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Sony Xperia Z1 Review

Sony announced their latest flagship in the form of the Xperia Z1 – a 20 megapixel-packing smartphone that runs 5-inch full HD display and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 CPU. Certainly a beast but does it have enough to lure people away from competition. Let’s find out by reading our Sony Xperia Z1 review below.

xperia_z1_1_1

Design and Construction

As mentioned during our first impressions, the Z1 poses as the better-performing and better-looking brother of the Xperia Z. It also has a waterproof and dustproof body but this time sports an an aluminum frame with rounded edges and slapped with tempered glass on the front and back. All these give the Z1 an impression of durability, sleekness and functionality.

xperia_z1_ps

Found on the front of the device is the familiar 5-inch Full HD TFT Triluminous display, along with the earpiece which also doubles as the notification light, and the 2 megapixel front-facing camera. No capacitive buttons here so the rest are all glass.

Take a peak on the left side and you’ll see two flaps that cover the microSD card slot and microUSB port. Also found here is the magnetic port for the dock. On the right is another flap for the micro-SIM slot along with the power/lock button, volume rocker, and dedicated camera button.

xperia_z1_rear

Right on top is the headset jack, while at the bottom is the wide speaker grill and provision for a lanyard. Flip it on its back and you’ll see the 20.7 megapixel camera with G Lens, LED flash, and another microphone for video recording purposes.

xperia_z1_2

At 8.5mm thick and weighing at 170g, the Z1 isn’t exactly the thinnest or the lightest of smartphones but it is certainly one of the best looking out there.

Display

The Z1 retains the 5-inch Full HD display of its predecessor which includes the TFT screen. However, Sony included their Triluminos display technology which, according to Sony, gives the Z1’s display a wider color range. True enough, the Z1 was able to deliver a relatively vibrant viewing experience with very rich colors.

xperia_z1_display

Yes, it’s still TFT.

The Xperia Z1 uses a TFT LCD which means that color reproduction and viewing angles aren’t as good as to one with IPS. But this is not to say that the Z1’s display is bad. As mentioned earlier, Sony’s Triluminos technology and X-Reality for mobile seem to be working as advertised as the display is crisp and vibrant.

xperia_z1_screen

However, as expected, it is not without flaws. Sunlight legibility is poor, blacks are not that deep, and colors fade when you start viewing from different angles. This could be a downer especially when you’re watching a video with a bunch of friends.

OS, UI, and Apps

The Z1 comes with Android 4.2.2 Jellybean right out of the box. It is skinned with Sony’s UI which doesn’t differ much from the other members of the family. It starts with five active homescreens, three navigation buttons at the bottom, and an app drawer to bring up the installed apps which you can navigate by swiping to the left or right.

z1_ui1

Sony also added a shortcut menu here which you can access by swiping from the left edge to the right. From here you can easily uninstall an app or arrange them in different categories. Everything is pretty much straight forward and easy to use.

z1_ui2

Speaking of apps, the Z1 is preinstalled with your usual Google suspects with the addition of Sony’s own apps like the Walkman, Socialife, Reader by Sony, TrackID, TrackID TV, Sketch, and PlayStation Mobile. The unit we received comes preinstalled with third-party apps as well like McAfee Security, Office Suite, Pixlr Express, and a demo version of Temple Run 2. All of these can be uninstalled except for TR2 which is weird.

z1_ui3

As for your app needs, the Google Play Store and Sony Select are there to provide you with good selections. The Z1 has a total of 12GB of usable storage which should suffice for those who are heavy on apps.

Camera

Sony is also leveraging on the Z1’s 20.7 megapixel camera which is a significant improvement over the Z’s 13 megapixel. The company is also careful not to appear as to be playing around with the “megapixel” numbers and equipped the Z1 with a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor and a wide angle 27mm f/2.0 G Lens.

xperia_z1_glens

With the help of the BIONZ image processing engine, the Z1 is capable of shooting sharper, clearer, and brighter images even in low light. Or so they say on paper. But having tested the camera, I can definitely say that it is one of the best we’ve used so far. It is fast and captures a lot of detail with great colors especially in bright conditions.

z1_camera_colors

In low light, the Z1 can handle itself well even without the use of flash. Noise is evident but the camera’s image processing engine was able to tone it down to acceptable levels.

z1_indoor_lowlight
Shot indoors (without flash) during a rainy afternoon.

As with the use of flash, one might expect some improvement in image quality given the light source but prepare to be disappointed. The tiny flash often times washes out the main subject and leaves the rest peppered with noise.

z1_indoor_lowlight_flash
Shot indoors (with flash) during a rainy afternoon.

In addition, the light coming from the LED sometimes makes images appear yellowish. If we were to suggest, better set the flash to OFF and only use if there’s virtually no light source available.

Take a look at more sample photos below:
[fancygallery id=”44″ album=”47″]

Camera apps

Sony didn’t stop in just making an impressive camera for the Z1, they also developed very useful apps to go along with it. Just tap the mode button on the lower right-hand side and it will bring up a total of eight camera modes/apps:

Superior Auto – will shoot photos and videos in automatically optimized settings.

z1_superior_auto

Manual – manually adjust your camera settings. HDR works here but only at 8 megapixel.

z1_manual

Timeshift Burst – captures 61 frames within just 2 seconds (starting even before you press the shutter) then lets you scroll back and forth to select the perfect image.

z1_timeshift burst

Picture Effect – select an artistic effect to apply to photos

z1_picture effect

Sweep Panorama – take panoramic photos

z1_panorama

AR Effect – choose from 7 virtual scenes to add to your photos.

z1_ar effect

Info Eye – shares relevant information on your subject through your camera viewfinder.

z1_info_eye

Social Live – broadcast images and videos live via Facebook

z1_social_live

Sony mentioned that there are more camera apps being developed so expect more features to arrive over time.

As for its video recording capabilities, the Z1 is capable of shooting 1080p videos at 30fps. Take a look at the sample video below which includes underwater and low light shots:

Multimedia

As expected of a Xperia flagship, the Z1 is a multimedia powerhouse. Sony’s WALKMAN, Movies, and Album app provide both eye-candy and rich experience.

z1_movies

The WALKMAN and Movies app organizes your songs videos properly and downloads extra info with the help of Gracenote.

z1_walkman

The Album app on the other hand makes it easy for you to browse neatly through your galleries and allows integration with Facebook albums, Picasa and Flickr.

z1_albums

Like what was mentioned in the Display section, the 5-inch Full HD display makes it a great partner for watching movies especially of 1080p resolution. If you’re lone watcher, you’ll surely appreciate the bells and whistles of the display but if you’re with other folks, those watching from the sides won’t appreciate the limited viewing angles.

As for the speaker, at first glance you’d think that the whole grill is the speaker itself when in fact it’s only the right side that produces sound. The left side is saved for the mic, similar to that of the iPhone.

z1_speaker

By default, the speaker’s power feels weak so you might want to activate ClearAudio+ from the settings to give it some boost if you want to fill a small room. But if you really want a better listening experience, a good set of headphones or external speakers are still recommended.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Z1 is a Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 CPU clocked at 2.2GHz coupled with 2GB of RAM. This immediately takes the Z1 into the ranks of the Android elite. Together with Android 4.2.2 onboard, lags should be a thing of the past.

With more than a week of use we did not experience any slow downs, crashes or random reboots. A good sign that everything is very much stable.

z1_bench_firstimpression

As we have posted in our first impressions, the Z1 scored 34,625 in AnTuTu and 21,578 on Quadrant Standard.

z1_bench_2

NenaMark 2 maxed out at 60fps while Vellamo gave it a score of 2,914 on HTML5 and 1,144 on Metal.

Call Quality and Battery Life

Call quality on the Z1 is okay and worked normally as expected as everything is loud and clear granted that the network’s signal is good.

To ensure that quality, Sony provided some extra features in this department like Micrphone noise suppression, Equalizer, Speaker voice enhancement, and Slow talk which slows down the speech of the other calling party.

z1_call features

As for the battery, the Z1 is equipped with a non-removable 3,000mAh battery which shows an estimated battery life of 19 hours with mobile network and WiFi on. On Stamina mode it will show an estimated battery life of 2 days and 14 hours. With our regular use which consists of constant WiFi connectivity, heavy browsing on SNS, light texting and calling, the Z1 was able to last between 9 to 10 hours.

z1_battery life

We placed the Z1 in our usual battery test and played a 1080p movie at 50% brightness and 0% volume in Airplane mode. The result is 8.33 hours worth of continuous movie playback.

Conclusion

The 5-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, IP58-certified body, LTE connectivity, healthy 3,000mAh battery, and feature-packed 20.7 megapixel camera, makes the Xperia Z1 one of the best Android smartphones to date.

It is not perfect in some aspects though like the reflective TFT display and weak LED flash performance. And there’s the slow OS upgrade rollout that’s been bugging Sony for quite some time. Let’s just hope that the company has improved in this department now that Android 4.4 KitKat is on the way.

Still, if you’re one of those on a look out for a top-performing flagship smartphone with a “premium” build, the glass and aluminum-bodied Xperia Z1 should be on your top list to choose from.

Sony Xperia Z1 specs:
5″ TFT Triluminous display (1920 x 1080), 440ppi
2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 CPU
2GB RAM
1/2.3-inch 20.7MP Exmor RS CMOS image sensor
27mm wide angle and bright F2.0 aperture
BIONZ for mobile image processing engine
16GB of internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD
HSPA+, LTE
WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi Hotspot
NFC
ANT+ support
Bluetooth 4.0
aGPS
DLNA
GLONASS
MHL support
IP55/58 dust and water resistance
3,000mAh battery
Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
144 x 74 x 8.5mm
170 grams
Available in Black, Purple, and White

What we liked about it:
*Great camera
*Great build
*Very snappy performance
*Good battery life

What we didn’t like about it:
*Reflective TFT display
*Weak flash

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Avatar for Diangson Louie

This article was written by Louie Diangson, Managing Editor of YugaTech. You can follow him at @John_Louie.

70 Responses

  1. Avatar for Late_Reaction Late_Reaction says:

    “No capacitive buttons here so the rest are all glass.”

    Eh? Baka “physical” button?

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      he’s referring to the front surface of the phone.TANGA.Salita ng salita di naman pala naintindihan.

    • Avatar for latecx latecx says:

      wew, ikaw ang tanga. kaya mali yong reviewer kasi kung capacitive buttons, pwede yon nasa ilalim lang ng glass. kaya kung may capacitive buttons pwede pa rin all glass yong front. kung may “physical” buttons, nakausli yon para magamit kaya hindi pwede sa ilalim ng glass.

    • Avatar for Late_Reaction Late_Reaction says:

      @wew
      Sino sa atin ang tanga ngayon? Thanks @latecx

  2. Avatar for applexperia applexperia says:

    I can smell some negativity towards Sony products on this review. Screen issues and slow software updates are just nitpicking, all of the 2013 high-end to mid-end xperia models have been updated to 4.2.2 and sony promised an update to 4.3. Even galaxy s4 has not been updated to 4.3. About the screen issue many people who were at IFA was praising the screen and some say its better than z ultra which has a very good screen. It’s just your a samsung or iphone fan and no other smartphone is better than them. I am an iPhone 5 user however when i saw the xperia z ultra I was stunned with its display. I think aside from apple, sony makes the best industrial design phones in the market. Is this a production unit? Xperia Z1 is not yet even available. This may be a pre production unit.

  3. Avatar for SDBJr007 SDBJr007 says:

    Parang ibang display tech tong sa review unit nang Yugatech compared dun sa GSMArena ahh. Parang tulad din sa original Z na 2 different display panels ginamit nila sa different markets. I was hoping pa nman sana na kasing ganda na nang LG display panels to. What a downer, sayang. . .

  4. Avatar for wew wew says:

    if this is equipped with IPS LCD,camera is improved and the footprint is reduced,i think this would be the best smartphone to date,defeating the sgs4.

  5. Avatar for roiji roiji says:

    i am really impressed sa camera.
    hindi nagwiwiggle (much) yung nasa video.
    yung outside shots are on par or better than some dSLRs

  6. Avatar for GM GM says:

    This is a vry nice review, but from an engineering standpoint, I was bewildered when you say: “Yes, it’s still TFT” or you mean “Yes, it’s still TFT-LCD” (caption below of the 5th pic)

    Maraming klaseng panels for flat display. And the two common for phones/smartphones are LCD (liquid-crystal) and LED(organic LED; OLED). Alam natin common ang LCD mapa relos, sa calculator, brickgames, phones (remember Nokia 3310), TV, at marami pang iba. To have more clearer, brighter, sharper and good image display, we have to incorporate “active matrix” to its LCD panel. But to do this, we need “transistor”, dito na papasok ang tinatawag na TFT, cause literally, TFT is simply a thin-film transistor. Eh sa OLED di ba pwedeng walang TFT? Meron kaya nga AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diodes). In fact, yaong TFT LCD na yan pwede ring tawaging AMLCD (active matrix LCD). What my point is, using the term TFT only is vague kasi pwedeng TFT sa LCD or OLED. Kasi nga, as what I’ve said, those both display panel uses transistor. Sa ibang nag cocomment, there is no specific superiority between OLED and LCD kasi both display panels have their own PROS and CONS over the other. Depende pa rin sa preferences nyo. Itong TFT LCD, (well we may opt to call this Standard LCD) problem dito ang viewing angles (as what you can see mostly in china-made tvs or low-end phones). To address this issue, IPS LCD was introduced kasi nga pantapat sa AMOLED w/c has a perfect viewing angle. Kaya dito may pros and cons ang LCD vs AMOLED. Yung “black” ng LCD hindi ganun ka black compare sa “black” ng AMOLED. energy-efficient naman ang AMOLED kaysa sa LCD. however, AMOLED main disadvantage is color display na nadedeteriorate habang tumatagal (kasi nga literally may organic carbon components which nabubulok). AMOLED is also much saturated in color compare to IPS. Also mas mahal ang AMOLED. We cannot blame SONY for using TFT LCD kasi common use naman talaga nila ito for Sony products. Sa TV, game consoles, of course on their mobile handset they too use this kind of LCD.

    PS: Super AMOLED, HD-IPS Advance, S-LCD, Retina Display, ClearBlack display, o kahit anu pa or even this triluminous display are just “marketing drive” of kanya-kanyang company. those are still fall under LCD or OLED with active-matrix technologies which are all good in their own right.

    • Avatar for jakolero jakolero says:

      Professor ka tyak sa electronics and communications engineering school sir, you know what ur talking! Simple ang pag deliver mo sir, maintindihan tyak ng mga kupal, na tabloid lang nabasa, as if alam na nila ang mundo ng polarons at electrons.

    • Avatar for anon666 anon666 says:

      (y)

  7. Avatar for kami kami says:

    Ayoko sana patulan yung nagcomment about plans. Pero i smell ignorance!

    Kindly check yung cashout ng mga sinasabi mo. Just so you know, i have an ip5 and sony xperiaZ.

    Btw, will someone expound yung sa display (tft, amoled, etc) in relation n din sa waterproofing ng device. This will greatly help us understand the whys. Thanks.

    On a positive note, aside the much contested na display, all the other specs are superb. Naawa tuloy ako sa xperia Z ko. Hahaha

  8. Avatar for awdog awdog says:

    gsmarena rated sony’s triluminous screen tech very highly pero dito sa yugatech lang “cons” sya?

    LOL

  9. Avatar for Dakkol T. Butok Dakkol T. Butok says:

    Pustahan tau, ung mga may apple at samsung d makakbili ng sony, alam niu bakit, kasi wlang plan ang sony. Ang apple cheap, kc plan apple iphone5/s peso 999 or medyo ayos lang samsung s4 plan peso 1500. So lahat ng may apple dian, cheap niu, lalo pa naging cheapo ngaun plastic cheap na lagi kau kantiwa samsung ayan napala niu mas chipipay pa apple 5c crap cheap at ang price ng 5s 5c bargain na sa walwart panu kinain ng asian brand ang market dahil sa super quality na, affordable pa. Bwahahaha.

    • Avatar for Dakkol T. Ulol Dakkol T. Ulol says:

      Bobo. Kala mo ba lahat ng may ibang klaseng phone binibili ng cash? Bobo. Karamihan nagiinstallment din 2 years to pay pa nga. And ikaw ang cheap, hanggang prepaid lang ba kaya mo? Di mo kaya magpostpaid kasi di mo kaya monthly? Or di ka maapprove ng postpaid kasi di kaya ng suweldo? Or wala kang suweldo? Or blacklisted ka dahil may utang?

      Go figure.

    • Avatar for Mamerto Villanueva Mamerto Villanueva says:

      Tama ka dian padre. Lahat naman ng may apple iphone ay social climber at wannabe style may pera, pero halos karamihan, if not lahat ay mga kabit at bakla, un lang di ko sure ano dahilan, but am sure ung mga gadget nila ay binili ng papa nila. As for credit card, tama ka din, panay utang ng utang mga iyang kabit at bakla at pag singilan time na eh naglalaho na hahaha. I worked in a credit collection firm at panay kabit at bakla ang sinisingil naming nagtatago dahil sa utang at karamihan ay sa globe at smart utang plan 999 ng iphone.

  10. Avatar for buns buns says:

    IPS is a variant of LCD. and AMOLED can also be TFT!

  11. Avatar for E. Agron E. Agron says:

    Anyone who has a clue how much will it land in the Philippines?

  12. Avatar for HiERARCH HiERARCH says:

    wow! I like the biotope inside the aquarium. are those plants real?

  13. Avatar for yuga reader yuga reader says:

    Two micro sd cards? The other flap might be for the microsim card. You can ignore this comment and go ahead with the correction.

  14. Avatar for yuga reader yuga reader says:

    Congrats yuga! Naunahan mo pa ang gsmarena sa review ng Z1. Keep it up!

  15. Avatar for Butchitee Butchitee says:

    Awesome! Land to Ph market now and I’ll be one of the firsts to grab you!

  16. Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

    I don’t. Know what’s pushing Sony to continue incorporating the TFT technology in their handsets. Clearly not as good as IPS or even AMOLED no matter what fancy term they use to describe it.

    • Avatar for GM GM says:

      Sorry, you are very wrong to say that. IPS or AMOLED uses “TFT technology” (as you want to call that way). Both IPS and AMOLED have transistor on their panel. That transistor is incorporated in a very thin-film. well, thin-film transistor. i’ll make it short, it’s TFT. :)

    • Avatar for g g says:

      Better do a research first before you comment. Look for credible and reliable sources, look for the pros and cons. Look for what the technology gives. Elevate your level of knowledge first, then make a good comparison and analysis. Nakakahiya kasi yung comment mo, halatang hindi ka masyado nagbabasa. Basta makapagcomment na lang at makapagbanggit ng IPS at AMOLED.

    • Avatar for g g says:

      Abuzalzal and the reviewer should’ve done a research first.
      Mabilis nga yung publishing ng review but it looks fishy. Other sites do more extensive tests first especially in the imaging department. They even make comparisons in different lighting conditions. Nauna nga yung review sa ibang sites but it feels incomplete.

  17. Avatar for Ben Ben says:

    Louie,

    You might want to research what TFT is and edit your review.

  18. Avatar for Abed Abed says:

    Perfect na sana if they replaced the reflective TFT display to IPS or AMOLED.

    • Avatar for JM JM says:

      all iphones use TFT LCD w/ retina display, X-reality engine solve TFT problems,
      why they dont use amoled, because of its over saturated color which will not match in their x-reality engine software,
      IPS, is type of TFT lcd,

    • Avatar for Name:buns Name:buns says:

      It’s funny that these reviewers dont know the difference between panel types.

    • Avatar for Abed Abed says:

      I see. Thanks for the info sir! I thought TFT is a different kind of display aside from IPS and AMOLED. So TFT is just a variant of LCD. :)

    • Avatar for g g says:

      @buns well, that’s the sad thing. Basta maicompare ang TFT at AMOLED without having that much knowledge about the display panels and their origin. Basta s. kanila maganda na kapag oversaturated ang colors, neglecting color accuracy. Because what matters to those who doesn’t know that much about those technology, are oversaturation over accuracy. Maybe the triluminous has a much less saturation, but it produces much more accurate colors because of the wider color palette it gives. Also, according to some sources that I read, pure reds, greens etc. are being produced giving you a nearly life-like colors. That’s what we should want, not just want but also need, I think. Hindi basta yung oversaruratedted colors.

  19. Avatar for Yusuf Yusuf says:

    This phone’s display is an abomination. Without the Triluminos and the X-Reality Engine, it would be a pure mess. Such a shame, Sony. + They could’ve released it with Android 4.3 Guess there’s really no such thing as a perfect Android phone. If there’s any Android that I’d recommend though, I’d say choose this one. Second on the line is the S4. The Note III is just ugly and too big. Better yet, get an iPhone 5S or the 1020.

    • Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

      Too many nit-picking ”know-hows” here

      in the tech lingo…TFT is (technically) a collective term for ips and amoled, but since mas bago yung technology ng ips at amoled, we don’t refer to the ips-es and amoleds as TFTs per se…

      SONY is still using an age-old TFT variant based on laptop screen / Television technology, that is NEITHER ips or amoled….so ano pa ba itatawag natin??? hayyyys mga tao nga naman

    • Avatar for spumaje spumaje says:

      According to most reviews, this screen is even better than the Z Ultra’s. And if you’ve seen the Z Ultra in person, it’s pretty hard to criticize because that screen is already one of the best out there, even compared to AMOLED.

      Here’s what GSMarena had to say:
      A key area that has saw improvement with the latest Sony display tech is viewing angles. Those have been a long-standing issue with all of the company’s screens over the past few years, but now things are looking much better. You do get contrast compression when you look from very wide angle, but everything still remains legible. At this point the differences between this and the best screens in business is more about the high-tech vibe that you get when the icons appear as if painted on the screen. In terms of usability though, the Xperia Z1 does as good as any of its competitors.
      The native contrast of the Sony Xperia Z1 display is great and surprisingly much better than that of the Z Ultra. Colors are also nicely punchy, but still fairly accurate.
      Even more impressively, the Xperia Z1 screen is much less reflective than those of its predecessor and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. This, combined with its higher brightness helped the new Sony flagship smartphone to a great score in our dedicated sunlight legibility test. You will have very little issues with this one even in the sunniest of days.
      All things considered, the Sony Xperia Z1 screen may not earn it too many bonus point in today’s market saturated with mind-blowing displays, but it’s no longer a disadvantage as it was on the Xperia Z – in fact it even beats some of its rivals.

    • Avatar for tmcr7 tmcr7 says:

      The iPhone 5S is still using last year’s low res display.

  20. Avatar for jack jack says:

    IPS is a TYPE of TFT LCD..

    In this case, it’s speculated that the Z1 uses a VA LCD panel vs. an IPS LCD panel, which was used on the Z Ultra.

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