I bought a Sony Xperia Z3 Friday morning: First Impressions

[Bateluer]

Purchased locally from a TMO store down the street from me. I walked in at 9:15am, and walked out with the phone activated by 9:30am.

It feels less robust than my One m7, since its glass and not mostly aluminum. However, its definitely lighter and thinner, but also more slippery. I have a CruzerLite TPU case on the way from Amazon right now. In the mean time, I'm going to be very careful.

There's a lot of Sony Xperia apps on there, some I disabled, some I left. Still working my way through most of them to decide if I want to keep any of them. I installed Nova Launcher and imported my layouts.

Battery life definitely gets a huge jump compared to the m7, which had fairly decent battery life for its 2300mah battery.

Thats with about 3 hours of screen on time.

Performance is about what we've come to expect from a Snapdragon 801 as well. Here's some screen prints of some common benches.

GLBench.

Basemark X

Basemark OSII

And 3DMark's Ice Storm Extreme.

I'm running Vellamo right now and will upload when completed.

Edit - Sorry for the delay, I forget to upload the Vellamo test results.

 

[luv2liv]

did u dunk it in water yet? thats the only reason i would ever buy a sony out of my own pocket
otherwise i will stick to whatever my company gives us (apple, htc, lg, samsung). i picked the htc

 

[Bateluer]

did u dunk it in water yet? thats the only reason i would ever buy a sony out of my own pocket

No. I know its got a decent IP rating, but I'm too timid to drop a 700 dollar device, that I paid out of pocket for, into the toilet simply to test it out. And its my first Sony phone; I've gone Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and now Sony.

 

[Megatomic]

Nice buy, love the Z3 and the Z3C. Congrats.

 

[Aristotelian]

I own a Z3 as well, and am very happy with it. I did this trick at pubs with the original Sony Xperia Z - I'd tell someone at a bar that I could put it in my pint of beer, drink the beer, and that the phone would still work - and if it did, they'd pay for my pint. Got quite a few free pints out of this. I wash my Z3 in a sink under running water to remove the smear marks from time to time, it's a nice convenience, I tend to lose those 'wipes' that come with the phone, that people tend to use to polish and polish the finger marks away.

Glad you're having a positive time with it Bateluer. So far I disabled that option for 'night time mode' - I prefer to deal with that sort of thing more manually. But it's a sick phone - my colleagues were very impressed with the sort of shots the camera takes as well.

I have yet to try much video recording - anyone here used that (especially the 4k capability) yet?

 

[Wingznut]

Congrats! The Z3 looks like a fantastic phone.

 

[Red Storm]

My buddy has the worst timing. He bought the Z1 not too long ago even after I told him the Z3 was coming to T-Mobile. He did the same thing with the Nexus 4 too, bought it a month before the Nexus 5 came out. He is a bit of a cheapskate though so I guess it's how he wants it.

Congrats on the phone. If it wasn't for the Nexus 6 being just about everything I want in a phone, I would have definitely considered the Z3.

 

[Kelvrick]

My buddy has the worst timing. He bought the Z1 not too long ago even after I told him the Z3 was coming to T-Mobile. He did the same thing with the Nexus 4 too, bought it a month before the Nexus 5 came out. He is a bit of a cheapskate though so I guess it's how he wants it.

Congrats on the phone. If it wasn't for the Nexus 6 being just about everything I want in a phone, I would have definitely considered the Z3.

Prices would fall after the new models are released, so if he is cheap, he is doing it wrong.

I really like the z3/z3c, but I'm having a hard time paying 700 out of pocket for an oudated cpu/gpu already. But then, I'm cheap too. I guess I'm waiting for the z4 6 months from now.

 

[Roland00Address]

I am very much curious about any further info you can give. The z3 looks to be an interesting phone.

Personally I think I rather go with the z3 compact because 72mm is just too big I prefer the 68 and the 70 range is getting annoying. That or you forget two hands and go for the phablet size. That said I except all opinions and comments and I am keeping an open mind.

I am considering getting a phone in the near future to join T-Mobile and ditch Sprint. That said part of me is thinking qualcomm's cortex a57 the 810 is probably going to be out in 5 months or so. Part of me wants to wait for I want the best but waiting sucks and all the 800 series is good including the z3's 801.

So please feed me, tell me how great your phone is, I want more

 

[blairharrington]

Z3 owners, talk to me about speaker performance, especially podcasts, and compare it to your last smartphone.

I believe reviews say the Z3 and Z3C speakers are essentially identical in performance. I'm interested in the Z3C.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

As a mainstay on the Mobile Devices forum, Batelauer's purchase does pique my interest. Thanks for sharing. I'm in the market right now too, but not strongly considering this particular phone.

 

[foghorn67]

In terms of Image Quality, what is the camera like? (Not the app or features).
I hear it's all over the place. Some are showing awesome results, some are showing horrible color casts, and heavily compressed or mottled parts of the picture not in focus.

 

[Bateluer]

Z3 owners, talk to me about speaker performance, especially podcasts, and compare it to your last smartphone.

I believe reviews say the Z3 and Z3C speakers are essentially identical in performance. I'm interested in the Z3C.

I came from the One m7, which has about the best speakers you can get in a phone. Watching Sunday's Doctor Who episode on the Z3 sounded clean and plenty loud to me and easily equal to the m7. I haven't tested any Podcasts on it yet, Dan Carlin's WW1 series is progressing very slowly. YouTube is likewise very good.

In terms of Image Quality, what is the camera like? (Not the app or features).
I hear it's all over the place. Some are showing awesome results, some are showing horrible color casts, and heavily compressed or mottled parts of the picture not in focus.

I'm not much a photographer myself, so take what I say with a few grains of salt. My m7 camera has serious issues in low light; anything less than perfect lighting caused a purple hue. Even in my CFL bulbed house, pictures taken after sun set would have slight purpling on the edges. In broad daylight, if I moved the camera under my desk, it would be entirely purple. It was bad.

I snapped a few pictures at the bar Halloween night, which I can't share, and they turned out decent for a bar picture. Shutter was quick, focus seemed effective, and no purple hue. There's a ton of options for customization though, and I'm probably never going to use any of them myself.

 

[ClockHound]

Z3 looks impressive.

That screen must be huge though. The screenshots won't fit on my 24" monitor without scrolling. Hope it comes with a backpack. ;-)

 

[Bateluer]

Z3 looks impressive.

That screen must be huge though. The screenshots won't fit on my 24" monitor without scrolling. Hope it comes with a backpack. ;-)

Its a 5in 1080p screen. The screen prints are at its native resolution, I didn't resize them because a modern browser should be scaling them.

 

[Wingznut]

That screen must be huge though. The screenshots won't fit on my 24" monitor without scrolling. Hope it comes with a backpack. ;-)

Its a 5in 1080p screen. The screen prints are at its native resolution, I didn't resize them because a modern browser should be scaling them.

I'm pretty sure ClockHound was being facetious.

 

[gmaster456]

Putting a TPU case on a glass and metal phone is like wrapping a leather sofa in bubble wrap.

 

[Radeon962]

Its a 5in 1080p screen. The screen prints are at its native resolution, I didn't resize them because a modern browser should be scaling them.

Z3 is 5.2" and Z3 Compact is 4.6". I just sold my compact as it was too small. I'm on the hunt for the regular Z3 now.

 

[deathBOB]

Does it support 3 button in-line remote controls?

 

[tdawg]

I bought a Z3 on Friday to replace my Moto X. Major driver for me was the battery life. So far, I really like it, but it is tall and slippery. I bought a $5 case for it for protection for the time being, but think I might go with a front and back skintomi-like product to protect the glass panels and get rid of this chintzy case. I really just need a sort of textured back to keep the device from wanting to slip out of my hands.

The speakers are much louder than on the Moto X, for sure. Listening to the Louis C.K. channel on Pandora requires much lower volume.

I will say I never fully appreciated the design of the Moto X until I switched; the way they designed the back of the X to perfectly fit in my hand makes me want to add a convex prosthetic to the back of the Sony to make it easier to hold in one hand. But that's the price I pay for any of these larger phones (I would have gone with the Z3C if it had all the T-Mobile wifi calling abilities).

 

[michal1980]

I bought a Z3 on Friday to replace my Moto X. Major driver for me was the battery life. So far, I really like it, but it is tall and slippery. I bought a $5 case for it for protection for the time being, but think I might go with a front and back skintomi-like product to protect the glass panels and get rid of this chintzy case. I really just need a sort of textured back to keep the device from wanting to slip out of my hands.

The speakers are much louder than on the Moto X, for sure. Listening to the Louis C.K. channel on Pandora requires much lower volume.

I will say I never fully appreciated the design of the Moto X until I switched; the way they designed the back of the X to perfectly fit in my hand makes me want to add a convex prosthetic to the back of the Sony to make it easier to hold in one hand. But that's the price I pay for any of these larger phones (I would have gone with the Z3C if it had all the T-Mobile wifi calling abilities).

I went from a moto x to ip6.

god is the phone terrible to hold.

 

[ClockHound]

I'm pretty sure ClockHound was being facetious.

Pretty sure he was too.

Was a sarcastic (and failed) attempt to poke fun at the big images images of a small screen, since the antique Anandtech forum software can't scale them despite the use of modern browsers. Ah, the irony of viewing a mobile device forum on a fixed size desktop layout created in a previous century. Seemed funny at the time.

 

[VashHT]

I've had the Z3 compact for a few weeks now, like other people said the battery life is great, I get around 3 and a half to 4 hours of screen time pretty easily. It would generally last my usage (a lot of web browsing, streaming music to bluetooth, and phone calls) about 2 days, it'd be down to around 20% on the second day.

I wasn't quite sure if I'd like the smaller screen, but I don't watch many movies or play games on my phone so the size has been good for me. I can use it one handed really comfortably, whereas with the G2 I was using and the iphone 6 can be pretty awkward trying to use one handed.

Performance-wise it runs quite well as you would expect from a phone with a 720p screen and a snapdragon 801, the sony skin isn't too heavy so it doesn't seem to slow things down at all. I'm on ATT and the signal seems to be about on par with other ATT phones I've used, haven't checked the numbers but in general it seems good. The GPS works fine, I've used navigation quite a bit on the phone and it stays reliably locked even down in Chicago.

For the camera, I'm convinced it can take good pictures, but Sony's auto mode needs work. It seems to work well in good lighting conditions, but it doesn't handle low light well even though it detects it. I've found going into the manual mode for low light gives a lot better results, it would be nice if the "superior" auto mode they have would use the sensor to it's full potential without having to mess with different scene modes. Other than that it seems pretty fast, not as fast as the iphone 6(which kind of sets the bar for camera speed imo) but definitely fast enough.

The speakers are a pretty weak point imo, I have not tried podcasts, but it is pretty weak for phone calls. With the iphone 6 or my G2, I could easily use speakerphone in my car, but with the Z3C I was struggling to hear the person when I used it. It's loud enough in a quieter environment but It'd be nice if you could push the volume higher for noisier places. Quality-wise it sounds good, on my Nexus 4 I always had to take it down a step from max because it got really tinny and sounded terrible, but the Z3c sounds clear and not distorted maxed out. The volume seems to get much louder if I play music through the speakers which I thought was kind of interesting, I'm hoping someone can find a way to push the volume higher from the speakers for phone calls.

Anyway overall it's a great phone, I kind of regret not going for the nexus 6 now that lollipop is out and the Z3C won't be getting it until next year, but I think I can wait it out.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Anyway overall it's a great phone, I kind of regret not going for the nexus 6 now that lollipop is out and the Z3C won't be getting it until next year, but I think I can wait it out.

True, but isnt the Nexus 6 a large monstrosity compared to the Z3C? Its a whole different ball park.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah that was definitely a big factor in it, if google had updated the nexus 5 I would have been all over that.