Sony Xperia Z3 Review: A Sharper, More Refined Xperia For Latest-2014

Sony had already announced its flagship smartphone – the Xperia Z2 – at this years Mobile World Congress and the units started appearing on the market May onwards. It has been just four months since, and Sony has already announced another flagship device
– theXperia Z3. This is nothing new for Sony, as it had done the same with the Xperia Z2, which was launched five months after the Sony Xperia Z1 launch. But is it really a drastic improvement or just a minor iteration? We will have a look, but first lets look at the build quality.

Build and Design

Sony Xperia Z3 has made some minor modifications to the build. Instead of having the half-curvature, half-flat design on the edges, Sony has gone with a completely curved design on the edges. While it certainly feels good in the hand, we wished Sony had used a more grippy material instead of the smooth metallic finish. Sure there is the dock connector on the left hand side and the power/standby, volume rocker and dedicated camera shutter buttons on the right edge to break the continuity, but at times the smooth edges paired with the glass back can get slippery.

Sony Xperia Z3 comes in an aluminum casing with a glass back, in four colours

The microSD card slot, the nano SIM slot and the microUSB charging ports are neatly hidden under flaps. Bottom edge is clean and there is a 3.5mm audio jack on the top left hand corner. The aluminum and glass construction exudes elegance. Even the speaker sections which used to peep out from the top and bottom edges on the Z2, have a smaller opening on the Z3 and are located a few millimeters from the edges which is a better implementation than the Z2.

Sony Xperia Z3 comes with IP68 certification making it fully dust-proof and water-proof upto a distance of 1 metre for 30 mins

It comes with an IP68 certification which as opposed to the IP58 seen on the Z2. IP stands for Ingress Protection and the two numbers indicate dust-resistance and water-resistance. The range for dust resistance is 0 to 6 and that for water resistance is 0 to 9. So the IP68 rating indicates that the phone is fully dust resistant whereas the water-resistance is the same as was seen with the Xperia Z2 which is water resistant over 1 meter and for 30 mins.

Just like the Xperia Z2, the Z3 has a flap covering the nano SIM and microSD card slots

The bezel on the top and bottom makes one-handed operation a bit painful, but then if you are investing in a 5.2-inch screen size phone, that is a given. But now that we are seeing a lot more push towards having thinner bezels on flagship phones, it would have been better to see Sony shave off a few millimeters from the top and bottom to give us a phone which isn’t as tall. Thankfully Sony has managed to make the Z3 slimmer and lighter than the Z2. The Xperia Z3 measures 7.3mm thick as opposed to 8.2mm on the Z2 and the Z3 weights 152gm as compared to 163gm on the Z2.

Features

Sony Xperia Z3 sports the same Snapdragon 801 SoC but the quad-core processor is not clocked at 2.5GHz instead of 2.3GHz as was the case with Xperia Z2. Apart from this the Z3 comes with Android 4.4.4 out of the box as opposed to the Z2 which has Android 4.4.2. Barring these two features, most other specifications are pretty much identical on both the Z2 and Z3. While the Sony Xperia Z2 came in just the 16GB variant, the Z3 comes in 16GB as well as 32GB variants. We tested the 16GB variant which offers usable memory of 11.5GB.

Sony Xperia Z3 comes with its Xperia skin

Some of the similar features include: 3GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU, 5.2-inch full HD IPS screen, Triluminous display with the X-Reality engine and so on. On the camera front, the Z3 sports the same 20.7MP 1 / 2.3-inch sensor camera with a 2.2MP front facing camera. The rear camera allows you to shoot 4K@30fps, 1080p@60fps and 720p@120fps. The battery capacity on the Z3 is 3100mAh, which is a 100mAh less than that on the Z2.

The Sony Xperia Z3 sports the same 20.7MP 1/2.3-inch sensor camera on the rear side with an LED flash unit

Another brand new feature is the PS4 Remote Play. This lets you connect your Xperia Z3 to the same wireless network as your PlayStation 4 console, and you can pause the game on your big screen TV and continue from there on your Xperia Z3 using a PS4 controller.

Performance

Display

Sony Xperia Z3 sports a 5.2-inch full HD screen and thanks to the IPS panel, you get brilliant viewing angles. The brightness levels are quite good. In fact Sony claims that this is the only phone with a brightness level of 600 candelas. Despite the high brightness levels, the black levels aren’t that disappointing. Of course, it does not come close to the blacks on AMOLED displays. Colours appear vivid and legibility in sunlight is quite good with brightness levels around 50 per cent as well. The glossy surface of the screen can be a bit annoying if you’re watching dark scenes in movies as it tends to reflect a lot.

Connectivity and Call quality

Sony Xperia Z3 supports quad-band 2G and 3G. Unlike the Xperia Z2, the Z3 will support LTE (4G) in the Indian market. You also get all the connectivity goodies such as Wi-fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, DLNA, GLONASS, assisted GPS, NFC and wireless tethering feature among others. There were no issues with the call quality. The speaker is loud enough and conversations were clearly audible even at high volume levels, with no noticeable distortions. We did not experience any dropped calls while testing, although that depends a lot on the network.

Media

Sony multi-media features are similar to the ones seen on the Z2, but Sony has added the Hi-Res audio feature which tends to improve the audio quality. Songs with the Hi-Res feature will come with a small HR logo on the bottom corner of the album art. Audio quality is great for the most part. Thanks to the brilliant screen, the video output is also quite good. You can easily watch a movie in your room with audio provided just by the speakers (without using a headset).

3D Mark scores show an impressive performance

Gaming

We played a lot of games such as RipTide, FIFA 14, Temple Run 2 and so on and did not face any lag issues. The phone is quite responsive to graphics heavy games, just that it tends to heat up. But things didn’t get so bad that the app would crash altogether.

Camera

The camera user interface has lots of interesting features such as AR Fun, Multi-cameras, Time-shift video and so on

One of the best features on the Xperia Z3 is the camera. Although it is the same 1 / 2.3-inch sensor 20.7MP G sensor seen on its predecessor, Sony has added on a few features on the Z3 to enhance photography. Some of the interesting features include Face in, Multi-camera, AR Fun, Time-shift video, background defocus and so on. Face in allows you to capture yourself (the size of your selfie is adjustable as well) as you are shooting with the rear camera. Multi-camera lets you connect two more smartphones to your Z3 and you can then use the cameras of these two smartphones, along with your own Z3 to shoot from three different angles at the same time. At the launch event, we were told that as of now this feature is available only on the Z3 and Z3 Compact – which means you will need to own the latest smartphones to use this. Sony may have the intention to sell more Z3 handsets with this, but it would be much more practical if the feature is extended to other Sony / non-Sony phones as the communication protocol uses Wi-fi Direct. We hope it is extended to other Xperia branded phones at least.

You can play around with perspectives by just shifting the cameras viewing angle while the annotation remains steady in the AR Fun mode

AR Fun is another addition which lets you tinker around with your images with animations or drawings. The app behaves a bit strangely at times and we found it to be a hit and miss affair. But when it works, it gives you a lot of creative possibilities. We hopes the annotation option gave more responsive brushes.

All these extra features tend to heat up the smartphone quickly which is a bit annoying. For instance, while shooting in the Time-shift mode, we kept getting the ‘Overheat Control’ notifications telling us that the phone was overheating, and would automatically shut down the app if temperatures reached critical levels. If you are shooting outdoors in hot conditions, the rear side of the phone can get hot when using the special camera features.

PS: Please click on the images to see the go to the Flickr page having the full resolution images.

At 100 percent crop, the leaves and grass in the image tend to lose their detail

Purple fringing is well controlled

Shoots images with a decent dynamic range

The 25mm wide-angle lens lets you capture a lot of details. Works well while shooting on the streets

Shot in the Macro mode. Colour details are good

Normal mode (top) and Background defocus mode activated (below)

Image quality is excellent as is expected from Sony, but we just felt that the AF speed could have been faster. The Superior Auto mode makes shooting a breeze, and although shooting at 20MP, you will get a downscaled output of 8MP. To get the full 20.7MP resolution, you will need to shoot in the Manual mode. The centre sharpness is good, but details become softer around the edges. But we were impressed with the handling of artifacts such as purple fringing around fine edges. While Sony Xperia Z3 boasts of sensitivity level going up to ISO 12800, you will start noticing patchy details from ISO 3200 onwards. For sharing online, using higher ISO levels is fine, but if you are planning to print photographs, ensure you stay under ISO 3200.
Video shooting is also impressive with good colours and details. Modes like Time-shift video let you play around with the speed of the videos. It also offers 4K video recording mode. Indoor videos tend to be a bit more noisier for the same ISO levels vis-a-vis outdoor videos.

Battery life

Power management allows you to put your phone in Stamina, Ultra Stamina and Low power modes to help you get more juice out of your battery

The Sony Xperia Z3 comes with a 3100 mAh battery and on after our rigourous 8-hour battery drain test (2 hours calling, 2 hours HD video playback, 2 hours audio playback and 2 hours video streaming and web surfing) the camera still showed around 41 per cent battery remaining. This is without the power-saving modes activated. That is an impressive number and you can easily use the phone regularly for more than a day and a half. But the drain is noticeable when you’re shooting videos or using AR and other special camera features. Under Settings > Power Management, you have the Stamina mode, Ultra stamina mode and low battery mode which when activated tend to ensure you get more juice out of your phones battery. Overall a phone that will easily last over a day and a half on regular usage.

Specification

Display

Form Factor	Bar
Screen Type	HD Capacitive Touchscreen
Screen Size	5.2 inches
Screen Resolution	1920 x 1080
Protection	X-Reality Engine

Processor

Processor	Quad Core
Speed	2.5 GHz

Memory

Internal Memory	16GB, 3GB RAM
Extendable Memory	microSD, up to 128GB

Camera Features

Sensor Resolution	20.7MP
Features	HDR Mode, Burst Mode, Image Stabiliser, Geotagging
Digital Zoom	8x
Video resolution / frame rate	1080p
Video Recording	Yes
Front facing camera	2.2MP

General Features

OS	Android
Version	4.4 (KitKat)
Bluetooth Features	4.0
Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email
GPS	Yes, with A-GPS Support
USB Connector	Yes
NFC	Yes
Available Colours	Black, White, Copper

Carrier Networks

2G	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G	UMTS 2100 MHz
4G	Yes

Data

GPRS	Yes
EGPRS or EDGE	EDGE
WiFi	WiFi, WiFi Hotspot

Body

Dimensions	72 x 7.3 x 146 mm
Weight(grams)	152

Sound

Media Player	Music formats: 3GPP, MP4, ADTS, AMR, DSF, DSDIFF, FLAC, Matroska, SMF, XMF, Mobile XMF, OTA, RTTTL, RTX, iMelody, MP3, WAV, OGG, ASF - Video formats: 3GPP, MP4, Matroska, AVI, Xvid, WebM
Speakerphone	Yes
Audio connector	3.5mm

Battery