Sony Xperia Z1 is the latest flagship model from Sony. This device is the successor model of the Xperia Z and comes with some advancement over hardware and design. With this smartphone Sony is offering some top of the shelf features in a beautiful and sleek design. We headed to a Sony Store to know if this smartphone can really deliver what it promises to. And here is the in depth review of the masterpiece from Sony.
Design
Sony has made this smartphone based on their Omnibalance design philosophy, which is focused on creating stability and regularity in all the directions. This design concept from Sony makes this device look like a small glass slab, and is indeed pretty attractive. This smartphone from Sony is water and dust resistance, the internal of the device is coated with fiber glass flaps, protecting the device from water damage.
The Xperia Z1 has a metal chassis which is sandwiched between 2 glasses. The front side of the phone is dominated by its 5-inch FHD display and is covered with shatterproof film coating to make the device dust resistant. The rear panel of the device is made up of glass and has shatterproof coating too. Sony’s Omnibalance design idea has made this device very thin and light weight, making it easier to hold with one hand. Even though there is no customization for improved single hand use the design concept of the phone brings in single hand usability with it.
This smartphone has a perfectly balanced distribution of the physical buttons. The right side of the phone holds the power button which is made of Aluminum and is placed in the right position for easier access. The user gets full control of the phone with just one hand unlike other manufacturers who put the power button on top of the device making it difficult to reach out at it with one hand. The bottom right of the device holds the shutter button to capture images and the volume keys are placed on the left side of the phone. There are also 3 touch sensitive keys on the device which are placed at the bottom of the display.
In our encounter with the device the operations on the phone were smooth and very rapid. The design of the phone along with combination of proper layout of buttons makes this device a perfect choice over its competitors.
Operating System and User Interface
The Sony Xperia Z1 comes with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Operating System, it is not the latest version of the OS but Sony has recently announced that it will roll out Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update to some of its devices which include Xperia Z1 too. This smartphone from Sony is heavily customized with Xperia UI and that the user can experience the same while using the phone. The User Interface of the phone is very fast and responsive. We did not experience any lag or flaws while using the phone.
The User Interface of the phone looks pleasing to the eyes and goes well with the design of the phone. Apart from Xperia UI Sony has also added a slide out menu which appears when sliding on the right in the first menu screen in the App drawer. This slide out menu comes with some handy function like Search, Uninstall Apps, Arrange Apps and access Google Play Store.
Sony has brought out features like Screen Mirroring and Support for Dual Shock 3 wireless gaming controller. With Screen Mirroring the user can share the device’s display with a WiFi enabled TV without using any cables.
Hardware
The Sony Xperia Z1 comes with top quality hardware on board. Before we tell you what the hardware specs are let us take through the performance of the device. We had a long affair with the review unit given to us, we played games, watched FHD movies, played music, clicked pictures and surfed internet on this massive smartphone. The performance of the device is actually very impressive and it does not disappoint at all. It offers what it promises to. There were no frame drops or lag while playing FHD movies and High Definition games. We played Asphalt on this smartphone and it ran very nicely, the Adreno 330 GPU does well at rendering HD graphics. The device comes with a 3,000mAH battery and offers Stamina Mode and Low battery mode to enhance the battery life on the device. Sony claims that the battery gives a talk time up to 13 hours on this device; we did not run any battery test. We had the device for good amount of time where we managed to run so many tests and the battery percentage dropped by mere 40%. With this we assume the user with average usage is expected to get the talk time promised by Sony.
This smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 800 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. With specs this high you would expect the device to deliver such high performance and this smartphone actually offers the performance mentioned above.
The display of the device is full HD with resolution of 1920x1080 pixels giving a pixel density of 441PPI. The display offers good output; the text appears clear and crisp while the color reproduction was natural. What disappointed us were its viewing angles, the device does not offer wide viewing angles. The visuals do not appear good when viewing from sides. Further the outdoor visibility of the screen was average; if you spend Rs 43,000 and buy a device like this you would surely look forward to have better visibility of the content outdoors too. Apart from these two flaws there is nothing much to complain about.
Camera and Memory
This is one area which in our opinion no one would complain about with regards to Sony Xperia Z1. The device comes with a 20.7 MegaPixel camera on board, the device has a camera sensor of 1/2.3” and comes with LED flash. It is accompanied with features like Geo-tagging, touch focus, HDR, Panorama and 1080p video recording. The phone shoots 1080p videos at 30 frames per second, the videos taken on this phone are very clear and life like.
This smartphone takes marvelous pictures at day light, images taken at night also came out good but had little noise in them. However the image quality of Xperia Z1 in both day and night conditions came out better than its competitors. The auto-mode in the phone’s camera sometimes had difficulty autofocussing, we are not sure if it was a fault with the review unit we got or was it a software bug that was causing this problem.
The Xperia Z1 comes with 16GB of ROM, out of which 11.97GB is user available memory, and is coupled with 2GB of RAM. The combination of memory with such huge RAM makes this device one of the fastest in the market. Further this smartphone allows memory expansion by up to 64GB via Micro SD cards. Multi-tasking was at its great with Xperia Z1, launching and closing apps was as fast as light. So overall we are extremely impressed with the performance of this smartphone from Sony.
Media
This smartphone is great when it comes with playing media on it. We played 1080p Videos and it worked perfectly without any lag or frame drops. Seeking between time was smoother and supported instant playback. The Xperia Z1 has speakers in the bottom, which is very good for smartphones as phones with speakers in the rear side usually reduce the sound output when placed on flat surfaces. The sound quality on the loud speaker was average and comes with preloaded sound settings to offer clearer and better sound without distortion. As mentioned earlier the phone has no issues playing Full HD games and Videos.
Extras
Sony makes some of the coolest gadgets in the market, and this smartphone is compatible with all of the accessories that Sony makes. One may want to try out the Sony Smartwatch with this one; there is also an add-on lens available for this device which enhances the camera experience of this smartphone. More-over Sony is giving away Free Premium Flip Case worth Rs 2,990 and a portable Power Bank (5,000mAH) worth Rs 2,790 along with Free Accidental Damage for 6-months. The device is priced at Rs 42,990 in the Sony Store.
Benchmark tests
We ran some benchmark tests on this smartphone and the results are below.
The device scored 33814 in the AnTuTu benchamark and stood below Galaxy Note 3
It scored 10350 in the Quadrant Standard benchmark and was on the top in the list
Xperia Z1 got a 1185 in the Vellamo benchmark
Xperia Z1 ranked No. 1 with 2924 score in the HTM5 followed by Xperia Z Ultra and Galaxy Note 3
With these test it makes it clear that this smartphone certainly packs in a lot of power than its competitors.
Verdict
Given the long list of smartphones in the market people tend to confuse which smartphone to buy, given the price category of Rs 40,000 buyers are certainly going to fall in a dilemma as to which is best for them. This smartphone is certainly impressive with the speed and performance it offers. If you can compromise a little with the viewing angles of the display then it is the best choice for you. This device is a straight rival to Samsung’s Popular Galaxy Note 3, iPhone 5c and HTC One Max, do consider these devices too while making a purchase decision.
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