Xperia Z even further but now we get to the camera the rear camera is the story here with its 13 megapixel Exmor RS powered optics capable of HDR sweeping panorama and various other scene related picture modes superior Auto is a feature unique to Xperia S it analyzes the scene to figure out the best settings to properly expose the photo for the most part it is pretty accurate these pictures are at 9 megapixels with a 16 by 9 aspect ratio this is more my style than 4 by 3 and apparently it's also Sony's because that was the default setting as is the typical result pictures with adequate lighting yield pretty great results with colors being rendered quite well with a shallow depth of field because of a decent aperture speed superior auto seems to do the job fairly well and thus pictures are exposed properly the flash it does help in very low light shots but having the right lighting helps in this and really all types of photography video can be recorded at 1080 P Full HD resolution and it was demonstrated already as always in my intro ultimately it's a step closer to replacing your point-and-shoot camera if only by a small margin it's better described as a great companion to have in your pocket for those type moments luckily you'll probably get some pretty great shots in the nick of time and lastly we look at the software the first things you notice are the black and grey tones that Sony seems to employ often in their designs the general layout is reminiscent of Android Ice Cream Sandwich with these darker tones and white or neon blue hues and that kind of imitation isn't really a bad thing because this interface thus has a minimalistic beauty to it this is however jellybean 4.1 which is still behind in the OS game but the Xperia Z deserves credit for being somewhat up-to-date you get Google now here coupled with some of Sony's own tweaks like a power widget in the notification drop-down and a unique launcher customizer you even get to remove or add more home screens which to me is a welcome addition sony designs applications do make appearances here like the gallery which is called album and the walkman app perhaps the most notable though are the small apps which are accessible in the recent apps screen from there you can select from an expandable list of small apps that run as an overlay over whatever you already have running it's a nice way to get even more multitasking done all in all the Xperia Z whether it knows it or not manages to give you the best of multiple worlds by including jellybean features in a more ICS style with Sony's own apps built in it does just enough to be different while bringing what people love about stock Android along and that deserves quite a bit of credit and so there you have it Sony's new flagship phone really does get a lot of things right with its great design wonderful specifications a more than decent camera and accessible software the water resistance might not be something that you will use all the time but it is a great party trick and is sure to impress your friends coming in at almost $800 unlocked however you are paying a real premium for one of the most anticipated phones of 2013 this phone is definitely coming to the States but we don't currently know for what carriers or in what different ways if any it will come in nonetheless this is certainly Sony's coming-out party and if hours and plenty of others experiences are any indication the company definitely now deserves to be among the best in the cell phone and smartphone market for all of the upcoming Xperia Z news and features stay tuned to android authority calm your source for all things Android