# The 5-inch, Quad-Core Xperia Z: Sony’s Stunning Answer To The iPhone 5 And Galaxy S3



## Kid_Eternity (Jan 8, 2013)

Nice looking phone going by the specs apart from the storage issue. I like that Sony are waking up to the fact that a unified experience across their platforms/devices is a good selling point. Hopefully Sony will get back in the game in a big way and provide some more competition.









> 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor
> 1080p HD 5-inch display
> Android 4.1
> 4G/LTE
> ...


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## editor (Jan 8, 2013)

The water resistant bit is a win.


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## RaverDrew (Jan 8, 2013)

I like it a lot, the recent Sony phones have been beautiful, and in many ways better than the HTC and Samsung offerings.


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## YouSir (Jan 8, 2013)

Being an Andoid phone how much space is there for Sony to fuck it up with their own software? Always been the main stumbling block between me and their stuff, anyone who makes iTunes seem like a revelation in user friendliness is on to a loser.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 8, 2013)

RaverDrew said:


> I like it a lot, the recent Sony phones have been beautiful, and in many ways better than the HTC and Samsung offerings.


 
Sony have made some silly mistakes but their sense of design generally has been great when they get it right.


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## RaverDrew (Jan 8, 2013)

Have you not tried their recent phones ? They're probably the best out of the big companies now. They support their phones with updates better, and far longer than the rest, and also provide unlocked bootloaders, which makes it a lot easier to put any custom rom you want on there.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 8, 2013)

RaverDrew said:


> Have you not tried their recent phones ? They're probably the best out of the big companies now. They support their phones with updates better, and far longer than the rest, and also provide unlocked bootloaders, which makes it a lot easier to put any custom rom you want on there.


 
Not had a direct play but have seen them. Would seriously consider this one if my contract was nearing end...


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## editor (Jan 8, 2013)

YouSir said:


> Being an Andoid phone how much space is there for Sony to fuck it up with their own software? Always been the main stumbling block between me and their stuff, anyone who makes iTunes seem like a revelation in user friendliness is on to a loser.


Looking around the web at the early hands-on reviews it seems that the phone is going to be mercifully free of the usual ten ton pile of pointless shovelware.

This looks a really great phone and given Sony's photographic expertise, it may have an absolutely killer camera.


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## Ax^ (Jan 8, 2013)

Always loved sony phones for the cameras..


Yes you can have a mini pc in your hands but what happens when you want a picture
...





But My contract is up soon


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## Ponyutd (Jan 8, 2013)

Is it just me that can't find the price?


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## editor (Jan 8, 2013)

Ponyutd said:


> Is it just me that can't find the price?


Not announced yet.


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## Ponyutd (Jan 8, 2013)




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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 8, 2013)

Really is a damn shame this has so little storage...


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## Barking_Mad (Jan 9, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Really is a damn shame this has so little storage...



I really don't understand why anyone needs 16/32gb on a phone. Baffling to me, especially if you lose it or gets damaged.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jan 9, 2013)

It looks lovely, but Sony (along with Motorola) are a company that completely put me off their products years ago due to some shockingly bad bits of kit. It would have to be something utterly amazing to get me to try them again and this just looks like pretty much every other top end Android handset out there.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 9, 2013)

Barking_Mad said:


> I really don't understand why anyone needs 16/32gb on a phone. Baffling to me, especially if you lose it or gets damaged.


 
Music/video/backups.


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## Lemon Eddy (Jan 9, 2013)

USB otg cable and a dirt cheap usb memory stick.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 9, 2013)

Lemon Eddy said:


> USB otg cable and a dirt cheap usb memory stick.


 
Not exactly a neat solution though is it?


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## editor (Jan 9, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> It looks lovely, but Sony (along with Motorola) are a company that completely put me off their products years ago due to some shockingly bad bits of kit. It would have to be something utterly amazing to get me to try them again and this just looks like pretty much every other top end Android handset out there.


Sony used to be fantastic in this area - Apple openly admitted to ripping them off at the start when they were designing the iPhone - but they seemed to have lost their way of late. Their Clie PalmOS devices were miles ahead of anyone else - really fantastic devices.

This new one does look rather good though. I'll be keen to try it out.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jan 9, 2013)

editor said:


> Sony used to be fantastic in this area - Apple openly admitted to ripping them off at the start when they were designing the iPhone - but they seemed to have lost their way of late. Their Clie PalmOS devices were miles ahead of anyone else - really fantastic devices.


It was an mp3 player that put me off. Getting tracks on it involved using what is hands down the worst bit of software I've ever used. 

That said we've got a Sony TV and DVD/PVR. The TV is great, but the interface on the recorder leaves a lot to be desired.


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## Idaho (Jan 9, 2013)

I've had a few Sony things over the years and it's the dreadful software that has always let them down.


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## Lemon Eddy (Jan 9, 2013)

Global Stoner said:


> Not exactly a neat solution though is it?


 
I'd be more concerned at having everything on my phone and no easy way to move stuff to a separate device for backup.  Certainly for my Nexus I've never flagged 32 gig as too little space, as when I've travelled with it I also have a USB disk with me preloaded with stuff.  I tend to carry a thumbdrive around anyway just as a tool so it suits me great.  Obviously it might be no use for you though.


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## Lemon Eddy (Jan 9, 2013)

Idaho said:


> I've had a few Sony things over the years and it's the dreadful software that has always let them down.


 
Aye.  Trying to remember the name of the bloody useless media manager software they had a few years back, that managed to make iTunes seem bearable.


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## editor (Jan 9, 2013)

I've got along fine with 16GB on all of my devices. It's not like I'm going away to an internet-free zone for 3 months or anything, or 'need' 30,000 MP3 tunes on my person all day.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Jan 9, 2013)

Lemon Eddy said:


> I'd be more concerned at having everything on my phone and no easy way to move stuff to a separate device for backup. Certainly for my Nexus I've never flagged 32 gig as too little space, as when I've travelled with it I also have a USB disk with me preloaded with stuff. I tend to carry a thumbdrive around anyway just as a tool so it suits me great. Obviously it might be no use for you though.


 
Why would you have anything on your phone, other then maybe a few recent pics, that weren't backed up on your pc?


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## uk benzo (Jan 9, 2013)

I have an Orange SF with something like 250mb internal storage and a 2gig memory card. It does what I need it to do. 

I can understand the need for lots of storage on a tablet, but on a phone....


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## editor (Jan 9, 2013)

Brief hands on video. It does look very nice indeed.


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## editor (Jan 9, 2013)

And another:


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 9, 2013)

Barking_Mad said:


> I really don't understand why anyone needs 16/32gb on a phone. Baffling to me, especially if you lose it or gets damaged.


 
I have a 64gig iPhone, over 35 gigs is used. If I lose my phone I'll restore from my back up but I need the storage, I just have too much music and love playing games (many of which come in between half and a whole gig these days).


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## mrs quoad (Jan 9, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> I have a 64gig iPhone, over 35 gigs is used. If I lose my phone I'll restore from my back up but I need the storage, I just have too much music and love playing games (many of which come in between half and a whole gig these days).








e2a: admittedly, there's a couple of passably dire efforts in there  I've got 250gb left out of 32 atm, though.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 9, 2013)

Bard's Tale is great fun!


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## barney_pig (Jan 9, 2013)

My wife and I got a pair of Sony Xperia miros. Nice simple touch screen phones, no problems. I like it.


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