Sony Xperia Z1 Review : Rugged Or Classy?

The Sony Xperia Z1 is this year’s flaghsip offering from Sony and a well needed iteration to last years Xperia Z. Both of them share the same design ethics with the Xperia Z1 better in all aspects. Let’s see how much better it is :

Design/ Build :

The Xperia Z1 has by far the most understated and classic designs amongst all high-end offerings available right now. With the black glass finish on the front and the back with a steel reinforced chassis and aluminium accents on the side, this phone is definitely a looker.

We reviewed the Black variant but there is also the Purple variant which looks equally outstanding. Ofcourse this means that living without a Bumper-case on the Z1 means risking the phone surface to scratches. The front is well protected but the back is still prone to some roughage.

The Xperia Z1 has a great button placement and they offer a really nice tactile feedback. Also the Z1 is dust and water-resistant just like it’s predecessor and as we speak it’s the only flagship which does so without any compromise.

Display:

The Sony Xperia Z1 sports a 5-inch full-HD display with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels, at a pixel density of 440ppi. The display uses Sony’s Triluminos technology, which was first featured on the Xperia Z Ultra.

The Display is an LCD Panel and it does perform than the display on the Xperia Z which was more washed out than ever. Overall with the Mobile Bravia Engine and the Triluminous display, the Z1’s display brings out great vibrancy and skin tones look natural while not loosing out on sharpness.

Camera:

The Camera on the Sony Xperia Z1 is a 20.7-megapixel camera with a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS image sensor, Sony’s G Lens with 27mm wide angle and f/2.0 aperture, and the BIONZ image processing engine.

This is by far the most tech filled camera that is fitted in such a thin body without a protruding lens.Overall it’s a great value add on the phone and it takes some stunning photos.

The onboard modes on the camera are : manual, Timeshift burst, Picture Effect,Sweep Panorama, AR Effect, Info-eye, Social Live and Evernote.

The Xperia Z1 features a 2-megapixel front facing camera capable of recording 1080p videos. We were able to click decent quality pictures indoors, and the videos shot using the front camera also turned out to be quite usable, so it’s definitely good for Skype video calls.

Check out the sample below

Software / UI :

Sony has made by the far most efficient and smooth UI layer which not only looks great but performs without even a hint of lag. All the apps are accessible via the app tray which has a grid of scrollable icons and widgets that can be dragged onto the home screen.

The Xperia Z1 offers eight themes that change the colour scheme of the phone, along with the homescreen and lockscreen wallpaper.

Performance:

Performance on the Xperia Z1 is driven by a brand new Snapdragon 800 which runs on Quadcores at 2.2GHz with 2 GB of RAM coupled to it. With this hardware, the Xperia Z1 just flies! It runs buttery smooth and applications load instantly.

There is 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable by another 64GB via a microSD card which is indeed a neat trick for a phone with a non-removable battery. We were able to highly graphic demanding games without any issue and there is absolutely no lag no matter how you intend to use this phone.

We were also able to play full-HD clips smoothly, and all formats including MOV and AVI were natively supported by the phone. We just wish the speaker was a a bit louder but nevertheless its a good speaker.

Final Verdict

The phone comes with a massive 3000mAh battery to drive that display and the processor. However, if you are a poweruser this might be less for you since the battery just manages to make it throughout a day. On average use, this phone makes through a day of use without breaking a sweat.

Overall, the Xperia Z1 is the premium phone to go with. A premium, industrial design, extensive multimedia support and a powerful package. a great camera and a extended water-resistant goodness.This phone, although coming a rugged mask that it wears is still a classy hardware to own. It’s delicate at best and demands a great deal of care to own it, however its worth it.

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