[Review] Sony Xperia Z3
I’ve had the Sony Xperia Z3 for about a month along with the Sony SmartWatch 3. These were Sony’s premium devices from last year, but the smartphone still runs all of today’s apps just fine! Not to mention the specs on the Z3 are still decent, albeit the introduction of newer models from Sony and its competition!
A quick rundown of the specs review that it has a 5.2″ IPS screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. That is equivalent to around 424 pixels per inch. Thanks to its Triluminos display, the colours on the Xperia Z3 are bright and vivid when turned up to its maximum brightness. It is also able to be viewed in direct sunlight without much hassle. This was a big plus for me as I used the phone on the bus a lot, and most of the time I am sitting on the window side with the sun on me and my phone.
Back to the idea that the Z3 has quite current specs for a 2014 phone, the CPU is powered by Qualcomm and boasts a quad-core 2.5GHz Krait 400 Snapdragon 801 processor. Plenty enough for fluid and seamless transition between apps when multitasking, and the Adreno 330 GPU is plenty for playing intensive video games such as Modern Combat 4/5, Dream League Soccer etc. The 3GB of RAM also helps with multitasking and the seamless transition between open apps.
One of my favourite features on the Sony Xpera Z3 is that it has a microSD card slot of up to 128GB unlike some of the more newer model phones from its competitors. The Xperia Z5, the newest flagship model smartphone by Sony, still has a microSD card, this time supporting up to 200GB! MicroSD card slots are good for me because I like to quickly be able to transfer files (whether its songs, documents, large videos, photos) to my computer and vice versa by just ejecting the microSD card out and slotting it into my laptop. It’s a lot easier and faster than copying files to and from the phone using a USB cable, in my opinion!
Another one of my favourite things on the Sony Xperia Z3 is that it is water resistant to IP65/68 certifications. This means that it is dust proof and water resistant to over 1 meter and for 30 minutes. I was able to use the Xperia Z3 in the bath without worry of getting it wet! That is why all the ports are covered, except for the gaming controller connector.
The Sony Xperia Z3 is equipped with a whopping 20.7 megapixel camera, that’s a massive 5238 x 3936 pixels the camera can take! But we know that these days, pixel count, megapixel count don’t mean a lot. A lot of people may say that the iPhone’s iSight camera is a prime example. Apple don’t like to “shout out” their phones’ camera’s megapixel count, but just how good it can take pictures. And it does take some relatively good pictures on Auto mode. Would you believe me if I said that the iPhones 6 and under model cameras don’t have more than 8 megapixels in their cameras? So it’s not all about the megapixel count, however, they do help towards a better picture on the big screen! The camera shoots at 20.7MP in manual mode, or 8MP in Superior Auto mode, which is what most consumers will be using.
The Z3 has a hardware shutter key, but that was pretty small and I found it a bit cumbersome to use even with medium sized hands/fingers. However, it is good to use when for example, shooting u stills or videos underwater as the touchscreen may be unresponsive when immersed in water. The Z3 also has a lot of different modes and scenes you can select, which is especially nice as some consumers may not know a lot about exposure settings etc. so will want to use Superior Auto mode. The camera enthusiasts (I mean mobile camera enthusiasts as the rest will probably have a DSLR) can use the manual mode to shoot stills with if they want to be professional.
I did try out the augmented reality modes and this effect had fish and animals ‘swimming’ around in the picture as I moved the camera.
Along with its predecessors, the Xperia Z3 can take 4K 2160p videos at 30fps at most.
I was quite impressed with the battery life of the Sony Xperia Z3. In fact it had the longest battery life straight out of the box, after I had installed all my apps on it, out of all the other smartphones I’ve ever had or tested. It had around 4 and a half hours of on screen time with 14% juice left!
What I also like is that Sony have included fast battery charging on the Z3. Quick Charge 2.0 is supposed to charge the Z3 60% in 30 minutes!
In conclusion, even though the Sony Xperia Z3 smartphone came out last year, it is still a decent quality smartphone to be used in 2015. The fact that the price is still up at around $900 for a year old smartphone does say a lot about the quality of the phone!
You can find out more about the Sony Xperia Z3 here: http://www.sony.co.nz/product/xperia+z3
