REVIEW:
Over the years I’ve not really had much time for Sony, I’ve had a play with most of their devices and I’ve never really been that impressed. Yes the build quality and design on the Z, Z1 and the Z1 Compact is rather splendid, but something always ruined it for me, most notably the screen. So when the Sony Xperia Z2 arrived on my desk I opened it up rather apprehensively. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it’s prime time for my review. Starting of course with my good and bad points.
Good Points
- Great overall flagship spec.
- Nice and quick through all elements of the UI.
- being waterproof and dustproof gives the Z2 an indestructible feel.
- Screen drastically improved over previous models.
- Micro SD slot is always welcome on a 16GB device.
- Battery life is great.
- Front facing speakers sound great.
Bad Points
- The flaps never stop being annoying especially when charging the Z2.
- Overall size of the device is large compared to competition.
- The Xperia Launcher and bundled apps are a little bit confusing at first.
- No Qi Wireless charging is a pain.
Design
The Sony Xperia Z range are great looking devices, a mix of glass and aluminium that just works. Some people moan about the angular edges, personally I like how solid the Xperia Z2 feels and knowing it’s also waterproof is like having insurance.
The edges are sort of flat and also curved, the right hand edge has the great feeling power button, the volume rocker and amazingly for an Android phone, the camera button. The camera button when pressed and held also wakes the phone and loads the camera. The right hand side has a flap housing the Micro SD card slot.
The left hand edge only has a flap, which in this case is where the Micro USB port and Micro SIM slot live. Also there are two pins for the magnetic charging dock which is Sony’s wireless charging solution.
The top edge has the headphone socket and a secondary microphone. The bottom edge has 3 holes which are the main microphone and a lanyard connection loop.
The front of the device is pretty devoid of any features, apart from the dual front speakers, some Sony branding and some large bezels above and below the screen. The front facing speakers are interesting in that they are thin almost seamless slots in the frame.
The back of the Z2 is a huge expanse of glass, nothing else bar the camera and the flash. Oh and another logo and a NFC logo too, which marks where the NFC detection coil is.
Overall I like the design, although it’s a huge phone for the size of the screen. It has the same size screen as the LG G2 yet the bezels above and below the screen are huge. Maybe keeping the phone thin and waterproof has meant they can’t fit all the components into a smaller chassis, oh wait they made a compact version last year. Who knows why it’s so big then.
Hardware
- Processor: 2.3 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974AB Quad-core SnapDragon 801 SOC.
- Display: 5.2” Full HD TRILUMINOS™ Display, X-Reality for mobile picture engine, 16M colours Full HD 1920×1080 pixels.
- Internal Memory: 16GB.
- RAM: 3 GB.
- Expansion slot: microSD™ card, up to 128 GB (SDXC supported).
- Rear Camera: 20.7 MP Exmor RS 4K Video Capture, Burst mode, HDR for both picture/film, 8x digital zoom.
- Front Camera: 2.2 MP 1080p.
- Google Android 4.4 (Kitkat).
- Connectivity: 3.5 mm audio jack, aGPS, ANT+ wireless technology, Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology, DLNA Certified, MHL support, Native USB tethering, NFC, Miracast.
- Durability: Waterproof (IP55 and IP58), Dust-resistant (IP55).
- Networks: UMTS HSPA+ 850 (Band V), 900 (Band VIII), 1700 (Band IV), 1900 (Band II), 2100 (Band I) MHz, GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20).
- FM Radio with RDS.
- 3D surround sound.
- Bluetooth stereo (aptX®, A2DP).
- Battery: 3200 mAh Non Removable.
- Weight: 163 grams.
- Dimensions: 146.8 x 73.3 x 8.2 mm.
Battery Life
The 3000 mAh battery in the Xperia Z2 is really quite good. It lasted me through a quite heavy working day on many an occasion. Used sparingly you could easily stretch it out much longer. Sony also have the expected power saving mode to help when power is running short.
BOTTOM LINE:
Overall I really liked the Sony Xperia Z2, having been disappointed with previous models I was really pleasantly surprised with the Z2. Yes the launcher might be a bit iffy and yes the overall size of the device compared to the screen size is huge, but I really liked it. The overall speed of the device, a great camera, an amazing build quality and a feeling of invulnerability around water really makes the Xperia Z2 feel like a special phone. In my opinion it’s possibly the nicest Android phone around at the moment.
By HARSHVARDHAN SINGH
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