Sony often fails to get the recognition it deserves in the smartphone world. It has, after all, released some extremely solid offerings of the Android Variety. There's certainly no faulting the build quality and Bravia displays, and who can argue with a spot of waterproofing to help prevent the inevitable?

The latest flagship smartphone from Sony is the Xperia Z3, arriving a mere six months after the ex-flagship Xperia Z2. Is that really long enough to bring us a viable replacement? Or are we looking at a bodge job acting as a quick-fix for profit woes? We decided to find out.

The Good



Sharp screen

Best Android battery life available

Waterproof

Not a huge upgrade over Z2's performance

Slight UI lag

Design

Performance

Camera

Battery

Verdict



Design

Sony being Sony, the design is sleek and comfortable to hold. It is, however, a tad heavier than the competition at 152g (the Z2 was 163g), but we doubt you will notice. It measures 146mm in height, 72mm in width and 7.3mm in depth. We found the Xperia Z3 offers a good mix of display size and pocketability.

On the right side is a dedicated camera button, volume rocker, home screen button and above that a microSD slot for increasing storage space. It's a great layout for using a phone with one hand. Why some Android devices insist on a top lock button we'll never know.

We also appreciated two front-facing stereo speakers, although crank the volume up too high and things become unpleasant. In its defence, the DSEE HX audio engine means your MP3s can be up-scaled to sound better and you can also play high-res audio files. If you have any.

Other flagship devices such as the HTC One M8 and iPhone 6 feel more premium, but Sony has price on its side. It also has an enviable list of specs, starting with a 5.2-inch full 1080p display. The viewing angles are reasonable, but it's the colour accuracy, detail and unusually potent brightness that stand out.

We did notice a spot of motion blur when navigating the home screen, which is more of a minor gripe than a deal-breaker but worth a mention.

Where the Sony Xperia Z3 shines is in the details. A dust and waterproof body (IP65 and IP68, respectively) goes way beyond most manufacturers that can save you from owning an expensive slab. You could, in fact, take it to a depth of two metres for 60 minutes. We never took Sony up on this claim.



The Sony Xperia Z3 survived the newly added back pocket test, allegedly unlike a certain Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Not that sitting on a phone is ever a good idea if it can be avoided, ignoring the fact it's more easily swiped by an opportunistic thief.

Other nice touches include Sony's active noise-cancelling for cutting out unwanted background noise (although you will need to buy a special headset separately to make use of it). There's also an app that tracks your life, if you want to see how healthy you are and so forth.

Side by side with the Xperia Z2, the improvement is hard to spot but you can really appreciate the slightly more svelte proportions in the hand. There are better devices out there if you want to wow your friends, admittedly, and the gloss finish of the black model is a fingerprint magnet, not to mention a tad slippery, but overall the whole package is excellent.

Performance

Spec fans will have little to fault with the Xperia Z3. It has a 2.5GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM, which on paper makes it tough to beat. In reality, it gives you a punchy experience, although perhaps not as buttery smooth as we would like. At least, if you stick with Sony's user-interface overlay that slows things down a bit.

We found multi-tasking was handled nicely and no games or apps really posed much of a problem. It's easily powerful enough for your average user and Android fanatics alike. The speed at which the camera loads up is a particular highlight.

It is, however, not quite as smooth as a Nokia Lumia 930 or iPhone 6 unless you opt for a custom launcher, and even then a device with a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will have the edge ─ in terms of numbers, at least.



Operating system

Android 4.4.4 KitKat is at the heart of the Sony Xperia Z3 and its smaller, less powerful Z3 Compact sibling. While we would prefer an Android vanilla experience (and it's easy to make this happen anyway, such is the platform's versatility), Sony's custom user-interface is good.

Anyone who has used a Sony Xperia Z2 will notice little has been changed. The layout is sensible and it's easy to find what you are looking for. Notifications appear in a drop-down menu and here you can jump quickly to a variety of 'quick settings', including WiFi, Bluetooth, Brightness and Location.

We prefer the instant access to certain settings like you get in the Windows Phone notification bar, but it would be unfair to get upset about an additional button press on those few times you need to, for example, disable or enable Bluetooth.

Android is still harder to get to grips with than iOS or Windows Phone, but we've known even the biggest technophobes use it without issue. In many ways the effort in getting used to the Google way opens the door to unrivalled customisation.

Camera

Look closely at the back of the device and you will see some writing detailing the camera. Sony has included a 20.7-megapixel snapper with autofocus and a maximum ISO of 12,800 (a first for a smartphone, apparently). You also get 4k recording and a 2.2-megapixel front-facing camera for full HD video calls.

Ignoring the cost of getting a screen capable of 4K playback, the video quality was really good. The picture is crisp and smooth. Really, our only complaint was the very slight hesitance to refocus on a subject while shooting. Impressive stuff, Sony.



All the camera's functions are easily accessed and Sony has been kind enough to give you a guided tour so you know where everything is. So you'll soon discover camera modes like Face In, which captures a photo and your reaction to it at the same time.

We found ourselves making the most use of TimeLapse, a way of capturing footage at a high frame rate and then adding slow-motion; the process of selecting the part you want to slow down more logical than the iPhone 6, but it all depends on what you are used to.

Some camera features proved a bit pointless. AR Fun, which uses augmented reality to combine your surroundings with 3D graphics, was fun for five minutes. Sound Photo, which captures the background sounds in a photo, is also odd but may find itself a few fans.

Photo quality is really impressive. The detail is way above most smartphones and the colours have that natural Bravia look about them. More impressive, though, is the snappy autofocus. The Xperia Z3 is able to snap between scenes with impressive speed - faster than some digital SLR cameras.

The addition of SteadyShot is said to reduce the blurriness you get from camera shake. Although hard to quantify how well it works, we felt like we could rely on the Xperia Z3 to get the shot we want. A host of (but not all) manual camera options are the icing on the cake.

Low-light photography was reasonable but not class-leading. Using the automatic mode, the Xperia Z3 captured a landscape town scene competently but was noticeably darker than the same shot on a Nokia Lumia 930.



As cameras go, the extremely Snappy Xperia Z3 compact makes you confident you will get the shot you want, which in itself beats more megapixels and other gimmicks. Master the manual controls and you can really eke out some impressive performance.

Battery

Battery life seems to be overlooked these days, but wrongly so. The fastest phone is no use to anyone if it's out of juice. It is, therefore, fantastic to know Sony has given the Z3 a 3,100mAH battery. Although 100mAh smaller than the Z2's battery, the Z3 is a monster in the longevity stakes.

Even without employing the help of a battery saver mode, the Xperia Z3 kept doing its thing for two days and that was under fairly intensive use. While your mileage may vary, getting two days of use out of any smartphone is a rarity.

The improved battery sipping is partly due to the Snapdragon 801 processor and a clever display technology that remembers what's on screen, saving the need to reload what you were just looking at every time you go back to it.

As flagship smartphones go, there is nothing else to our mind that can compete. So if you are tired of midday charges, the Xperia Z3 could be worth a look.

Verdict

The Xperia Z3 feels familiar if you've ever owned one of Sony's previous smartphones, yet a number of sensible improvements make it feel like it has come of age. Not only is it the best Sony device on the market, it's one of the best Android devices money can buy.



We're not sure anyone coming from the Xperia Z2 will be blown away, but the lighter, thinner case will win it friends and the far superior battery life easily justifies the £80 price difference.

The sensible Sony is fast enough to handle whatever is asked of it, stylish enough to satisfy the style-minded and more 'life-proof' than virtually all of its competitors. Who needs gimmicks ─ Sony has focussed on the elements of a smartphone that really matter and we can only applaud that.

It's a shame those who just bought the Xperia Z2 will be left with a bitter taste, having seen their device outdated in half a year, because the Xperia Z3 is a seriously sweet bit of kit.

4.5 5

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