sony xperia Sony Xperia Z: pre-order placed!

[Ambroos]

Well, after CES I was completely sure: I want the Sony Xperia Z.

I think this could be the best all-round smartphone of the year. 5" Full HD display, blazing fast Snapdragon S4 Pro, LTE, glass front and back, waterproof (!), 13MP cam with actual HDR video and photo's, really high-quality materials, quite thin, small footprint for it's screen size, SD card slot (unlike most recent phones), ... I doubt any other smartphone can reach this level of 'completeness' (especially on the waterproofing part) in the near future.

What Sony did with Android is also quite nice in my opinion. The Album and Walkman app are both vastly superior to what is included with AOSP and to anything available on the market in my opinion (I have them on my current phone too). It has Miracast and NFC support and pretty much everything Sony is bringing to the market these days can be paired with these phones using NFC.

Anyone else really wants or pre-ordered this phone (or the Xperia ZL)?

[Scorpus Veteran]

It's definitely on my radar as my next phone (I usually upgrade in Q1), but I have to wonder what Motorola, HTC and Samsung will be bringing to the table. There's a possibility that a few months after the Xperia Z hits the market that HTC/Samsung will release Tegra 4/Snapdragon 800 phones which could have an equally good feature set.

That said I still want to get my hands on the Xperia Z for a review. But for purchasing I might want to see what HTC and Samsung have up their sleeves for their 2013 releases

[Ambroos]

I doubt we'll see any Snapdragon 800's before H2 (Xperia Z hits the markets end of Feb over here). The samples haven't even gone out to manufacturers yet. The Tegra 4 is probably too power-hungry to put in a phone and if Samsung puts an Exynos 5 with four A15 cores in the S4 it'll be seriously crippled by extreme throttling/heating/power drain when under continous load. The S4 Pro is probably the fastest chip with reasonable power requirements out there right now.

What I just really like about the Xperia Z is how thin it is and how nice the materials look. It literally has glass on every side (all the borders are some glass fibre polymer stuff too)! And well, it's waterproof. Sony has a lot more experience with waterproofing phones than any other brand, so I doubt Samsung or HTC will be doing that for a flagship.

[Colin.B]

I'd be tempted to hold out and see what the S4 has to offer or the new HTC phones but seeing how delayed things are in the U.S (the s2 took forever to get over to AT&T!) I'll likely be eligible for an upgrade right around the time this comes out.

[Ambroos]

I'd be tempted to hold out and see what the S4 has to offer or the new HTC phones but seeing how delayed things are in the U.S (the s2 took forever to get over to AT&T!) I'll likely be eligible for an upgrade right around the time this comes out.

In the US you'll have to settle for the TL though, and only on AT&T and maybe T-Mobile. Probably not even available through the carriers but only unlocked. Sony is putting the US market on lower priority and is instead focusing on strengthening it's position on the European and Japanese markets (which aren't as screwed up by carriers). You can actually buy a phone unlocked in any European country and be 100% sure it'll work on all other European networks.

[Livin in a box]

If I had the money, this would definitely be my next phone of choice. It's just...wow. Sony really do know design very well!

[Colin.B]

In the US you'll have to settle for the TL though, and only on AT&T and maybe T-Mobile. Probably not even available through the carriers but only unlocked. Sony is putting the US market on lower priority and is instead focusing on strengthening it's position on the European and Japanese markets (which aren't as screwed up by carriers). You can actually buy a phone unlocked in any European country and be 100% sure it'll work on all other European networks.

Just looked up the TL. Smaller resolution on front camera, not 1080p (which may be overkill anyways on a phone), dual core(are apps taking advantage of quad core yet?) and a smaller screen.

Blegh. I will say, Europe gets the best phones. And yeah, our carriers are pretty lame. It may be cheaper to buy an unlocked Xperia Z, get mobile data only and simply use Google voice. If an unlocked Xperia Z would work here. Anyways, very sexy phone.

[Richteralan]

No. After Xperia S, No more Sony.

Besides the LCD resolution, I failed to see which part of this phone is better than Nexus 4.

And frankly why do we need 5 inches screen? Why do we need 1080P in a 5 incher?

[Ambroos]

Just looked up the TL. Smaller resolution on front camera, not 1080p (which may be overkill anyways on a phone), dual core(are apps taking advantage of quad core yet?) and a smaller screen.

Blegh. I will say, Europe gets the best phones. And yeah, our carriers are pretty lame. It may be cheaper to buy an unlocked Xperia Z, get mobile data only and simply use Google voice. If an unlocked Xperia Z would work here. Anyways, very sexy phone.

Unlocked Z would work on AT&T (not T-Mo) but without LTE.

The TL and T are exactly the same, I don't know where you got the specs for the TL. Only difference is front camera, body and network support! So you lose the waterproofing but you gain a more compact handset and an IR transmitter (so you can use it as universal remote, includes an app that supports all TV brands). They both have the same quadcore SoC :)

[Colin.B]

Honestly I just went with the first site I came across: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Sony-Xperia-TL,Sony-Xperia-Z/phones/7505,7539

[Ambroos]

No. After Xperia S, No more Sony.

Besides the LCD resolution, I failed to see which part of this phone is better than Nexus 4.

And frankly why do we need 5 inches screen? Why do we need 1080P in a 5 incher?

What's wrong with the Xperia S? I still have one, does fine!

I personally think this phone is better in terms of network (LTE), body (waterproof + thinner), camera (13MP + HDR, 10 full-size shots per sec endless burst) and memory, with always 16GB on board and a microSD slot. And probably display. And oh, it has an FM radio (which I still like from time to time). Then there are personal preferences: I think Sony's media apps are brilliant and the design of this phone is amazing).

Plenty of reasons not to go for a Nexus 4. The availability is another thing, over here in Belgium the Nexus 4 has to be purchased through grey import and is ridiculously expensive.

You don't need a 5" 1080p display, but this phone is hardly any bigger than a Nexus 4. At 5mm taller and 2mm wider you can hardly complain about the size of this phone compared to the Nexus 4. Sony managed to deliver a bigger screen without making the phone any bigger. And while 300-ish PPI is nice, it's the 400+ barrier that really pushes edges to perfect sharpness. In small shapes and fonts the 320 PPI of the Nexus 4 (and all other smartphones around that PPI) is just not completely enough to make it 100% perfectly sharp and smooth.

Honestly I just went with the first site I came across: http://www.phonearen...hones/7505,7539

http://developer.sonymobile.com/products/phones/specification/xperiazl/ has all the specs for the ZL.

(http://developer.sonymobile.com/products/phones/specification/xperiaz/ for the Z)

[Richteralan]

What's wrong with the Xperia S? I still have one, does fine!

I personally think this phone is better in terms of network (LTE), body (waterproof + thinner), camera (13MP + HDR, 10 full-size shots per sec endless burst) and memory, with always 16GB on board and a microSD slot. And probably display. And oh, it has an FM radio (which I still like from time to time). Then there are personal preferences: I think Sony's media apps are brilliant and the design of this phone is amazing).

Plenty of reasons not to go for a Nexus 4. The availability is another thing, over here in Belgium the Nexus 4 has to be purchased through grey import and is ridiculously expensive.

You don't need a 5" 1080p display, but this phone is hardly any bigger than a Nexus 4. At 5mm taller and 2mm wider you can hardly complain about the size of this phone compared to the Nexus 4. Sony managed to deliver a bigger screen without making the phone any bigger. And while 300-ish PPI is nice, it's the 400+ barrier that really pushes edges to perfect sharpness. In small shapes and fonts the 320 PPI of the Nexus 4 (and all other smartphones around that PPI) is just not completely enough to make it 100% perfectly sharp and smooth.

http://developer.son...ation/xperiazl/ has all the specs for the ZL.

(http://developer.son...cation/xperiaz/ for the Z)

I would like to see one single manufacturer has the backbone to improve two things: battery and color reproduction accuracy.

Xperia S is fine, for the first few months I got it. Then it went downhill from there. From the reason you mentioned, I think mSDHC slot is the only valid reason of buying a XZ.

If you like Sony that much, as a matter of fact yes you do since I remember you from XDA forums, along with K900, good for you that you preordered it.

For me? No more Sony.

[Colin.B]

Oh. I was comparing the wrong phone I think >_>. Well then! Can't wait for the ZL to hit AT&T :)

Will you post a review of the Z when you get it?

[Ambroos]

I would like to see one single manufacturer has the backbone to improve two things: battery and color reproduction accuracy.

Xperia S is fine, for the first few months I got it. Then it went downhill from there. From the reason you mentioned, I think mSDHC slot is the only valid reason of buying a XZ.

If you like Sony that much, as a matter of fact yes you do since I remember you from XDA forums, along with K900, good for you that you preordered it.

For me? No more Sony.

Well I can understand the Xperia S isn't perfect. Build quality wasn't as good as your average iPhone and the battery could be a bit weird at times, but I personally never had issues with it. I've been using mine for over 10 months now and still like it a lot.

On colour accuracy, I think that we're pretty much there. HTC and Apple are both very good, with very low Delta E (where Samsung does extremely bad with their AMOLED's). HTC and Sony do very, very well on colour temperature, reaching almost exactly 6500K. On brightness Sony is the undisputable winner, and on contrast the Nexus 4 does best, followed by Apple, HTC and Sony. Source: http://tweakers.net/reviews/2881/3/shoot-out-smartphones-getest-op-accu-scherm-en-meer-scherm.html (in Dutch but should be easy enough to understand)

Battery is something I agree on, but I also think it's fine the way it is. I'm absolutely not doing anything to make sure my battery lasts longer (all syncs and connections pretty much always on and relatively heavy use) and my battery still lasts me all day, every day.

Oh. I was comparing the wrong phone I think >_>. Well then! Can't wait for the ZL to hit AT&T :)

Will you post a review of the Z when you get it?

Yes! It's scheduled for delivery 28 Feb (the day after my birthday) but it might be sooner. Can expect a review here and on The Verge forums a few days after that!

[tsupersonic]

Looks good, but not 'pure' Android, like some of the Nexus devices. You'd have to root and ROM to get the most out of this phone. It's too early in the year to tell if this will be 'the' superphone, after all it's only January. There are events like MWC, and Google IO, so I'll wait till other manufacturers announce phones. I have an upgrade eligible in October, but I wouldn't be able to keep my unlimited data plan with Verizon if I did that. I'd have to buy the phone outright anyways, so I'll probably wait till later in the year.

[Richteralan]

Well I can understand the Xperia S isn't perfect. Build quality wasn't as good as your average iPhone and the battery could be a bit weird at times, but I personally never had issues with it. I've been using mine for over 10 months now and still like it a lot.

On colour accuracy, I think that we're pretty much there. HTC and Apple are both very good, with very low Delta E (where Samsung does extremely bad with their AMOLED's). HTC and Sony do very, very well on colour temperature, reaching almost exactly 6500K. On brightness Sony is the undisputable winner, and on contrast the Nexus 4 does best, followed by Apple, HTC and Sony. Source: http://tweakers.net/...eer-scherm.html (in Dutch but should be easy enough to understand)

Battery is something I agree on, but I also think it's fine the way it is. I'm absolutely not doing anything to make sure my battery lasts longer (all syncs and connections pretty much always on and relatively heavy use) and my battery still lasts me all day, every day.

Yes! It's scheduled for delivery 28 Feb (the day after my birthday) but it might be sooner. Can expect a review here and on The Verge forums a few days after that!

I think you misunderstood what I meant by color reproduction accuracy..maybe I wasn't very clear.

I would like to see a phone with wider color gamut, including using wider color gamut in its camera DSP. Adobe RGB? ProPhoto? And correspond with a LCD display capable of 95% of the said color gamut.

With the $349 I paid for Nexus 4, and almost $600 I paid for Xperia S, I will never buy a Sony again. Not to mention the yellow spots, updates, and battery life problems of the first batch.

Looks good, but not 'pure' Android, like some of the Nexus devices. You'd have to root and ROM to get the most out of this phone. It's too early in the year to tell if this will be 'the' superphone, after all it's only January. There are events like MWC, and Google IO, so I'll wait till other manufacturers announce phones. I have an upgrade eligible in October, but I wouldn't be able to keep my unlimited data plan with Verizon if I did that. I'd have to buy the phone outright anyways, so I'll probably wait till later in the year.

Sony's skin is THE best 3rd party skin. Very pleasant to use and tastefully designed.

[Ambroos]

Looks good, but not 'pure' Android, like some of the Nexus devices. You'd have to root and ROM to get the most out of this phone.

I'm not so sure. This one comes with 4.1.2, and 4.2 hardly adds anything. Miracast was in Sony's smartphones before Google even announced 4.2, gesture keyboard has been in Sony's since 2011 and multi-user support is irrelevant on smartphones. The only 'new' things you'd miss out on are lockscreen widgets and daydream, two things that in my opinion aren't worth sacrificing Sony's media applications and camera app. And personally I think Sony's skin looks a lot better than a clean Android. A lot more elegant, refined and neutral. Not everything has to be cyan Google :p

But even if you want to root your phone or put a new ROM on it, it's quite easy. Sony is very open to devs and is fast with releasing as much source code as possible. They allow you to unlock the bootloader and once you do that installing a new ROM is done in a few minutes. Sony's are possibly the simplest phones to install ROM's on there are.

[Ambroos]

I think you misunderstood what I meant by color reproduction accuracy..maybe I wasn't very clear.

I would like to see a phone with wider color gamut, including using wider color gamut in its camera DSP. Adobe RGB? ProPhoto? And correspond with a LCD display capable of 95% of the said color gamut.

With the $349 I paid for Nexus 4, and almost $600 I paid for Xperia S, I will never buy a Sony again. Not to mention the yellow spots, updates, and battery life problems of the first batch.

Okay, a wider colour gamut would be nice. I'm not sure what one it is exactly, but Sony lists a wide colour gamut as a feature for the Xperia Z and ZL (and they've never done that before). Reviewers have said that the colour range is amazing. I'll try to compare it with my monitor (full sRGB and almost full AdobeRGB), but since I don't have any equipment I'll have to do it by eye.

[tsupersonic]

I'm not so sure. This one comes with 4.1.2, and 4.2 hardly adds anything. Miracast was in Sony's smartphones before Google even announced 4.2, gesture keyboard has been in Sony's since 2011 and multi-user support is irrelevant on smartphones. The only 'new' things you'd miss out on are lockscreen widgets and daydream, two things that in my opinion aren't worth sacrificing Sony's media applications and camera app. And personally I think Sony's skin looks a lot better than a clean Android. A lot more elegant, refined and neutral. Not everything has to be cyan Google :p

But even if you want to root your phone or put a new ROM on it, it's quite easy. Sony is very open to devs and is fast with releasing as much source code as possible. They allow you to unlock the bootloader and once you do that installing a new ROM is done in a few minutes. Sony's are possibly the simplest phones to install ROM's on there are.

It's not just about Android 4.2. It's about future updates - at least with a nexus device, you will get updates from Google, and quick. Also, the dev. community at XDA and other sites will be tremendous. You can easily mod your phone to whatever you want it to look like. Subjective, but after you use a Nexus phone, there really is no going back to a manufacturer skin. If I had to get a non-Nexus phone, I'd have to make sure the dev. community behind it is big (plenty of custom and AOSP ROM's) :) I'm not bashing on this device - we just need to wait and see what other devices are announced.

You don't have to tell me about installing ROM's, unlocking bootloader, etc. It's easy enough to look it up, and to just do it.

[mudslag]

No. After Xperia S, No more Sony.

Besides the LCD resolution, I failed to see which part of this phone is better than Nexus 4.

And frankly why do we need 5 inches screen? Why do we need 1080P in a 5 incher?

Im looking for a 5"+ display for work. Im currently looking at the Note2 but I might hold off and wait for this cause Im still not 100% sure I want something that large. Id like to see a size comparison of the two.

[Nashy]

It's a brilliant looking phone. I love it. Unfortunately, I've moved to WP8 for a bit, so won't be getting one.

Look forward to seeing some reviews.

[Ambroos]

Im looking for a 5"+ display for work. Im currently looking at the Note2 but I might hold off and wait for this cause Im still not 100% sure I want something that large. Id like to see a size comparison of the two.

The Z is the same physical size as the Galaxy S3 (even though it has a 5" display), so you can compare the S3 and Note2 to see what it's like.

Since you're in the US the ZL might be more interesting. It is actually physically smaller than the Galaxy S3 but still packs the 5" display (tiny bezels)!

Xperia Z vs Galaxy Note 2:

[mudslag]

Ya I was just going over the specs of all 4, S3-Note2-Z/ZL. I want a large display to work, trade off of but the Note 2 S-pen offers a great fine pointer option that no other high end phone Iv seen offers. Other stylus pens have that fat end piece that doesn't give me the small detail I need when I want to place orders into my trading program. That's why Iv been looking at the note 2. If I can find a fine point stylus pen that would work with the sony, I might hold off for that.

[Ambroos]

Ya I was just going over the specs of all 4, S3-Note2-Z/ZL. I want a large display to work, trade off of but the Note 2 S-pen offers a great fine pointer option that no other high end phone Iv seen offers. Other stylus pens have that fat end piece that doesn't give me the small detail I need when I want to place orders into my trading program. That's why Iv been looking at the note 2. If I can find a fine point stylus pen that would work with the sony, I might hold off for that.

The Sony doesn't have a digitizer for a stylus so you'll never be able to use anything other than those typical big-pointed (and pretty crappy) capacitive styluses. Note 2 is probably the phone for you if you need that.

[mudslag]

The Sony doesn't have a digitizer for a stylus so you'll never be able to use anything other than those typical big-pointed (and pretty crappy) capacitive styluses. Note 2 is probably the phone for you if you need that.