Sony Xperia Z1 In Depth Review

[CaptainSi]

Sony's Xperia Z1 is by far Sony's best handset to date, combining excellent ID, build quality and dat battery life. Also it's waterproof and a host of other fun stuff. Many reviews say it's similar to it's parent, the Xperia Z, and this is certainly true... if you're basing this statement on box art and are the type of person who buys Beats By Dre headphones. I hated the Xperia Z. It looked like an iPhone 5 that was further attacked by the transform tool, dressed in armour designed by Tonka, accidentally irradiated, and by chance mutated the ability for mild telephony. I think that Sony well and truly attempted to consume chicken through a straw on the Z. For those not experienced in such activities, it's both a laborious and stupid exercise, and thankfully alongside the “1” suffix, through the Z1, Sony also brought to the table a handset that doesn't suck or attempt to suck cock in any way. Z1 ditches the gimpy, baby boomer lumberings of it's parents, along with the mildly questionable communist antics, coin collection and love for David Attenborough. Before I continue with this review I think it's imperative to mention precisely how I use my phones. I use them for messaging, phone calls, email, reading articles, video and social media. I do not use them for gaming at all, and like wise do not use them to pixel-peep photos on Flickr. I have proper cameras, and thus mostly exercise the camera feature to draw penises on passer byers and snap chat them to anyone stupid enough to add me.

 

 

Hardware
 

Chasis

Z1 is a big boy at 144mm x 74mm. This isn't as horrific as it immediately sounds, as a host of design choices mean that at no time does the phone become a problem for use in one hand. An aluminium bezel wraps around the phone, and marginally buffets prone of the glass panels front and back, meaning on a flat surface these panels technically shouldn't touch, which can help prevent scratches and abrasions on the glass panels – in theory. I think it works to a certain extent, however the bezel really isn't proud enough to properly achieve this in a way that will stop damage absolutely. Thankfully Sony has dressed the Z1 with usefully chosen Aluminosilicate glass panels. Corning's scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 3 guards the display, with a shatter proof Dragontail panel by Asahi Glass on the rear. At 8.5mm thick the Z1 is slim, and these premium materials and weight make the phone feel impressively built. It is as good as anything Apple or anyone else makes. In regard to the weight, the phone is heavier on it's right and lower edge, which is probably where the incredibly effective cooling solution, radio antennae or speaker drivers exist, and would explain the weight. This isn't a complaint, as the phone overall feels very balanced, it's just something I noticed. As I touched on, the cooling solution is incredible. No particular section of the phone seems to get noticeably hot, or even warm. This is quite refreshing if you're coming from the HTC or Samsung camp, both companies of which seem partial to lighting small bonfires just south of the camera sensor in an otherwise Antarctic chasis. This probably speaks more to how efficient modern mobile processors are, but is the first time I've ever noticed a lack of temperature where the NIC is concerned. My only criticisms of the materials used is their amazing ability to collect finger prints. While my inner tin foil hat doesn't think Sony is harvesting genetic information from the oceanic amounts of collected epidermal oils for modern marketing activities, they certainly could, so if you're a clean freak and/or wanted criminal I would look elsewhere. If you are a serial killer or are otherwise particularly worried about fingerprints then you can rejoice in the fact that the phone is completely washable under a tap. Sony builds the phone to the IP 58 standard, citing waterproof functioning to depths of 1.5 metres in fresh water for as long as 30 minutes. As well as this it is dust proof, which I never imagined being a problem for smart phones, though having said that there is probably a cattle farmer from the Northern Territory who is feeling particularly discriminated against right about now.

Display

 

A 5” display is presented, at 441ppi, Full HD. It is one of Sony's Triluminos displays. Brightness is very good, especially in Tandem with Sony's class leading auto-brightness levelling, which actually features the ability to reduce the brightness below that of an intense sun in dark locations (I'm looking disappointedly at you, HTC) and can likewise ignite the display to that of Vince Offer's teeth at 495 nits in bright sunlight (which is nearly double that of Samsung's Galaxy S4, and significantly brighter than HTC's One). This is where the good comments about the screen end, as this really isn't a colour accurate or well balanced display, which is probably a result of the neglectful use of a TFT panel instead of an IPS panel. Colour temperature leans towards the aqua hues, at 7000K (neutrality is considered 6500K). The use of a TFT panel also means viewing angles aren't spectacular, however the argument could be made that if you're looking at your Z1 78 degrees away from centre then you're doing it wrong. SRGB coverage is pretty dismal, missing much of the cyan spectrum. This is probably a result of Sony tuning the display towards reds to counter the respectively cold colour temperature I mentioned earlier. Still, by no means is the display unacceptable, as it crushes Samsung's AMOLED implementations on their Note handsets, however it really can't hold a match to something from HTC or Apple. Sony also includes their X-Reality image processor. It's garbage, turn it off. It rams up sharpness but doesn't address colour balance, which is really stupid, seeing as the last issue high PPI displays have is image sharpness. It makes media content look ridiculous, and I don't need or appreciate Sony filtering my content more uselessly than an Instagram hipster.

 

Power storage and delivery

This phone's battery is a beast. 3000MAh, which is just shy of Samsung's Galaxy Note 3's 3200mAh battery. I happily get two days use out of the phone, and this is without Sony's excellent power saving STAMINA mode enabled. The Android OS significantly underestimates the remaining battery life in my experience, which is probably a sign that it can't handle the sheer awesomeness of the Z1 battery. When enabling STAMINA mode you're looking at as much as 3 days usage. As I mentioned before I don't crush or cut candy or ropes respectively with my phone, so your mileage may vary, however there's no denying that this is a bloody awesome battery. But it doesn't end here folks, as it seems literally every aspect of the Z1's power storage and delivery is carefully and masterfully executed. The phone charges incredibly quickly. This may impact on the longevity of the battery life as tests have shown that suffocating L-Ion cells with power can reduce their fidelity later in their life time, however data for this phone doesn't exist yet as it's quite new. With this being said, to put it mildly, Sony has an impressive portfolio with portable electronics power designs, and I can't imagine they'd implement anything but a well considered solution. While charging (or indeed, discharging), no part of the phone warms up significantly, which speaks to how well designed the Z1's power phases are. I briefly mentioned the waterproof dealio with this phone earlier in the review, and part of this design means all digital ports need to be sealed. Sony has gone down the same route as with their cameras, using rubber gasket seals. These are effective, however it means the micro USB port is covered by a plate that is the bane of victims of fingernail theft and cannibals alike. Stress not, Sony has thought of this, with an unsealed, wireless charging connector located on the left bezel of the phone, and kindly includes the charger in the box. The phone snaps in magnetically, meaning charging the phone is literally a matter of sliding it into it's dock. Speaking of the dock, the charging head never heats up or whines which charging is completed, meaning the internal circuitry is considerably better executed than the shitty plastic chassis of the charger itself. On a side note, I blu-tacked the charging dock to my desk so it doesn't move when the phone is inserted, and I highly advise you do the same. It makes the whole experience so much better.

 

Camera

 

The camera included is very good. It is an equivalent 27mm lens at F2.0, and a two phase switch lives under an included camera button, which is a nice touch. ISO will go as high as 800, and noise is fairly well controlled, however colour corruption is horrific at low light. Many reviewers point out this as poor low light performance however it is quite the opposite. The fact that the Z1 can resolve images at such low light at all shows that it is one of the best low light performing phone cameras. Many phone cameras simply would spit out a black image instead. The on board flash is about GN 4 in my estimation, which isn't better or worse than other phone flashes. The camera lens is flush with the rear panel, meaning lens flaring is quite severe. Compared with the built in lens hood of HTC's One X, it is very harsh, however modern design aesthetics wouldn't allow for such inclusions to be made in the design. Chromatic and optical aberrations are well controlled throughout the image, with, and colour fringing isn't noticeable until the outer edges of frame. Barrel distortion and softness fall off quite dramatically towards the edge of frame, however if you're pixel peeping images from a mobile phone then you're missing the point. This is a fully capable selfie cannon. Stress not, little one. The camera can be shunt into manual mode, and the act of doing so will unlock the full 20.7 MP resolution, however manual mode cannot be set as default, and honestly it isn't practical for the use that a phone camera is generally used for (which is to quickly capture an observation), so for all intents and purposes it is an 8MP camera, which is still very excellent. Video is Full HD at 30p, and is image stabilised. Overall image quality is excellent, and the camera is very well received.

 

 

Audio

 

Sony has a bit of experience behind them in regards to audio, obviously through their Walkman brand. Unfortunately some artefacts of this brand still exist in the phone, but I'll cover more of that in software. In regards to hardware, Sony's DAC and AMP solution is pretty ok. It still isn't in the same realm as Apple's audio reproduction, however it is much better than Samsung, LG and Motorola's implementations and indeed completely destroys HTC's still horrible phone DAC's. When powered, the DAC spits out a very subtle whisper of noise, however in it's favour it doesn't noticeably bias the audio towards bass or treble at all. The noise rolls in and out, rather than jaggedly starting and ceasing as in LG and HTC handsets, so this is the best of the worst. The loudspeaker is quite loud, and that's about it. It is tinny and cold sounding, which is probably a result of the insulation needed to achieve the IP 58 certification on the phone. Also, and strangely the volume leveling curve seems to fall off quite dramatically at about half way through it's slider. This can probably be mediated with a software patch, and doesn't effect the phone in terms of usability, it's merely a clerical observation. With these criticisms in mind, when you're in a vehicle/ public transport or walking around the streets the ambient noise well and truly hides any discrepancies with the audio, and honestly this is where most people will be listening to the phone, so from a functional perspective the audio solution for this phone is absolutely fine. One particular aspect to note is how brilliantly loud the earpiece speaker is.

 

Software

This is a generally negative part of the phone. Sony has implemented their own Android skin which isn't particularly nice looking, cuts back on many Android features and is generally a pain in the arse to navigate. I'm coming from HTC's Sense UI, which is actually really bloody good and looks awesome, so in comparison to that Sony's GUI is quite lacking. Two particular peeves are the inability to remove the lock screen and a lack of inclusion of a flash light app, though being Android at least the second can be remedied without rooting the phone. Also, Sony has packed the thing with bloatware. Some of it can be removed, however all of the Walkman crap, and the fact that two image and likewise video viewing galleries are included is fricken annoying. The same is true for the browser, however this is actually Google's fault for shoving Chrome down our un moistened throats – and it hurts. Otherwise, as you'd expect from a flagship device it's fast, snappy and does the job any other smart phone can do.

 

TL;DR

Wrapping up, this is one of, and in my personal opinion, the best smart phone currently available. Sony answered the cries of the undying masses for reasonable battery life, and made the thing look awesome at the same time. It's big and awesome in all of the important ways, and in that respect it obviously is the perfect phone for someone who is also big in the important ways, like myself.

[Tea1337]

TL DR. Just kidding, I like the phone but I don't know if I would like to have one. 

[_ASSASSIN_]

one of my favorite rom, Paranoid Android, has their Custom Rom for the Xperia Z1, if you are really determined to get that stock android feel + epic features, get this rom immediately

*prerequisit, yes you have to root your phone to do this, but if you are determined to get the best possible experience from that beast phone, go ahead and do it

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2480584

you can PM me if you need help with rooting or ROM installation

[CaptainSi]

one of my favorite rom, Paranoid Android, has their Custom Rom for the Xperia Z1, if you are really determined to get that stock android feel + epic features, get this rom immediately

*prerequisit, yes you have to root your phone to do this, but if you are determined to get the best possible experience from that beast phone, go ahead and do it

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2480584

you can PM me if you need help with rooting or ROM installation

Awesome man! I'm still holding out the hope that AOKP will release a Z1 Rom, but I'll check this out. 

[_ASSASSIN_]

Awesome man! I'm still holding out the hope that AOKP will release a Z1 Rom, but I'll check this out. 

AOPK is nasty, it's unreliable and Carbon is basically AOPK that works and has custom overclocking firmware integrated. If you can get carbon, that will be a much better alternative to AOPK

[CaptainSi]

AOPK is nasty, it's unreliable and Carbon is basically AOPK that works and has custom overclocking firmware integrated. If you can get carbon, that will be a much better alternative to AOPK

I never really had issues with AOPK but I'll check out Carbon. I'm always down for trying new stuff