Xperia has you covered A to Z

Sony Xperia Z is a smart, sleek and durable Android-based phone that can capture excellent photos and videos.

Xperia Z looks sleek in 7.9mm thin and black profile with reflective glass surface. 

It’s tough and durable because its frame is made from fibreglass polyamide, a substitute metal in auto parts, and tempered glass on the front and back. Moreover, both glasses are coated with anti-shatter film.

Adding to its toughness, Xperia Z is dust-resistant. And it could be your perfect smart phone for capturing fun moments at the Songkran festival or a water park. It can be submerged in a metre of water for 30 minutes, and is also resistant to water jets. 

The phone has caps to seal all of its ports to prevent water from seeping inside. Xperia Z is so smart that if you leave a cap open, like the cap that covers the micro USB port, the phone will remind you to put the cap back in place.

Xperia Z has good performance. It is powered by a quad-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor from Qualcomm and it runs on Google Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It has 2 GB memory.

It has bright 5-inch screen with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. At full brightness level, the screen is readable under direct sunlight so it could be used to frame photos under sunlight.

Xperia Z supports HSPA+ 3G connection at 850/900/2100 MHz. It also comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. The data connection was tested on my home and office Wi-Fi routers as well as True Wi-Fi hotspots.

The test found that Xperia Z has good performance. Its menus and the touch screen were very responsive and the scrolling of the screen was very fast and smooth. It rendered web pages fast and it played YouTube clips smoothly.

Xperia Z provided very good voice call quality as well thanks to its Clear Pase and xLOUD technologies. Clear Phase automatically adjusts the sound quality of the internal speaker while xLOUD enhances the loudness of speaker.

Xperia Z can also double as a high quality MP3 player with the Walkman application which also comes with ClearAudio+ technology that automatically gives more clarity to the sounds. And Xperia Z comes with a high quality stereo headset, Sony MH-EX300AP. I enjoyed listening to songs on the Xperia Z for hours.

What impressed me most were its camera functions. Xperia Z has 13 megapixel main camera and 2 megapixel front camera and both uses Exmor R sensors. The front Exmor R for mobile sensor lets you take self-portraits and chat in low light conditions. And both the front and rear cameras support HDR photos.

The 13 megapixel camera is built with the same modules as leading Sony cameras. Exmor RS for mobile is a next-generation BSI light sensor that allows you to shoot quality photos and videos in dim light. Exmor RS for mobile includes HDR video for clear shots even when your subject is back-lit.

Xperia Z’s main camera has several useful functions that you can find in Sony’s cameras. For example, in the Programme Scene mode, you will find the Soft skin mode for taking beautiful portraits. My female colleagues loved this mode as it brightens and smoothes the skin and makes the subject look younger. There is also Handheld Twilight mode for capturing beautiful lights at night.

If you are not sure which mode you should select, you can have Xperia Z select it for you by shooting with the Superior Auto mode.

In Superior Auto mode, the camera combines Scene Recognition with high quality and high performance image processing technology (HDR and noise reduction) to automatically shoot with the optimal settings. And your device is automatically optimised for 36 different scenes, so you always get the best shot.

You can also use the Burst mode for capturing sports or fast actions. With the burst mode you can shoot an unlimited number of images at 10 frames per second and 9 MP resolution.

Sony Xperia Z retails for Bt20,990.

 

 

      Key specs

_ Platform: Google Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)

_ Networks: UMTS HSPA+ 850/900/2100 MHz, GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

_ Processor: 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core

_ Cameras: 13 megapixel Exmor RS camera with Auto focus and flash, 2 MP, Exmor R, front facing camera (1080p)

_ Display: 5-inch TFT capacitive touch screen with 16 million colours, 1920 x 1080 pixels

_ Memory: 2 GB RAM

_ Storage: 16 GB onboard, expandable with microSD up to 32 GB

_ Connectivity: GLONASS, Bluetooth wireless technology, Media Go, Native USB tethering, NFC, PC Companion, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Hotspot

_ Battery: Up to 11 hours of talk time

_ Dimension: 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm

_ Weight: 146g