Review: Sony Xperia Z1

Gadget Review - Sony Mobile which was once famous as a smartphone with the best camera quality, doesn't want to left behind from its competitors, Nokia Lumia 1020 and Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom already published on the market for smartphone that relies on a high-resolution camera features. Xperia Z1 is the first waterproof smartphone with "Big" camera from Sony Mobile. Armed with the best hardware plus premium design.


Design
Before heading to the main dish - The Camera - First off, lets have a look at Z1 design. Structure design of Xperia Z1 looks similar to Xperia Z Ultra, it's a premium model with elegant body angles and curves. Z1 is slightly taller than the Xperia Z, but smaller than Z Ultra.

While Xperia Z and Z Ultra still dominated with plastic material. Xperia Z1 using aluminum materials on chassis that rounds off the edges that gives you a gentler, colder, metallic feel. Coated with anti-scratch glass on the front and back side, making it look smooth, button-free front and shiny on the back - you could easily mistake it for a display.

For waterproof capability, Z1 is certified to IP55/IP58 standards for dust and water resistance, the phone's ports, such as USB icroSD, and micro-SIM are all hidden behind the rubber stoppers, to keep water and dust at bay. Only 3.5mm headphone jack is open without cover, but don't worry, it's still waterproof. Z1 also equipped with a camera shutter button to help you take photos in various conditions, including underwater.

Display & UI
Triluminos technology plus X-Reality for Mobile which is the development result of the Sony Bravia Engine, able to bring the clarity and sharpness of images and colors on the Z1 5-inch screen size. However, the screen size is smaller than the Z Ultra, but turned out making Z1 screen pixel density is much higher, reaching 441 ppi and still supports full HD 1080p resolution.

Z1 screen image can still be seen clearly though 'exposed' in direct sunlight. Only, sharpness and clarity are a little bit down. But, you can outsmart simply by adjusting the 'Brightness' setting.

Z1 powered with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS and virtually identical in most respects to the OS powering the previous model. Although Sony's completely redesigned every single aspect, Xperia Z owners will recognize it all.

Technical Details

• 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density), Triluminos HD, X-Reality for mobile
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS
• Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait processor, Qualcomm MSM8974 chipset, Snapdragon 800, Adreno 330 GPU, with 2GB of RAM,
• Internal Storage: 16GB , external: up to 64GB
• 4G LTE Cat4 (50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL); DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, ANT+, NFC, microUSB (MHL) v2.0, USB On The Go, aGPS.
• 20.7 MP, 1/2.3”, G Lens, BIONZ, Exmor RS for Mobile
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Hardware
Powered by a Qualcomm Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait Processor, Qualcomm MSM8974 chipset, Snapdragon 800, Adreno 330 GPU, and backed up by 2GB of working RAM. Making Z1 like a twin brother to Z Ultra. So it's performance, certainly not much different. However, if compared to the Snapdragon S4 Pro processors that widely used on middle class smartphone today, the hardware capabilities of Z1 is much more powerful.

Watching full HD video, playing 3D/HD games, or browsing high quality content - can be done smoothly without any lags or hiccups.

Smartphone with unibody concept is difficult to reset if problem happens -like hangs. Fortunately, Sony already prepare for it, Xperia Z1 has a special panel to do the reset process, its position is on the side of a micro SIM card slot, a small red "Off" button.

Camera

The headline feature of Xperia Z1 is the 20.7 megapixel camera. Sony's Exmor RS with G lens technology plus BIONZ noise eliminate capable of capturing images with a 27mm wide angle of view with sharp and clear results.

Z1 camera menu interface a bit different than the Xperia Z or Z Ultra. Everything are arranged in square form with detailed explanation about the ability of these features. For more stuff to play with, Z1 camera provided some interesting photo effects that can be selected in AR effect mode and Picture effect mode. The images can also be instantly shared to social networking by activating Social Live mode. Social Live mode also able to share a live video direct to Facebook. You can broadcast up to 10 minutes of live footage direct from the Z1.

Z1 camera also has "Timeshift Burst" mode. By activating this mode, you can be take up 61 frames in 2 second. As waterproof smartphone, Z1 is certainly capable of taking pictures under water, this is what a camera shutter button are for. The shutter button also use as shortcut to access the camera, there's an option to automatically capture a shot as soon as you open the app, meaning you can unpocket the thing, hold down the shutter button to launch the camera and have a picture within one second.

Interestingly, in addition comes with best-in-class quality of the camera, the Sony Xperia Z1 also supported several additional accessories such as Sony Style Lens-QX100 and QX10 camera that can be used to produce higher quality photos.

Conclusions
The Xperia Z1 is another great phone from Sony Mobile, superb display at times, fast performance, a large battery even for hardcore users. And one of the best cameras, support with a various camera features and the latest technology. You can easily create highest quality pictures, even while you were swimming (under-water photography).

Z1 has "the Beast" on inside and "the Beauty" on the outside. Luxurious, premium models and protected by shatterproof glass, also waterproof and dust-proof ability. For many reason, it's easy to falling love to this phone.
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