Sony Xperia Z Unboxing and Hands-On

We have a fairly new addition in our family. It's a sleek temptress with lines and angles that put my Droid RAZR HD to absolute shame. It's incredibly thin compared to the Motorola as well, but that's no difficult feat nowadays. It's also rather tall and wide, which posed a few concerns for its owner before it arrived. Those fears were quickly allayed upon first holding it however, and overall the Sony Xperia Z has actually made my sister interested in smartphones.

In a world where a market for larger screen sizes on smartphones is growing rapidly, Sony entered 2013 with fists swinging, as one of the first of the major OEMs to offer up their range-topping smartphone, the Xperia Z. While it's internals mostly matched that of HTC's Droid DNA, along with the DNA, it marked a move toward 1080p displays. Up against the likes of HTC's One and Samsung's Galaxy S4 however, the Xperia Z's S4 Pro chipset cannot compete with Qualcomm's new 600 and Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa, but it is IP57 certified for water and dust resistance, and features an apparently shatter-proof glass display. After further investigation, it was discovered that the Z actually comes out of the box with a pre-installed tempered glass screen protector, bearing the Sony logo printed onto it. This will come in handy if the screen were to shatter or damage in any way as it should protect the actual display - but it would be worth knowing what the cost of one of these replacement screen protectors would in fact be.

The Xperia arrived in a relatively compact box, which added a little humour when we opened it to find the space in the box lengthwise mostly accommodated the device - giving the impression it was too large for the box, though obviously that wasn't the case. Out of the box and in the hand of its new owner, the Z appeared to sit relatively well in my sister's average sized, female palm. In my much larger palm, as you can expect, it was easier. One thing that can be said right off the bat was that we both weren't too pleased at how flat and rigid the device itself was. There are no comfortable curves at all on this device, and while there are soft rubbery panels that run along the edges of the device, they don't inspire a great deal of confidence in terms of added grip. Nevertheless, holding the phone isn't too challenging - but one would certainly need to be careful with this glass bodied beauty.

Speaking of beauty, the shots I've taken do absolutely no justice for what this stunner looks like in the flesh. Along with the HTC One, the design of the Xperia Z certainly took a priority during Sony's development - and the fact that its being marketed as a somewhat durable, water resistant smartphone, that's both elegant and free of the bulk of typically tougher devices is truly saying something. The Z isn't indestructible, but no smartphone is. On this black model, the panels along each side are a midnight blue that present a pleasant sheen, but not to the point where its screaming from all angles to be seen. It's relatively subdued. The rear glass panel is jet black, and like the front of the device, offers a wonderful reflective surface for use as a mirror, and it's something I've noticed my sister to take advantage of more frequently than she had in the past with her previous phones. This surface comes with its obvious drawbacks, and whilst we haven't found fingerprint marks to be a major issue - the glass does pick up any sort of oil on your skin (say if you use hand cream), or a combination of oil and dirt (if you have my skin). This grime can build up easily but can be wiped down with minimal effort.

After charging the Z for the recommended 30 minutes before initially powering on the device, we were blown away at how fast this beast was. It isn't the fastest phone out there as we all know, but having 2GB of RAM on board made multitasking a breeze, and in her time with the phone (2 weeks now), my sister hasn't experienced any sort of lag issues or stutters. The only issue she has faced is battery life. The Z comes with a 2,330mAh battery, and its in charge of sustaining the quad-core S4 Pro chipset, 2GB RAM multitasking, and the 5" 1080p display. It certainly is a big ask, and I personally think Sony should have considered a larger battery, even if it meant adding a few millimetres to its profile. Poor battery life plagues most Android devices, and only now are we seeing a movement towards batteries that can take even the most heavy of phone users through most of the day. One can only hope Sony tried their darnedest to pack the largest possible battery into the Z, because it is lacklustre to say the least. With automatic brightness turned on, drainage can be in upwards of 15% in less than 30 minutes with the screen on, texting or using WhatsApp. It is possible to manage your battery use through specially designed apps, but there isn't much you can do to minimise the battery while the screen is on, aside from killing off apps in the background.

Like I said at the start of the piece, my sister is overjoyed with the Xperia Z. Moving up from a single-core Defy, she has never experienced such mind-boggling performance, and she's content to remain blissfully unaware that other devices are even faster than the Z. When a phone makes its owner happy, that's the best possible result than can happen, and though the battery is her only gripe, it's a trade-off in her opinion for an otherwise brilliant device in her books.