Monday, May 26, 2014

Shimon Haber’s review of Sony Xperia Z2

The world famous Sony Xperia Z line had all the prerequisites to write new page in the android history, even with its first model in early 2013. “The Best of Sony “ was the motto behind the product… and Shimon Haber says that they were right! The design and performance were extremely high for the time, and integrated protection from dust and water made all the other phone manufacturers to rethink the concepts of their phones.

Sony Xperia Z2
The Sony Xperia Z2
(image belongs to Sony)


So at the end of last year, the Xperia Z1 arrived on the market, and it was the logical successor of the first Xperia Z, who in addition to standard improvements in speed provided more battery life and a much better camera. Unfortunately, with all the great features, Shimon Haber thinks that the smartphone had other “Achilles heels”- namely mediocre sound, weak viewing angles and still not enough battery life. That's why Shimon Haber, who is a fan of the Xperia line couldn’t wait till Sony appeared on the market with a new flagship.
Now, the big question - did Sony managed to overcome those problems in the latest model, the Xperia Z2?

1. The package
The test piece of Xperia Z2 that Shimon Haber has, arrived with standard charger, a USB cable and a Headphones set with a microphone. The charger model is EP880. It is designed for networks with alternating current and voltage from 100 to 240 volts and mains frequency 50 to 60 Hz. Power output is 7.5 W at nominal voltage and current respectively 5 V and 1.5 A. From 0 to 100% the phone is charging for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

2. Design and construction
Sony have retained their characteristic features and it seems like they did not intended to change the “Omni-Balance” design of their flagship line. Fans of the company seem to be happy with this style and did not want to see a radical modification. Their views on the current design are more positive and that is why the Xperia Z line is different from everything else on the market. Shimon Haber also seems to be happy with the design language.

3. Display
The display of the Sony Xperia Z2 is a capacitive multi-touch IPS TRILUMINOS with LED backlight. The screen diagonal is 5.2 inches with a ratio of 16:9. The resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels and pixel pitch - 0.06 x 0.06 mm, which is equivalent to 424 pixels per inch. The resolution is so high, Shimon Haber uploaded a video of it, and thinks that it even manages to beat the “Retina” display, because the screen of Sony Xperia Z2 even has excellent visibility under a wide angles. The measured average maximum brightness is 453 cd/m2 and provides convenient operation when the ambient light is high. The black is 0.41 cd/m2, making a contrast ratio of 1100:1.

4. Sound
Shimon Haber knows that smartphones are small devices, and can hardly expect high fidelity from their built-in speakers in the foreseeable future. However, he noticed quite a few ambitions and hard woks in the two stereo speakers. At the maximum level the speakers deliver 70 dB at 1 meter distance of a 1KHz sound.

5. Battery
The battery of Xperia Z2 has energy capacity of 3200 mAh. That of the Z1 was 3000 mAh and offered especially high durability, while that of Z was even back on this indicator, with its 2330 mAh.
In this matter, Shimon hopes that this capacity will be enough.
- Phone call
Traditionally, Mr. Haber starts with a phone conversation in which the huge screen will not be an obstacle as it is extinguished by the proximity sensor. In total, the battery lasted 1371 minutes (22 hours and 51 minutes).
- Surfing the Internet
Mr. Haber browsed the web on some random webpages. The result is 663 minutes (11 hours and 3 minutes).
- 3D games
Running Epic Citadel benchmark of Epic Games, the Z2 lasted 286 minutes (4 hours and 46 minutes) on a single charge.
- Watching a movie
Testing video playback 720p HD, the Xperia Z2 managed to work for 678 minutes (11 hours and 18 minutes) on a single charge.

6. Software
Sony Xperia Z2 works with pre-installed Android 4.4.2 operating system (KitKat), covered by the company modified interface that looks great and works as quickly and smoothly ( Mr. Haber did not expect otherwise, given 801 Snapdragon chip embedded in the hull phone).
Besides the beautiful vision interface Sony can boast a number of serious pre-installed applications and functionalities. Some applications like WALKMAN, Socialife and OfficeSuite 7 are also preinstalled on the phone.

7. Performance
Xperia Z2 uses MSM8974-AB modification of Snapdragon 800, called by Qualcomm “Snapdragon 801“. The upgraded processor offers 14% faster 400 Krait cores, 28 % faster Adreno 330 graphics and 45 -percent improvement in the estimation of camera sensor. The core clock speed in MSM8974-AB is 2.27 GHz and 550 MHz for the GPU, thus lagging behind the MSM8974-AC modification by 28 MHz at 160 MHz GPU and CPU on the frequency.

8. Camera
The rear camera on the Sony Xperia Z2 is a 20.7 - megapixel BSI sensor 1/2.3” Exmor RS for Mobile, 5248 x 3936 pixels ( 4:3 ) with a relative aperture 1:2.0 and a focal distance of corresponding to 27 mm for 35 mm film. The sensor has image stabilization called “SteadyShot” and the technology that Sony is using is outstanding.

Overall
Shimon Haber websites gave this phone a 9.2/10.