Sony Xperia Z review

Sony's mantle as one of the major smartphone manufacturers has slipped a little in recent years, but it still produces some outstanding handsets. The Xperia Z is just such a creature, with a powerful quad-core processor, 13-megapixel camera, 4G and a feast of extras.

It's on sale now for around £450.

The price puts it in the high-end category, but the spec more than justifies it. This is a handset for high-flyers and phone fans who like to be ahead of the curve and are prepared to pay for it.

Design

The Xperia Z is not what you'd call a 'convenient' handset though, with a five-inch screen it's a big ol' handful measuring 139x71x8mm. With shatter-proof glass both back and front it's no lightweight either, tipping the scales at 146g. Around the sides is a single large power/sleep button, a wafer-thin volume rocker and dock connectors. Everything else is hidden behind sealed plastic grommets, including microSD and SIM card slots, microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Xperia Z also makes a virtue of being a tough cookie; it's a rugged phone in a smoothie body. It might be covered in glass, but it's scratch resistant and shatterproof, as well as being water resistant (much like the Xperia Tablet Z). We were able to douse it under the tap and leave it in a filled sink for a couple of minutes with no apparent ill effects -- so it should be able to cope with the general perils of the urban jungle. Sony makes no promises for deserts or mountains but for most day-to-day attacks it should be fine.

Features

That "Reality Screen" is rather lovely though. With a pixel resolution of 1,920x1,080 that boils down to 441 pixels-per-inch (way ahead of the iPhone 5's 326, for instance) and 16 million colours it looks stunning, and it's beautifully sensitive too, responding instantly and accurately to every brush and press -- something you can't always say even for high-end handsets. It has the latest Sony Mobile Bravia Engine to help smooth out video play and we certainly couldn't detect any awkwardness in any of the movies we played.

For such a forward-thinking handset it's a surprise to see the 4.1 version of Android Jelly Bean rather than the very latest 4.2, for which we'll have to wait a little longer. It's not a disaster by any means -- you still get the intuitive Google Now service that punts info at you based on your location and previous choices without the need to search, but it does take the shine off the newness of it a little.

Sony's put its own skin over the top of Android of course, notably with a lock screen that looks like rippling Venetian blinds when you run your thumb over it, and its own distinctive array of shortcut icons and widgets. The unloved Timescape, which pulled together your social networking updates has been removed entirely though, unable to compete with Google's own alerts bar.

Performance

The Xperia Z has 4G LTE capability though you'll need a contract with EE to take full advantage of it (or hold your breath for other networks getting all their 4G ducks in a row later this year). The 1.5GHz quad-core processor is one of the heftiest beasts we've yet seen on a smartphone, and backed by a full 2GB RAM it's a very powerful engine. Our regular AnTuTu performance benchmark test delivered a score of 18,440 -- that's the highest we've yet seen on a handset, defeating quad-core rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (13,619),HTC One X+ (16,157) and Google Nexus 4 (17,903), though the last one at least has the distinction of costing around half as much. In short, this is the fastest smartphone we have ever reviewed.

But whether you're doing 3D gaming, watching a movie or even just listening to music, the Xperia Z does seem to get uncomfortably hot during prolonged use. Battery life isn't great either, and we barely got a full day's steady use out of it with the standard settings. There is however Stamina Mode, which powers down all the phone's functions when the screen goes dim. Good for the battery, but not always so good for communication, though you can customise the settings to leave certain functions on, depending on what you need doing.

Camera quality

Considering the power of the processor, it's a bit of a surprise that the 13.1-megapixel camera takes a good two seconds to start up. Not great for speedy snaps, but once it's up and running, it's a bit of a cracker. As well as Sony's Exmor R sensor, designed to improve the quality of pics taken in low light, features include touch-to-focus, face detection, image stabilisation, high dynamic range (HDR) automation, sweep panorama and GPS geo-tagging. All of that would matter naught if picture quality was sub par, but thankfully, it isn't; picture quality is really very good, even in low light, with sharp edges and realistic colours.

Video quality is up there too, with full HD 1,080p recording at 30fps. Unusually, the HDR setting is also available for video as well as stills, which can add an interesting, other-worldly look to your vids.

NFC and connectivity

Near-field communication (NFC) is on board for wireless payments (when you can find a place that accepts them) and for instant settings changes using Sony Smart Tags, though none seemed to be included in the box. Sony has obviously been thinking about the technology too, and it will work with the latest Sony Bravia TVs -- touch your phone to the TV, and it can be set to mirror what's on the phone wirelessly. If you don't have one of the latest Bravias, your options are more limited, since there's no HDMI port to run HD video direct to your TV.

There's 16GB of memory on board, which offers an adequate bit of room for HD pics and vids, but if you need more, it can carry microSD cards up to 32GB in size.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia Z is a terrific handset offering (almost) the best of Android plus a terrific screen, very fine camera, super-powerful processor and lots more besides. If you can handle the size and the weight, it's a phone to be proud of, and throws down the gauntlet for the soon-come Samsung Galaxy S4.