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The leak train stops for no phone these days. The Z4 is up next and revealed in full, not too shabby at all with a decent set of specs to go along with it all. What I find curious is the SD 810 and not the 820, but I guess the inclusion of the 820 would depend on when they decide to release this device. Since the 810 runs "hot hot hot" I am curious to see how Sony handles the issues that have apparently plagued HTC and their M9. http://www.androidauthority.com/sony-xperia-z4-pictures-live-598805/

(Credit: tbreak) Introduction @razor767 asked me to do a review of the Z4 Tablet which I bought a few days ago. So here is my review of it. I have been looking to replace my aging Nexus 10 for a very long time now. I was so excited for the Nexus 10 I had one imported to Sweden. I got it in December 2012 and it has served me very well. Since then I have used it every single day. It has not aged well though, and even from day 1 it had some serious flaws. Most of the flaws were related to the 2560x1600 display. They made compromises both in terms of display quality as well as GPU performance to get to that resolution. Despite all the flaws, I loved it and could not find any good tablet to replace it. All new tablets had way more deal breaking flaws. The Z4 Tablet ticked all my boxes though and now I finally got one. Here are the specifications compared to my old Nexus 10: Design The design of the tablet is the best I’ve ever seen, but it has some minor flaws. First the good things. It is incredibly thin and light. It is 214 grams lighter than my Nexus 10 (about 35% lighter) and the weight seems very well distributed. This makes it far more comfortable to hold in one hand. Just to give you an idea of how thin it is, this is the 3.5mm headphone port. The bezels are quite slim but not slim enough to make you accidentally touch the display when resting your thumbs on them. Despite being IP68 certified (dust proof and water proof up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes) the tablet does not have covers on the headphone jack and microUSB port. There is a flap on the microSD/SIM card slot but that’s to be expected since you don’t want those exposed anyway. The bad things about the design are the buttons’ and speakers’ positioning. Both the volume rocker and power button are on the left side in the middle. That’s where I usually put my hand. It’s not a big deal since I haven’t accidentally pressed them yet, but I got a feeling it will happen at least a few times. The speakers are front facing and there are 2 of them. That’s great, but the problem I have is the positioning. They are on the sides of the display which is good, but they are quite far down and very close to the side. This makes them very easy to block with your palm when holding the tablet in landscape. I have gotten used to it to the point where I automatically put my hands so they don’t get blocked so it’s not a major issues, but moving them to the upper part of the tablet would have been a better design in my opinion. The vibration motor is bad. Not only does it feel very small and high frequency, when pressed rapidly it makes a very audible high pitched sound. Press it as fast as you can and it will sound like a mutated mosquito. I much prefer the more bassy vibration in the Nexus 10. It is made out of plastic but it feels very high quality. It has the weight in the just right places, the back finish is soft touch and it feels very solid overall. The tablet is also very square. A lot of tablets and even phones are thinner at the edges than in the middle of the back. This is not the case with the Z4 tablet. It has a completely flat back (no camera bump) and the sides are rounded, but just barely. This actually makes it quite hard to pick up from a table or other flat surface since there is no place to get a grip. Software Sony’s Android skin is very close to stock Android. There are a handful of annoying apps on it which can’t be removed, such as “Movie Creator” and “Experia Louge” but other than that the only non-removable apps are the Google things as well as some basic functionality like the camera app, gallery, video player and so on. It came preloaded with Microsoft Office as well as some Playstation apps but those were removable. Sony has also included some “small apps”. You access these from the multitasking menu. They are windowed apps which allows you to do more than 1 thing at the same time. I don’t think I will use them very much, but I can see how some people might find them useful. Among the “small apps” are “Timer”, “Music”, “Google Keep”, Calculator”, Browser” and a few more. The camera is pretty mediocre in terms of quality, and the camera app is bad. The “manual mode” offers next to no manual controls. Not a big deal though since you shouldn’t be taking photos with your tablet anyway. Just use your phone or a proper camera. One feature I was very interested in was hardware accelerated HEVC decoding and I am glad to say that it works… Kind of. The video I tested with was a 4K, 60 FPS version of Big Buck Bunny and the Snapdragon 810 could decode it in hardware just fine. That was an 8bit file though. When I tested with a 10bit file it could not be hardware accelerated which is very disappointing to see, especially since 10bit files are one of the main profiles with HEVC. It had no problems decoding the 720p 10bit HEVC file in software though so there is at least that. Screen, Performance and Battery Life (no benchmarks or tests… Sorry) I would have loved to give everyone some proper numbers such as DeltaE, color balance, white point accuracy and so on, but I don’t have the tools to do that. So instead I have to do like the reviews I dislike do and just tell you about my subjective opinion. The screen seems good. It is far brighter than my Nexus 10 which was a major issue on that. The resolution is great and things look sharp. Colors look vivid but I can’t tell how accurate or inaccurate they are without anything to test it with. According to GSMArena the Z4 Tablet is brighter and has a higher contrast ratio than the iPad Air 2, which is very good. Performance is what you would expect from a Snapdragon 810 device. It is very good. Much faster than my Nexus 10. Which shouldn’t be a surprised since it has twice the number of cores, higher frequency and better IPC (instructions per clock). Battery life has so far been good. I was a bit worried about the small battery but it seems like it will last longer than my Nexus 10, but I have not verified that. This is how it performed in GSMArena’s Z4 Tablet review, compared to their iPad Air 2 review. Web Browsing: Z4 Tablet – 15:05 hours iPad Air 2: 10:05 hours Video Playback: Z4 Tablet – 14:58 hours iPad Air 2 – 11:41 hours Price It's expensive as balls... In some areas such as the UK you also have to buy the keyboard bundle which makes it even more expensive. In Sweden you can get it without the keyboard but even without it's still a quite significant amount more than even the iPad Air 2. This is the only thing I dislike about it, but I guess (near) perfection costs a lot... Conclusion I am amazed at the sheer incompetence of other tablet manufacturers. Sony is currently the only manufacturer who offers a Snapdragon 810 powered tablet. The only other manufacturers who bothers keeping up with the latest hardware are Samsung and Apple. I don't like iOS so the iPad is a no go for me, and Samsung's latest tablets have a long list of reasons why I dislike them ranging from bad aspect ratio, physical buttons and how bad TouchWiz is (but it is getting better). I have been waiting for a refresh of the Nexus 10 for a very long time now but for some reason everyone has just abandoned the tablet market, or decided that they want to copy the worst aspects of the iPad. I really hope the Z4 Tablet sells well and is successful, because otherwise we might never get a good 16:10 or 3:2 Android tablet again.

Last month Sony announced the Xperia Z4 in Japan, a minor upgraded from the Xperia Z3. Unfortunately at that time the Z4 is a Japan-exclusive smartphone, and there are rumors saying the rest of the world will have a different flagship smartphone. With the latest press conference invitations it seems we will know whether this rumor is true or not next week. A number of tech media in Taiwan and Hong Kong today received invitations to a press conference next week (Taiwan's is on 27/9, while Hong Kong's will be on 28/9)about “the new Xperia flagship”. In the invitations Sony described the new flagship is “Top camera, screen, sound, water and design all rolled into one.” In addition four Sony product development engineers from Japan will attend the Hong Kong press conference to talk about the design of the new models. Unfortunately there is still no much info about this new flagship, and there are only a few rumors about this flagship, saying this flagship will keep the name "Z4", but some rumors saying this will be called "Z3 Plus" instead. Besides Hong Kong and Taiwan, Sony will also held a press conference in New Delhi, India on 26 May, but there is no confirmation from Sony India of whether a new flagship will be announced in that event. On the invite to the Indian event there is a water graphic, which could be hinting at the launch of a water resistant device(s). The M4 Aqua is expected to be announced in that press conference, although there are some rumors saying a new phone will be announced alongside the M4 Aqua too. Sony's invite to Hong Kong's press conference (in Chinese) Sony's invite to New Delhi's press conference http://www.xperiablog.net/2015/05/21/sony-holding-press-conference-in-hong-kongtaiwan-next-week-for-the-new-xperia-flagship/ http://www.xperiablog.net/2015/05/17/sony-india-to-hold-press-conference-on-26-may-could-we-see-the-xperia-z4-launch/

Eprice Taiwan published an article yesterday, claiming the Sony Z4 will have several features upgraded from the Z3. But since these are still rumors, we need to take it with a grain of salt. Eprice TW's summary of the changes from Z3 to Z4 Firstly, the Taiwanese website claimed the Z4's screen will remain @ 5.2", but it will have both 1440p and 1080p variants. While the 1440p variant will be available in the US market, in certain markets only the 1080p variant will be offered. This could be a good chance for reviewers to compare the impact on battery life with the QHD screen, if this rumor is true. The website also claimed there will be small changes in the design of the phone. Firstly, the Z4's metal frame will treated with a glossy finish. Then the micro usb port will be moved from the left side to the bottom, and the port cover will be removed, as the port could remaining waterproof although not being securely closed with the port cover. And because of this change of design, the magnetic charging point will not be found on the Z4. Also the phone may come in different colors, while blue color would be one of the options. (for those who don't know what magnetic charging point is, please click here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/286749-rumorthe-sony-xperia-z4-might-be-offered-in-both-qhd-1440p-and-fhd-1080p-versions-with-better-waterproofing-and-shiny-metal/#entry3893219 ) Lastly, the front camera would have some improvements, and the Z4 would still have a large capacity battery. And there are no words on specs in this rumor. So what do you think? Would these changes attract you to buy the Z4, if they are true? p.s. The Taiwanese media also stated that the phone in the leaked render from the North Korean hack (pic below) is indeed the real Z4...... http://www.eprice.com.tw/mobile/talk/4551/4924586/1/ (in Chinese) http://www.phonearena.com/news/The-Sony-Xperia-Z4-might-be-offered-in-both-QHD-1440p-and-FHD-1080p-versions-with-better-waterproofing-and-shiny-metal_id64507 http://pocketnow.com/2015/01/07/xperia-z4-hardware

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Japanese-Sony-Xperia-Z4-users-are-already-complaining-of-overheating-issues_id70324 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony-admits-that-the-Xperia-Z3-and-Xperia-Z4-are-overheating-promises-a-software-update-is-coming_id70394 I don't understand it: Samsung's Exynos SoC is miles ahead of the Snapdragon 810, why is no-one using it? Is there some exclusivity deal manufacturers signed with Qualcomm?