Review: Sony Xperia Z

I came across an advertisement about the Xperia Test Driver and just randomly sign up for it. It turns out to be a golden opportunity for me to try out the phone. I find that the phone is light weight and very slim which is a good thing to keep it in clutches. The wide screen + HD definitely is a plus point for me especially to take beautiful pictures and watching video. I was given this phone with screen protectors front and back but it's not thumbprint-proof. May be with a matte screen protector, it will do just fine. The build-in speaker as well as the earpiece is fantastic! They are super clear and quite loud for a phone. The interface of the phone definitely awed me as it is smooth to swipe, the colors are vibrant and the apps work efficiently especially uploading pictures.

I tried taking few pictures and videos from the phone; it is definitely a charm with sharpness and HD, clear voices for videos too. But the best part of the camera is that they have a superior auto photo capture that will take pictures without adjusting the settings. I took a picture of fireworks using the manual and compared to auto, the auto is definitely can capture it beautifully.

Apart from that, having the manual settings too create good pictures such as normal mode, burst, picture effects with 9 effects to choose from such as miniature, fish eye and sketch. It also have sweep panorama, scene selection with 17 selections of scenes!!

Burst effect to take a picture of bubbles.

Panorama sweep effect

Manage to capture the gradient of the sky

Focusing and macro effect

Food

Sunny scenery

The most important feature that I would like to highlight about the phone is that it is waterproof! I didn't manage to get to the swimming pool to try it out so i tried on normal transparent container. After making sure all the openings are covered, I put it to the test. I tried to take pictures underwater but because the screen is not touch sensitive underwater with addition that the phone doesn't have built-in trigger button thus it makes it hard to take pictures.

I only manage to take videos but I have to press record button at the surface and not underwater. I guess it is possible to use it for snorkeling and swimming by having it to record before diving in. The waterproof system is very helpful if you happen to spill some water or need to clean it after a plunge in a toilet bowl, you can actually wash your phone!