Sony Xperia Z1:Powerful but not the best

review: Sony Xperia Z1 Powerful but not the best

If you count the top handsets, irrespective of operating system, then Sony Xperia Z1 is bound to be considered on the sheer basis of its features. It has a very unique design; a powerful mobile processor, and is said to be the best camera smartphone that Sony has produced till date.

But at a time when you can buy a handset like Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41 megapixel lens and Note 3 which comes with a quad core processor, should you go for the Sony Xperia Z1?

To find out the, we used the Xperia Z1 extensively for over a fortnight and here is what we found.

Design

One of the best aspects of Xperia Z1 is its looks. The handset comes with glass covering - both on the front and the back. The construction was such that many people took a second or two to check which side the display is. Though the glass finishing is great to look at it makes the handset a fingerprint magnet. The display is also prone to scratches.

This is among the few smartphones that are dust and water resistant. Being water resistant, its micro SD card slot, SIM slot, and the micro USB charging port are well covered. In the black model there is a big white power button on the middle right side, below which lies the volume rocker. The close proximity of the two makes it a bit difficult to change the volume; many a times we have pressed the power button while trying to control the volume.

There is a quick camera key on the right hand bottom part, which is unusual for me but many would find it convenient. There is a 3.5 mm jack at the top and a docking port in the middle left side. There is a quick access button for camera in the right hand side towards the bottom. Curiously, Sony has wisely provided a soft-reset button which is placed beside the SIM slot and thus is well covered by the SIM jacket. The reset button is marked in red and "OFF" is written beside it. In case the phone hangs while operating, you can push this to restart the phone. This is very much essential as the phone has a non-removable battery.

At 8.5 mm, the phone is quite thin but is a bit heavy at 170 grams, especially considering the fact that Samsung Galaxy Note 3, despite having a 5.7 inch display, weighs 168 grams. Its weight can be attributed largely to the battery and camera sensors.

Display

Sony Xperia Z1 comes with a big 5 inch display with full HD (1920 x 1080 pixel) resolution, which means it has superb 441 ppi pixel density. Thus, pictures are quite sharp and you would love watching your full HD movies on it. The display is not an ordinary one but is made of Triluminos technology, which makes it quite bright. Moreover, its X Reality picture engine brings out optimal colour and contrast in images.

The screen is scratch-prone, yet the display glass seems pretty tough.

Camera

The Sony Xperia Z1 has a 1/2.3 inch image sensor with 20.7 megapixel image resolution, and produces images with a 1.1 micron pixel size-a lot less than HTC One’s 2 micron. As expected, when clicked in full resolution (20.7 megapixel,) pictures had a lot of noise and blur in them. However, if you downgrade the resolution to 8 megapixel, you would in fact get much better pictures with less noise.

Xperia Z1 has a much better f/2 lens (than f/2.2 of iPhone 5s and Lumia 1020). This increases its power to click images in low light. In its front there is a 2 megapixel camera, which is quite decent. Also, there is a Bionz mobile image processing engine that makes it incredibly fast, which you will also notice in auto and burst modes.

The camera app is quite simple: when you open the camera menu, you will see settings on the left side. On the right, you will see a camera apps icon. The Xperia Z1’s camera apps are under appreciated. Its Superior Auto is way above the competition; it brilliantly detects the environment to click the right picture. You could otherwise choose the manual function to change settings. There is a Timeshift Burst feature, which captures 30 pictures with just a click and allows you to choose one of them. I would have loved to capture as many pictures of the 30 as I want but nonetheless, the timeshift burst would come handy while capturing moving objects.

Other camera apps like AR Effect, Picture Effect, Social Live, Panorama, and even info eye are equally good and useful. Also, it can click pictures under water as well.

Performance

Xperia Z1 has a powerful 2.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 quad core processor. Besides, it has an Aderno 330 graphics processing unit, which is currently the best GPU in a handset. To support this combination, Sony has armed Xperia Z1 with 2 GB RAM. The smartphone uses Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

With such a combination the phone is bound to give flawless performance. Be it gaming or any kind of multitasking, Xperia Z1 manages to run everything. You can even take the liberty of opening 2-3 games with many other apps. Its muscular power is proved from the fact that it has even better scores than octa core processor bearing Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

However, the phone has a very serious heating issue. The phone gets heated during gaming (within 10-15 minutes) making it virtually impossible to use. At one point it simply refused to open the camera app saying that the phone is too hot.

Battery

Xperia Z1 is armed with a non-removable 3000 mAh Li-Ion battery. Since it has a very good processor and 2 GB RAM you need not worry about the non-removable battery (a removable battery allows people to take it out to do a soft reset if the phone hangs while operating) and anyway as I said above, it has a soft reset button that can be used to restart the phone in case it hangs due to some unfortunate reason.

The Sony Xperia Z1 is said to provide 13 hours of 2G and 15 hours of 3G talktime. But the phone’s battery drains out too fast during gaming; in less than 1.5 hours. With normal usage involving half an hour of gaming, around 15 minutes of calling and half an hour of WiFi browsing, the battery drains out completely.However, it has good standby and can hold to charge for a long time.

Storage and connectivity

Sony Xperia Z1 is quite rich when it comes to connectivity. It has a single micro SIM slot, Bluetooth4.0, WiFi, DLNA, micro USB, and GPS with A-GPS support.

The phone has a decent 16 GB internal memory and huge 64 GB expandable storage slot.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, Sony Xperia Z1 is one of the most powerful smartphones available today and it gives top notch performance. It is gorgeous to look at (though beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,) and it is quite strong.

However, the phone has a serious heating issue, battery backup is not very encouraging either. In addition, though its camera quality is appreciable, especially in low light and under water, it is clearly not the best in the arena, especially considering its competitors, which are available for around the same price as the Sony Xperia Z1, i.e. around Rs 40,000.

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Sony Xperia Z1 review-Powerful but not the best Specifications
Network
Operating System	Android
Dimensions	74 x 144 x 8.5 mm
Display	5 inch full HD Triluminos display, Bravia Engine
Input Method	Touch
Processor	2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core
Memory	16 GB internal, 64 GB expandable, 2 GB
Connectivity
Multimedia
Camera	20.7 megapixel rear, 2 megapixel front
GPS
Additional features	Water and dust resistant
Battery	3000 mAh
Warranty	1 year
Price	Around Rs 40,000

Sony Xperia C Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

Sony Xperia C review

Xperia C is Sony's first Mediatek processor based smartphone and is also its cheapest Android quad core device. It was a slightly late but appropriate move from Sony as Indian and Chinese handset makers are currently filling every price point with their quad core phones. In fact, you could buy a quad core processor based Android smartphone for as low as Rs 6,000. So why should one buy the Sony Xperia C for around Rs 20,000?

To answer the question we reviewed the Xperia C for about two weeks to test its features and here is what we found:

Design

Xperia C is certainly not the best looking handset of Sony but it is built well and is comfortable to use. This is because, despite having a 5 inch touchscreen, the smartphone weighs 153 grams and is 8.88 mm thick. Its matte finish back panel gives it a very good grip. Another reason for the good grip are its broad sides.

Xperia C stands out from other phones in its button placement. Like its high end cousins, the Xperia C has a power button made of metal on its right side - exactly at the middle. There are two benefits to this positioning - reaching out to the power button while operating the device with one hand is easy. Secondly, while playing games and watching movies there is no risk of accidentally pressing the power button, which normally happens in other handsets that have the power button at the top.

Besides the power button, there is the volume rocker and just below that a camera key. On the left side there is a micro USB port while a 3.5 mm jack is located at the top. There are no physical buttons below the screen.

Display

Sony Xperia C comes with a 5 inch LCD touchscreen. Sadly though it has only qHD (540 x 960 pixel) resolution. Most of its competitors (Indian and Chinese brands) come with full HD resolution. At least Sony should have armed it with HD resolution. Not that the resolution is that awful but you will feel the pinch while playing high end graphics based games and HD movies. The display though has good viewing angles and brightness. Touch response of the screen is also good.

Memory

Xperia C comes with 4 GB internal memory, of which only 1.21 GB is available for users to store their content. There is a 32 GB expandable memory slot. You will find this combination in many phones, but mostly in the below Rs 10,000 category. Handsets of most Indian and Chinese brands in this price range come with at least 8 GB internal memory. Also, handset manufacturers (including HTC and Samsung) have started arming its smartphones, even mid-budget ones, with 64 GB micro SD slots.

In Sony Xperia C, you can move all applications except the bloatwares, which cannot be uninstalled, to the SD card. Sony though has very wisely not stuffed it with too many bloatwares as used to be the case with most Sony devices earlier.

OS and user interface

The Sony Xperia C comes with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system, but with a custom interface. The notification bar consists of just data connection, WiFi, volume, Bluetooth and settings icon. There are no physical keys under the display but as you power on the touchscreen you will see three touch buttons - return, home, and one for recently activated tasks. When the home button is long pressed it allows you to directly open the web browser.

The recent tab button in Xperia C is also very useful. When you click it, it shows icons for browser, note, and a button to record sounds at the bottom. Also, from this screen you could access several widgets. Among the widgets, one special widget (named as Active Clip) allows you to capture the screen. Activate the screen capture widget to bring up the homescreen no matter what you are doing -watching a video or playing a game - and you have to just tap the icon at the appropriate time to capture it. This is easier than the traditional method of holding the power key and volume down button to capture the screen.

Another highlight of Sony Xperia C is its support for eight Indian languages that include English, Marathi, Hindi and Bangla.

Performance

Xperia C has a 1.2 GHz Mediatek MT6589 processor. It is assisted by a PowerVR SGX544 graphics processing unit and 1 GB RAM. Now there is nothing spectacular about this combination; dozens of handsets available for around Rs 10,000 come with these specs.

But Xperia C is much more capable than many Mediatek processor based handsets that I have reviewed. For instance, I was playing Injustice: Gods among us, which is a fairly graphics heavy game, simultaneously on both Xperia C and Micromax Canvas Turbo, which comes with a Mediatek MT6589T processor. It wasn't as smooth on Canvas Turbo as it was on Xperia C.

Battery

In Sony Xperia C there is a 2330 mAh Li-Ion Non-Removable battery. In most other 5 inch phablets you will find a battery of much lesser capacity, mostly around 1800 mAh. As is obvious, the phone managed to run long hours. On average usage involving around half an hour's gaming, 15 minutes of calls, half an hour of internet browsing, it comfortably gives a day's backup.

To give you some idea, we put it on a test during which we kept the WiFi on, brightness at maximum, and sound at loudest. We watched high definition videos on YouTube for half an hour, in which it lost 7 per cent charge. Then we played games for another half an hour in which it lost 10 per cent charge.

The Xperia C has many battery saving widgets as well. Among them is Stamina mode, which disables mobile data and WiFi when the screen is off. A low battery code disables functions in order to save power when the battery level is low. Location based WiFi automatically activates WiFi when in range of a saved network. This further helps conserve energy. Below are two screen shots that show how the Stamina mode affects the battery life of the phone.

Camera

Sony Xperia C comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front camera. A single LED flash is provided alongside the rear camera. Xperia C comes with a dedicated camera key as well.

The figures speak for the front camera. The 0.3 megapixel camera is good for video chatting but it is no good for self-portraits. The rear camera is able to capture colours as it is and has good auto focus capability. The LED light especially does a very good job of illuminating close by areas in low light. But the rear camera is nothing outstanding. In fact, there are many handsets much below this price point that could deliver the same.

Other features

Sony Xperia C is a dual SIM smartphone with dual standby feature but its only SIM supports 3G(42 Mbps download speed, 11.5 Mbps upload speeds). Besides, it has WiFi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity. There is DLNA and a micro USB port for file sharing as well. Thankfully it comes with FM radio too, which is usually not found in Android smartphones. Xperia C has a magnetometer, ambient light sensor, e-compass, accelerometer, and proximity sensor as well.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia C comes as a nice alternative to Samsung Galaxy Grand. Since HTC, another big MNC handset maker, does not have any quad core phone in its range, Sony Xperia C does look enticing and is recommended for those who want a "branded" phone with decent features. But if you go purely by features, there are a lot of alternatives from Indian manufacturers available for the same price.

To sum up, the Sony Xperia C is not eye catching but has a decent design, which is good for day to day use. I would recommend it for battery back up and decent performance but if you want the best in terms of camera you should look at something else.

Sony Xperia C review Specifications
Network
Operating System	Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Dimensions	74.15 x 141.5 x 8.88 mm, Weight: 153 grams
Display	5 inch, qHD resolution
Input Method	Touchscreen
Processor	1.2 GHz MTK6589, quad core
Memory	RAM: 1 GB, 4 GB ROM, 32 GB expandable
Connectivity	Dual SIM (3G), WiFi, Bluetooth, DLNA
Multimedia	Supports all major audio file types
Camera	8 megapixel rear, 0.3 megapixel front
GPS	Yes
Additional features	8 Indian language support, FM radio
Battery	2330 mAh
Warranty	1 year
Price	Rs 18,999