Gadgetory

so how does Sony's flagship handle stiff competition like the iPhone 5 I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is a Sony Xperia Z versus the Apple iPhone 5 aside from being very high-end devices the Apple iPhone 5 and the Sony Xperia Z have very little in common they differ in size design principle and operating system the way Apple designs its mobile products is in a way that the hardware simply melts away when you use the devices and it's all about simplicity when you pick up the device for the very first time if you've never used one before you already know how the device works the way Sony designed the Xperia Z and customized the software really has nothing to do with simplicity but more about the Sony experience how your Xperia smartphone is interoperable with your other Sony products your PlayStation or your PlayStation games and your television first let's look at design where these two devices actually have the most in common sure the Xperia Z is much larger than the iPhone 5 the iPhone 5 has a 4-inch display versus the 5-inch display on the Xperia Z but when you look past that both devices have a very similar design they're squared they have hard edges and relatively sharp corners the Xperia Z's design however is a little more like the iPhone 4 in the 4s in that it has a glass panel on the front and back of the device on the front it has dragon trail glass and on the rear it has a Gorilla Glass the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4s both had glass on the front and back as well with the iPhone 5 Apple moved to an anodized aluminum plate for the back of the iPhone leaving only two portions of glass on the rear one at the bottom and one at the top for passing radio signals so how do these two devices fill in the hand the Xperia Z at five inches is a lot more unwieldy and it's hard edges make it a little hard to grip and use one-handed if you hold the device in your right hand the power button press about at the base of your thumb meaning you have to either stretch your thumb down or adjust your grip to reach it and the volume rocker is also pretty difficult to reach as it rests just below where your palm sits if you hold the device with your right hand if you switch over to your left hand the volume rocker sits beneath your ring finger or middle finger and the power button is just above that and although the Xperia Z feels very premium and substantial it's not exactly comfortable to hold and although the iPhone 5 has a similar design in that the edges are hard and sharp without a taper back it feel is much more comfortable in the hand it's narrower smaller and fits in the hand very easily all the buttons are accessible using one hand and it's a much more manageable device that said the Xperia Z feels somewhat like a larger iPhone so if Apple makes a larger iPhone in the future let's hope they opt for a new design next let's take a look at what these two devices have under the hood the older of the two the iPhone 5 has a 4-inch Retina display which is IPS LCD at a resolution of 11 36 by 640 it also has an 8 megapixel camera comes in either 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage one gigabyte of RAM a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core a6 chip and roughly fourteen forty milliamp hour battery the Xperia Z on the other hand has a more standard resolution display it's 5 inches diagonally with a pixel resolution of 1920 by 1080 it has a 1.5 gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon s4 pro chipset 16 gigabytes of built-in storage with a micro SD card slot for expansion 2 gigabytes of RAM a 2330 million power battery in a 13.1 megapixel camera so both of these devices at least on paper are extremely powerful the trick of the Xperia Z sleeve however is waterproofing it comes with ip55 and ip57 dust and waterproofing meaning that it's relatively safe from the elements that also comes with its own caveat all of the ports come covered so to plug up your device to take out your microSD card or to plug in headphones you'll have to remove a cover first but how do these specifications translate into performance the iPhone 5 is notorious for being extremely consistent and performing really well it's great at gaming and video playback and rarely ever stutters on the home screen switching between applications pulling down notification shades it is really hard to bog this thing down that's partially due to the fact that it doesn't do true multitasking and only ever focuses on one single task still it rarely ever stutters the quad-core processor on the Xperia Z is a different story it should be enough to power the device without stuttering or any kind of hiccups especially considered that it's paired with project butter but it still stutters on the home screen switching between applications and all throughout normal use it's very minor most people probably wouldn't notice it but it's impossible to miss if you have a keen eye video playback in gaming is great but these little hiccups and stutters really take from the full experience the display is arguably the most important specification on a mobile device it's your primary form of input and output on a device such as a smartphone the iPhone 5 is regarded as having the most accurate display on the market again the Xperia Z is the opposite of that it's super saturates colors and the contrast levels are extremely low however the clarity of the display at 1080p resolution makes video playback pictures gaming and other visuals noticeably clearer pictures and videos all look a little more realistic and true to life on the iPhones display but the drawback is the size the iPhones display is only 4 inches diagonally versus the 5 inches on the Xperia Z so you're getting an extra inch of display and thanks to the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 on the Xperia Z the colors pop a lot more in video playback and in pictures once again it comes down to accuracy versus clarity and super saturation and in this case it comes down to size as well so as far as hardware goes both the iPhone 5 and the Xperia Z are top in their class but both exceptionally well-built and sturdy but how do they fare in software let's take a look while it promises a few to no hiccups and daily performance iOS is the iPhone 5s Achilles heel Apple really hasn't updated the interface in many years and it looks almost the same as it did when the original iPhone launched only minor things such as folders and wallpapers have been added to the mix the experience on the Xperia Z is very much like the stock Android experience the icons and the widgets are a little different they're customized to Sony's liking but the experience overall is very stock light meaning these two devices have very few similarities in terms of software iOS is aging poorly and Google is constantly innovating and adding new features to Android the Xperia Z comes with Android 4.1.2 so it's not on the latest version of Android unfortunately but it does have all the features that were included in the first jellybean update everything from how you switch applications to how you navigate the operating system is totally different the iPhone 5s home screen is very rudimentary it consists of only folders and icons and the only customization outside of jailbreaking your device is rearranging the order of icons and folders or changing the wallpaper the Xperia Z's interface however has widgets icons folders and shortcuts all of which can be rearranged in any order and placed wherever you like Sony's custom software also comes with the ability to apply themes which changes the accent color system-wide it basically allows you to customize the interface to your liking this is one area where the Xperia Z has a true advantage over the iPhone for years now Apple's iPhones have been regarded as having some of the most popular and impressive smartphone cameras only a few contenders have come about in the past few years such as some entries from Nokia and maybe the galaxy s3 the Xperia Z however matches the iPhone 5 almost exactly in image sensing the iPhone 5 might have a little edge in terms of detail and clarity but as far as saturation color reproduction contrast and brightness go they're really on par with one another where the Xperia Z truly has the advantage is in software the level of customization a number of features in the Xperia Z's camera application is impressive while Apple stock camera application really only gives you the options for a grid HDR panorama and flash on or off but when you're outside in conditions where the lighting is perfect or whether you're inside where lighting is less favorable both of these cameras operate on a very similar level the 13.1 megapixel sensor in the Xperia Z doesn't necessarily mean it has a better camera for most of the shots I stepped it down to 9 megapixels for the 16:9 aspect ratio and some of the shots were shot at either 12 or 13 megapixels and other than the actual output size of these photos the difference is negligible all in all the Xperia Z and the iPhone 5 are truly premium devices from Sony and Apple the iPhone 5 has an advantage in display quality but the size is a little small for some on the other hand the Xperia Z's display is larger and more dense but as contrast is low and the colors are super saturated the software on the iPhone 5 is getting a little long in the tooth whereas the Xperia Z runs one of the most recent Android versions and their camera performance is nearly neck-and-neck so it really comes down to preference in size and operating system so that's all we have for you in this comparison be sure to give it a thumbs up if you liked it or found it helpful and subscribe to the channel and stick around because there's more Xperia Z coverage and a full review next week you can also find us on your favorite social networks Google+ and Facebook at PocketNow or Twitter at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time