Gadgetory

it might not have taken them too long to release but the next sony flagship has arrived what does the update bring to the Xperia table well let's find out because it's Josh magar from Android 30 what's going on everybody and this is the Sony Xperia z2 from a first glance you might not realize right away that you're holding the new version of Sony's Xperia flagship much of what you remember from the original Xperia z1 returns here you still get the aluminum frame all around that's pretty much puts together the two panels of tempered glass that comprise the front and back however there is a bit of a lip to the frame that sticks out just a little bit which is quite the opposite of the smoother rounded edges of the Xperia z1 it's not uncomfortable but it is definitely noticeable and as far as the profile goes it's just about the same size as the original Xperia z1 just a smidgen taller and just a smidgen narrower so if you were alright with the original Omni balanced design this will feel completely familiar when you look closely at the front you'll notice little slits at the top and bottom these are the front-facing speakers that are a welcome change but we'll get to the quality of them in a little bit the back of the phone is a familiar slab of glass that has the sony logo the Xperia logo and the G lens optics flaps for the microSD and SIM slots as well as the micro USB charging port or on the sides the one on the left for the SIM tray and charging port is a little peculiar though as it isn't made of two different flaps but instead one large one exposing a little more of the phone's innards than I might like but those flaps do mean water and dust proofing so I guess I can't complain that much luckily this this helped by the inclusion at least in this version of the phone of a charging dock that takes advantage of the side pins that since the Xperia Z I always thought we're not being properly utilized and unfortunately while the phone basically isn't bigger than it was before the handling is still just outside comfortable for one-handed usage some hand gymnastics will be required for tasks like typing and definitely for reaching elements at the top of the screen if you are hoping to find drastic changes when it comes to the design of the Xperia z2 well you're basically just not getting it here but this is Sony style through and through and if you like what Sony brings to the smartphone table then you will find that Sony has kept its own unique identity in the update to their flagship phone what is impressive about the experience d2 is that they were able to increase the size of the screen without increasing the size of the phone but there is a reason for that in the original Xperia z1 many users were unhappy about the larger-than-average bezel sizes so in a pretty brilliant move Sony got a larger 5.2 inch 1080p display into the new iteration by shrinking some of that extra space they didn't stop there however as the display has added live color LED technology alongside the triluminos and x-reality engine basically that means adding extra colors to the IPS matrix resulting in a display with an even wider color gamut what might have been slightly washed out before is now incredibly vivid and the most striking change for any experience better viewing angles Sony seems to have gotten it right this time around creating a display that makes media a blast but is also now an even better performer in all other respects it should come as no surprise that this flagship update comes with the best processing package available the it Snapdragon 801 clocked in at 2.3 gigahertz with the audrina 330 and 3 gigabytes of RAM I've had no issues with the general usage of this phone being able to play intensive games like anomaly 2 and easily going through various tasks like checking and posting to Facebook and then playing YouTube videos to even downloading and listening some podcasts all in the same run I will admit that I did find some stutter in the UI here and there and the occasional pause when entering the recent apps screen but they don't break the flow and are probably more to do with the UI than the processing package the other bits and pieces found in the Xperia z2 continue to add to the general experience especially considering all of them are well protected from the elements due to the IP 58 certification the microSD card slot is now becoming a trove of flagship devices finally but Sony has always added them into theirs and the z2 is no exception all of the available connections are available here in the Xperia z2 including NFC as is denoted by the little mark right here and the ability to connect a DualShock 3 controller to the phone using a USB OTG cable which unfortunately was not included in this package the front-facing speakers are always an exciting prospect but proved to the only decent at best with the Xperia z2 sound isn't very rich at all and it doesn't get all that loud perhaps only loud enough for personal enjoyment but definitely not loud enough for anyone else to enjoy call quality was of little trouble when I use this phone on the t-mobile network with really no complaints on either end and in talking about the battery you get a sizable 3200 milliamp hour unit in here and it does a good job of powering the phone for a good while however I do have to give credit to this phone's wonderful standby time and power saving features here's a look at a typical day of using the Xperia z2 going from 100% to 75% which was around two and a half hours with half of that time being with the screen on time now if I were to continue using the phone in that level of usage which almost never occurs on the phone we'll probably tuck her out as it did around the 11 or 12 hour mark but what great standby time the general user will definitely get through a full day and then some with the Xperia z2 especially if you take advantage of the slew of power saving features already built in Sony made a bit of a splash by putting a powerful 20.7 megapixel F 2.0 G lens in the Xperia z1 that turned out rather lacking in the processing department is there a worthwhile update in this new version well first let's talk about the app which retains the general look and menus including the mode selector 4k video vine recording time shift and augmented reality apps are all available to add more fun to your smartphone photography admittedly some of them are more useful than others superior auto which I generally believed to be a good automatic mode returns but it still holds a limitation of only working with 8 megapixels or lower the manual mode allows for a bit of freedom but the most notable change is the addition of a 15 point 5 megapixel 16 by 9 setting now I almost never shoot at 4 by 3 so finally being able to at least somewhat take advantage of the high megapixel count is a big deal to me but the other side of the coin is that you can't select scene modes in any adding over 8 megapixels and as far as the picture quality goes there has been improvement as the darker areas that used to be all smudgy in the Xperia z1 are definitely less so here the level of grain is still pretty high though but color does tend to be captured pretty well and great pictures are definitely possible with the G lens the low aperture you're working with will get you some really nice bokade backgrounds but it also requires you to be pretty precise with your focal points the level of detail you can get when focused perfectly is there while other spots seem to be blurred but are really just being treated outside of the aperture level the super large 20.7 megapixel pictures can yield great shots but without scene modes to better take advantage of your situations you're left with basically just a huge raw capture of your scene and without an exceptional level of sharpness to them to justify cropping this kind of dulls the high megapixel excitement you'll get more consistently enjoyable pictures by taking advantage of the settings like macro or HDR that are only available by lowering down to 8 megapixels so it's just a huge bummer that 20.7 megapixels turns out to be moral novelty than ultimately useful stay tuned to our channel for an upcoming feature focus video that will be a camera shootout showing you even more examples coming from the Sony Xperia z2 and finally in software we find the Xperia or Timescape UI once again with little changes to the general formula but once again that might be a strong point the interface that is actually quite close to stock Android continues to bring simplistic elegance to the Android fold with some quintessential Sony style as you can see in this ps3 inspired live wallpaper aside from a pullover for some simple settings in the app drawer you have the familiar horizontal page layout the notification drop-down is still of a dark motif but now includes useful power widgets that are customizable another Sony Xperia trope returns with the small apps found in the recent apps screen and our small overlay apps that you can use for quick multitasking they're nice but ultimately weren't tools that I used often and finally Sony adds in their own media apps like the Walkman which was always attractive to me and would be used if my music wasn't already in the cloud the album gallery app also and the movies app does include a nice connection to a podcast aggregator that I actually found quite useful now all of these apps connect to Sony's own unlimited media shop where you can buy movies and music aside from the occasional occasional stutter that I already mentioned earlier the UI found in Xperia z2 is another example of how when you keep it simple you keep it fast the Xperia U eye does capture the essence of the stock Android experience without adding too much to the general formula and also it still flies the Sony flag proudly while we don't know the exact details of the experience z2 is released in the States it's probably going to come to t-mobile but until then you can get your hands on an unlocked Sony flagship for the high premium of at least $700 and so there you have it the Sony Xperia z2 is this a big leap from the original z1 plainly put it is not the better screen updated software and only somewhat enhanced camera experience however do seem to fit with this six-month window between releases that Sony apparently wants to show us that if it isn't broke you don't really have to fix it if you really love to the Xperia z1 and are in line for an upgrade you'll probably like this update to the phone that you enjoy new users can come straight to the z2 if they want to remain on the bleeding edge or they can look to the z1 for a slightly cheaper but also slightly lesser experience comparatively MVM Sony continues to move forward and get it right with their experience and it looks like they're perfectly happy doing so little by little so as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Sony Xperia z2 is it a big update from the Xperia z1 no not by a longshot but is it still a good phone absolutely so stay tuned for the rest of my z2 coverage including the camera shootout in which you'll be able to see for yourself even more examples of the camera quality and after that make sure you keep it tuned to Android Authority also checking out the videos from my colleagues in Android Joe Jace and Kevin the tech ninja stick around and drop us some likes on our videos because we love to see those thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already and once you're done with all of that make sure you head on over to android authority comm for even more in-depth coverage because we are your source for all things Android