A
while ago, Sony made it its official strategy to release a new flagship
phone every 6 months. According to company execs, the temp change is
simple: technology is just moving too fast, and that a shorter release
cycle is the only way to account for that and stay relevant.
It's
a nice sentiment at its core. After all, who doesn't want his favorite
manufacturer to strive to always bring the latest in tech to its
customers? But the reality is that this is a topic of controversy, as
many feel that such a pace will inevitably limit the appeal of
consecutive device releases, as there simply won't be enough in it to
trigger that overpowering feeling that you just have to upgrade to the new best. And now, Sony's new best is here, so say hello to the Xperia Z3.
Design: OmniBalance with a lemon wedge
By
now, most of you will have come to recognize major companies' unique
design language. All of them usually have a name for it, and Sony tends
to refer to its devices' specific curves as representing its OmniBalance
design philosophy. The Xperia Z3 is true to that philosophy, but it
introduces a twist that is absolutely a-typical: a rounded frame.
We
can't stress how welcome this change really is -- after all, while not
terrible at ergonomics by any means, previous Z-line flagships have left
something to be desired. Also welcome are the reductions in thickness
(7.3 mm from 8.2 mm), bezel size, overall dimensions (146 x 72 mm / 5.74
x 2.83 in), and weight (152 g from 162 g). Seeing as the Z3's
predecessor was anything but small, these are all changes for the
better, especially since they entail no sacrifice -- the phone is still
IP68-certified for its dust and water resistance, though Sony is adding
an IP65 spec to the sheet, as well, to signify that the phone is also
resistant from water shot directly at the phone. What's more, the phone
retains it's premium body, with a frame made out of aluminum and
tempered glass used for the front and back panels.
Oh,
and don't freak out -- the Xperia Z3 does come with seemingly the
same S-Force Front Surround stereo speakers found in its predecessor.
When talking display, it's same old same old and that's great
We
expected no major changes when it came to the Xperia Z3's screen, and
that, perhaps, is why we weren't surprised when Sony made it clear that
it won't be jumping onto the Quad HD bandwagon. Of course, we don't
necessarily feel like such super-detailed panels add much to the user
experience, and we know for a fact that content for that resolution is still exceedingly rare.
As
for the panel in question, we're talking a 5.2-inch IPS unit with a
standard resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, or a density of 424 ppi. To
spice things up, Sony claims to have used its brightest TRILUMINOS
display for mobile with the standard Live Colour and X-Reality engines
for a better image. According to the company, this is the "world's
brightest display of leading premium smartphones". We are not absolutely
clear on that, but we've been hearing the 600 nits figure being thrown
around, so perhaps the upgrade isn't trivial.
On the inside, there's a Snapdragon eight hundred and... one?
Alright,
so Sony has used a (higher-clocked) Snapdragon 801 chipset by Qualcomm
with the Xperia Z3, and that won't sit well with the specs-obsessed
crowd out there.
Quite frankly, if you feel
like you belong to that group, we'd be more ready to agree with you if
the topic of conversation isn't just that of computing power, as the
SD801 has more than enough of that, especially when talking about 1080p
displays. Indeed, at least according to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 805
(that you'll soon find on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4) introduces
improvements and new features to smartphone cameras, among which Chroma
Flash (shoot two snaps in darkness, one with flash and one without, and
combines them for a more natural-looking images), Action Shot and
OptiZoom (tap on an object to keep it focused as it moves; tap on object
and the camera will automatically zoom into it even if keeps on
moving). It remains to be seen, however, if the first crop of Snapdragon
805-equipped devices will actually take advantage of these new goodies.
Moving
onto memory, the situation here is much the same -- the Z3, like the
Z2, will stick to 3GB of LPDDR3 memory, and that's not surprising
considering that Android is still 32-bit. As for internal storage, there
will be two versions -- one with 16GB and one with 32GB, both with
support for microSD cards.
Last, but not least,
the entire show is powered by an embedded, 3100 mAh cell. That's right,
the thinness of the phone has obviously required a small sacrifice in
battery capacity, as the Xperia Z2 boasted a 3200 mAh unit instead.
Say hello to Sony's improved 20.7-megapixel camera
Starting
with the Xperia Z1, Sony has transitioned over to an impressive
20.7-megapixel sensor of its own make. The Xperia Z2 afterwards
introduced several improvements that made the camera even better, and
now it's the Xperia Z3's turn to improve on the successful formula.
To
start off, there's no change in maximum resolution -- you've still got
20.7-megapixels to utilize, and the larger-than-average, 1/2.3'' Exmor
RS sensor is here to stay. Different here are the new 25 mm wide-angled G
Lens, which should give your camera a wider field of view. Sony is also
adding new features to the camera software, including Face in (shoots
two videos), AR fun (scribble over images), Sound Photo, and more, and,
perhaps most importantly, the company has also improved its SteadyShot
digital image stabilization tech, which should now be better at
compensating for hand movements during video capture.
The rest of the package
Sony
rounded up the Xperia Z3 package with a few extras. A major one of
those is its ability to communicate with PlayStation 4 consoles through
PS4 Remote Play, allowing you to either use the phone as a secondary
screen for games, or even play right from the 5.2-inch screen.
The
Z3 comes with the very latest update of Android -- 4.4.4 KitKat. The
phone also has support for NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and Cat 4 LTE speeds of
up to
150 Mbps. In some regions, Sony will also sell the new flagship in a dual SIM flavor.
Last
but not least, Sony has also changed up the color options -- the Z3
will be available in White, Black, Copper, and Silver Green.
Price and release date
Sony,
as per usual, wasn't very talkative as far as a proper release date or
pricing are concerned. We were only told to expect a global launch for
the Z3 starting in the autumn of 2014, so a roll-out within the next
month, month and a half, is plausible. As for pricing, we'll have to
wait and see if Sony has finally made any significant progress with
carriers in the US, as the company has been altogether absent stateside
lately. As for the rest of the world, we expect the new flagship to be
priced identically to its predecessor, so about €569 in Europe without a
contract.
