Here is A Review Of The Sony Xperia Z2

Sony attempted to become a major player in last year’s smartphone flagship market with their Xperia Z line. The Xperia Z, which had a stunning all-glass design was also the first flagship that offered dust and water platform.
Sony continued building on the Xperia Z platform with the Xperia Z1, which was released in September of last year and the Xperia Z1 Compact, which targeted the “mini” smartphone market.
Sony announced their newest iteration of the Xperia Z platform at this year’s Mobile World Congress, the Xperia Z2. The Xperia Z2 is supposed to be a step up over the previous generations, refining on the Xperia design.
In this review, we take a closer look at the Xperia Z2, is it a bold new flagship, or just an upgrade of what came before it?

Design

• Much of the design features that people are familiar with from the Sony Xperia Z1 make their return in the design of the Xperia Z2.
• The Xperia Z2 still has a solid aluminum frame and tempered glass for it’s front and back. The frame has a bit of a lip this time, that sticks out a bit and is a change from the smooth, round edges that were found in the Xperia Z1. While this doesn’t make handling the Xperia Z2 uncomfortable, it is a definite difference.

• The Xperia Z2 is a bit taller than the Xperia Z1. This is partially because the Xperia Z2 also has a bigger display.
• The Xperia Z2 has two front-facing speakers. These basically look like little slits that are placed on the top and bottom of the phone’s front.
• The back of the Xperia Z2 has the Sony and Xperia logo displayed and is also where the camera can be found.
• The button layout of the Xperia Z2 retains the large silver power button with a volume rocker underneath and a dedicated camera shutter button below that. Above the power button is a microSD card.
• There is one flap cover for both the SIM tray and the microUSB charge port. This flap provides protection from the dust and water.

• The Xperia Z2 is IPS5 rated which means that it is protected from dust and is water resistant. The Xperia Z2 can be submerged in 1 meter of water for around 30 minutes without any negative effects.
• While the phone isn’t that much bigger than previous Xperia devices, it is still difficult to use one-handed.

Display

• The Xperia Z2 has a 5.2 inch IPS LCD Full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for a pixel density of 424 ppi .
• The display of the Xperia Z2 is 0.2 inches bigger than the display that was found on the Xperia Z1. In order to accommodate this larger screen, Sony has shrunk the bezels around the display.
• Sony uses Live Color LED technology on the display of the Xperia Z2 as well as their Trilumions and X-Reality technologies. The use of these technologies means that the screen of the Xperia Z2 has additional colors in its LCD matrix for an even wider range of color. Colors are also extremely vivid and viewing angles are very good.

Performance

• The Sony Xperia Z2 uses a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor that clocks at 2.3 GHz.
• This is backed up by an Adreno 330 GPU and 3 GB of RAM.
• The phone performs well and you can play processor-intensive games, watch YouTube videos and download and listen to podcasts and other tasks without taxing the processor.
• There were some incidents of stutter and lag in the UI and the recent apps screen but these were not that noticeable and is probably caused by the user interface and not the processing package.

Hardware

• The Xperia Z2 has 16 GB of internal storage and you can use the microSD card slot to increase this with up to 138 GB of additional storage.
• The Xperia Z2 has the full range of connectivity options including NFC. The Xperia Z2 gives you the ability to connect to a Dualshock controller with a USB OTG cable.
• The Xperia Z2 has front-facing speakers which, unfortunately, don’t perform as well as could be hoped. The sound is not that loud and not that rich. While it’s decent enough for personal enjoyment, it’s not enough to share with a group.
• The call quality of the Xperia Z2 is decent.
• The battery used in the Xperia Z2 is a 3,200 mAh unit.
• With the screen on, the battery goes down to 75% in two and a half hours. This means, if you keep up this usage level, the battery should last for around 11 hours.
• However, with the power saving standby time options available, a full day of battery use should be possible.

Camera

• The Xperia Z2 has a 20.7 MP Exmor f/2/0 G Lens rear camera and a 2.2 MP front camera
• The camera app retains the look and the menu of previous iterations that were used in the Xperia line.

• You can get 4K video, Timeship, Vine recording and augmented reality apps.
• Superior Auto mode is still included here as is manual mode.
• There is now a 15.5 MP 16:9 setting.
• You can’t select scene modes at settings over 8 MP.
• Picture quality has improved. While level of grain is still high, color is captured well.

Software

• The Sony Xperia Z2 uses Sony’s Timescapre UI.
• This gives you a user experience that is quite close to stock Android but is much simpler and elegant.
• You have an app drawer with a horizontal page layout and a pull out menu with simple settings and quick access to key apps like Google Play Store.
• The notification dropdown now includes a widget that is customizable, allowing you to add or remove toggles for an uncluttered experience.
• The Xperia Z2 still has the Small Apps feture in the recent apps screen. This overlays apps you can use for quick multitasking.
• Sony has included their own media apps such as Walkmanm Album gallery, and Movies. These media apps connect to Sony’s Unlimited media shop which has movies and music you can buy.

Sony has yet to release information on the exact release date of the Xperia Z2 for the United States. It’s likely that the Xperia Z2 will be made available from T-Mobile. You can, however, pick it up now unlocked for $700.
While this latest version of the Xperia lines isn’t exactly a big leap from previous version it’s a pretty good device that has continued Sony’s policy of correcting issues that were found in their previous devices. The Xperia Z2 presents you will a familiar, working package with a larger display, updated software and an improved camera experience.
If you liked the Xperia Z1, upgrading to the Xperia Z2 will not disappoint. New users should like the Z2 as well but, if they want a cheaper and similar experience, they can also just get the Z1. All in all, the Z2 demonstrated that Sony is continuing to move forward with their Xperia flagships.
What do you think of the Xperia Z1?
JR