well that was fast. i like that they kept the 1080p screen, but the sd810 in combination with a smaller battery slightly worries me. but t least we could shave off another .4mm i guess.
generally i'd rather have seen a thicker device so they have enough room for OIS and an even bigger battery, but as long as battery life stays the same and they improve image processing with help of sony's camera department i'd say it's alright.
If it's anything like the Z3 and previous Sony phones, there will be a magnetic charging connection on the side. It can connect to magnetic charging cables or cradles. The main reason for this seems to be that Sony has covered the USB port with a flap for the water/dust resistance certification. As a Z3 owner, I can say that having to open up that flap every time I want to charge is a royal pain, which is why I have a magnetic cradle. Also, I don't want to wear out the flap and have it come loose or fall out at some point.
Also as a previous owner of an N4 with a Qi charger, I can say that I much prefer the magnetic charging cradle solution to Qi charging. It is just as convenient and doesn't cause the battery to heat up during charging compared to normal USB charge. In my experience, Qi charging dramatically reduced the battery life of my N4 over a long time frame (~2 years) on my N4 compared to my wife's N4 which did not use a Qi charger due to the extra heat buildup associated with Qi charging.
I purchased one for my LG G2. Make sure you get the right one-- hold the phone screen-up in front of you and look at the microUSB port: is the narrow side of the microUSB port up or down? LG G2 it's up.
Then, get a TPU case to cover this Qi attachment and keep it from coming off. Of the 5 I have purchased, I like this one the most, and I don't like the black version: http://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Goospery-Flexible-Pr...
with a larger battery like the G2, it's less of a problem that it charges more slowly than plugging in. Somewhat inconvenient to remove for USB-OTG support (for Titanium Backup and TWRP backups). I use FolderSync to keep phone synced with wifi.
It's only power hungry if all cores are under sustained load. They are fast, and that's the price for that. The power efficiency is still pretty good, and temperatures no issue under bursty real world loads.
Agreed. If 1080p improves battery life over higher res displays, I am all for it. I'm glad the pixel war happened but it needs to end, at least for smart phones. The water protection and SD card support make this a real contender for my next phone, especially if they release it on the Verizon network.
Such a low key announcement. Makes me wonder if there will be a successor announced at IFA again this fall. While Xperia design language is solid, this looks very much like a Z3 and it feels kind of tired at this point.
I hope the camera is decent though. Sony has the hardware to show for it, but the software has so far been lackluster.
I'm almost certain I read somewhere that Sony is going to reduce the amount of time and energy (and money) they spend on the smartphone market and focus on their cameras and gaming divisions.
They had a short story of it on GSMArena about Sony putting more time into their camera sensors and gaming. That's not to say they are exiting the smartphone market, just that they'll reduce time/effort/money/etc in it.
I personally think that's sad, as I love my Sony phones. My Xperia T and current Xperia Z2. They've been my only trouble free phones. LG G2x, Dell Streak 5, and Samsung Galaxy S were before that and I always ended having some kind of issue with it. I also had a Sharp something rather Android flipphone, which was hellaciously slow.
In my opinion as a very happy Z3 owner using a SanDisk Extreme 64GB micro SD card, the Z4 is nice evolution of the Z3, but I was hoping for more. That said, this is the Japanese version, not the international version, so the international version could be better. :-)
I was hoping for a device that would make me envious and want to jump and get the Z4 RIGHT NOW, but I don't see the advantage of paying big cash for just a 64bit 8 core 810 and 32GB of internal storage when I'm content with my very responsive 4 core SOC and my micro SD card.
Will the OS be 64 bit? Will it be more responsive than my Z3? Will the battery, even though it's smaller, outlast my Z3?
I'm glad it's still waterproof though. Having a waterproof phone with a micro SD slot is a dealbreaker for me. And yes, I really mean that, I'm not just being a Sony fanboi (even though I am a Sony fanboi. :-)
I can't really think of any brand that has has made anyone want to jump on a new phone immediately from the previous iteration. Seems they design them to get people go go from the z2 to the z4, gs4 to gs6, m7 to m9 (or not in this instance as the m9 seems a bit of a flop).
Think you might have unrealistic expectation to expect such change year on year.
@hughlle: A few years ago I went from a P990i to a C905, it initially felt like a downgrade (from stylus to slider) but the camera made it worth it.
Then from a C905 to an Xperia T (I tried an old Xperia X10 for a month before going back to the C905), the change was quite dramatic, a revelation almost! The C905-Xperia T switch was the most dramatic, including going from a monochrome to a colour phone in '98/'99 (IIRC it was the Siemens S10.)
Then from an Xperia T to the Z3 - wow, what an improvement. Not as dramatic as before, but this phone does what I need, at the speed I need to it (although being more and more responsive is ALWAYS appreciated! ;-) If only the image post-processing(?) software could be the same that Sony uses on their cameras... I mean, other phone manufacturers use Sony lenses and sensors but it seems that they can produce as-good-or-better pictures as the Z3. I don't own another camera, my Z3 is my camera, so I'd appreciate better-quality images from my camera.
a few years ago, sure, there was a good reason to upgrade, there was constantly evolving tech. Nowadays though, it does seem to be based on a 2 year cycle (tick tock) as the technology is now just stagnated. There are no longer new features from one phone to the next such as greyscale to colour, polytronic to mp3 or whatnot. Nowadays the only things manufacturers seem to be able to do with new releases is increase ppi, faster processing, or a better camera. Current tech just doesn't allow for the kind of innovations that would really make you grab the next version like it did in the past.
Yup, I went from an OG EVO to the 3D cause going dual core AND 2GB RAM made it a lot more fluid when switching apps, the EVO LTE a year later was a whole lot thinner, ushered in ICS which was a big step for Android, etc etc.
That was probably the biggest jump, I got my current Nexus 5 mostly for convenience's sake (KK, unlocked phone and whatnot), but I've pretty much lost the upgrade bug.
The Z3c was tempting last year for the combination of small size + great battery life, I'm not sure they'll be able to replicate that this year with a Z4 Compact tho. I wish they'd worked in Qi too.
I have the Z3. It is a great phone. But like prior Samsungs it's more a spec phone than anything else. My S6 Edge is arriving this morning. Then the Z3 is going to hit Ebay.
They're selling them pretty cheap actually. Here in my country a Chinese OEM offers a phone for $290 which has the same 1080p AMOLED panel that the S5 does :D
YES, sorry, I meant S4. But it was launched nearly over a year ago, so at the time they would have been much more expensive than they are today, kind of like how this year someone puts out a phone with an S5 screen. Clearly they can't be *that* expensive.
Most any non-samsung AMOLED display plain SUCKS. Completely off colours, low brightness. You won't find an S6 quality panel on any other smartphone, not even S4 quality.
Samsung is basically the only company building AMOLED panels for smartphones in Bay meaningful capacity. They don't give other OEMs access to their latest tech, hence AMOLED displays on phones from other companies that don't stack up to Samsung's latest and greatest.
400 nits, which is OK. grayscale and saturation accuracy of about 4 are NOT good. If I remember correctly, anandtech called it a "mixed bag". You must be unfamiliar with it too.
No OIS? What year is this? Android OEMs can't do in 2015 what Nokia did in 2012. :') And the S810 is a hot mess. Literally. I think the S6 is the only worthwhile Android flagship this year. Waiting for the Lumia flagship to be better tho. :)
The Galaxy S6 seems to be one of the top choices for this year, although I wouldn't count out LG just yet(the phone might be huge, but the features they've teased so far seems promising)
I hope MS hits hard with the new Lumia flagship. The 930 is already a great device, but it need better battery life and more internal storage. Or at least give us the option to expand it.
Even the upcoming Lumia flagship will be on SD 810 as Qualcomm is the sole SOC partner for windows phone. Microsoft even stated few months back that they will use SD 810 soon in their phone.
I know, and that's problematic for a lot of reasons. Sure, WP is more resource efficient than Android, but it can't really be efficient enough to prevent the S810 throttling. :/ Hopefully it'll perform better than the M9 and G Flex 2. Hopefully.
I wonder if there will ever be a successor to the Z Ultra. That thing had a huge and lovely screen but was let down by a terrible camera (with no flash!) and a small battery.
Agreed - the Z Ultra was absolutely beautiful in design, the screen was both big and amazing to use, and the waterproofing was addictive once you got used to it. The combination of a screen that big with a thinness slimmer than the iPhone and the design language made for an incredibly striking phone. My colleagues immediately wanted to know what it was - they had never seen anything like it.
Also - with kids around, the waterproofing moved beyond 'nice' into 'almost a necessity.' Hobbling it with that bad camera and no flash was a travesty - if it had a real camera and flash, the Z Ultra would have been a near-perfect phablet.
I would love to see an updated Z4 or Z5 Ultra.
And to echo Rustico - yes, Anandtech, please review the Sony smartphones! Their business acumen may be questionable, but the phones have been great. And the Android market could use another of the big 4 (Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony) to come up with a legitimate competitor to the S6 this year. Curious to see if Sony's implementation of the 810 is better as well....
Sony didn't send them review samples in the past, so Anandtech have not reviewed Sony phones but hopefully the new/young staff will contact Sony and ask for review samples.
Sony verybrarely releases any of their products to reviewers. Anandtech has reviewed a grand total of about one laptop from Sony, also, because of this. The staff at anandtech has always asked for models from Sony, but they never seem to send any.
When looking to buy a new phone for a relative, I had a choice between a Samsung Alpha and a Z3c. Due to the general lack of coverage of Sony products, and a rumor that Sony was planning on exiting the smartphone business, I had to go with the Alpha.
It's really sad that there's so little competition in the SoC space. I miss TI's OMAP. Intel still isn't competing too much. Tegras run too hot, and Samsung doesn't sell much outside Samsung When Qualcomm is on its game, (like with the Snapdragon 800), domination makes sense. But the Snapdragon 810 is a terrible chip, and yet, bar Samsung, it's still everywhere :(
Coming from iPhone 5s, I was waiting for this news as soon as I heard of a Z4 being on track. I love the design and functionality over iPhone 6. However, as there is no word on a Z4 Compact, I may have to go with the Z3C. Any info on that ?
Z4 compact was not released today but we can expect an announcement soon, you should definitely wait if you can, if not then Z3 compact is still a good phone going at good price in most countries.
While 2 releases doesn't make a reliable pattern, the Compact releases are every other generation. As in, there's an Xperia Z1 Compact and an Xperia Z3 Compact. Which means, there won't be a Z4 Compact, but there should be a Z5 Compact.
The Z series releases annually. The Z Compact series releases bi-annually.
The good part about that is that there is probably going to be a Snapdragon 820 based Z5 later this year, and a Z5 Compact based on it. And that would be a darn nice phone ;-)
Front facing speakers and waterproof do set it apart quite a bit - and that in a compact form with high end hardware. Should ensure good sales if you ask me.
No surprises from Sony as usual. I think they are playing it safe. Why fix something that is not broken. I do hope that the battery don't disappoint since one of the winning formula for the Z3 series was the battery life.
I'm glad they're focussing on a product that will ensure good user experience rather than ridiculous specs! Good work Sony! Now, if only they can for Android and develop a secure platform...
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fokka - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
well that was fast. i like that they kept the 1080p screen, but the sd810 in combination with a smaller battery slightly worries me. but t least we could shave off another .4mm i guess.generally i'd rather have seen a thicker device so they have enough room for OIS and an even bigger battery, but as long as battery life stays the same and they improve image processing with help of sony's camera department i'd say it's alright.
how about wireless charging though?
Laxaa - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
There's no Qi on board, but I've read somewhere that it works with some sort for dock.Cinnabuns - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
If it's anything like the Z3 and previous Sony phones, there will be a magnetic charging connection on the side. It can connect to magnetic charging cables or cradles. The main reason for this seems to be that Sony has covered the USB port with a flap for the water/dust resistance certification. As a Z3 owner, I can say that having to open up that flap every time I want to charge is a royal pain, which is why I have a magnetic cradle. Also, I don't want to wear out the flap and have it come loose or fall out at some point.Also as a previous owner of an N4 with a Qi charger, I can say that I much prefer the magnetic charging cradle solution to Qi charging. It is just as convenient and doesn't cause the battery to heat up during charging compared to normal USB charge. In my experience, Qi charging dramatically reduced the battery life of my N4 over a long time frame (~2 years) on my N4 compared to my wife's N4 which did not use a Qi charger due to the extra heat buildup associated with Qi charging.
Laxaa - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
They've removed the magnetic connection for this model, and the USB is now exposed.khanikun - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
No they haven't. It's the same as the Z3. Magenetic connection and covered usb port. Just like the Z2 before it. Also the Z1 before that.soccerballtux - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I purchased one for my LG G2. Make sure you get the right one-- hold the phone screen-up in front of you and look at the microUSB port: is the narrow side of the microUSB port up or down? LG G2 it's up.http://www.amazon.com/BLUBOON-Universal-Wireless-M...
Then, get a TPU case to cover this Qi attachment and keep it from coming off. Of the 5 I have purchased, I like this one the most, and I don't like the black version: http://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Goospery-Flexible-Pr...
with a larger battery like the G2, it's less of a problem that it charges more slowly than plugging in. Somewhat inconvenient to remove for USB-OTG support (for Titanium Backup and TWRP backups). I use FolderSync to keep phone synced with wifi.
Xajel - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Xperia Z3 is already the best modern smartphone in battery life, so I expect that Z4 will still be competitive even with lower capacity battery.satai - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Let's see, the Snapdragon 810 is expected to be pretty power hungry...przemo_li - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Yet, it's display and LTE networking that contribute most to daily battery drain! (Apart from playing resource hungry games that is)810 may be bad, but it can not be as bad as big display and LTE chip.
MrSpadge - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
It's only power hungry if all cores are under sustained load. They are fast, and that's the price for that. The power efficiency is still pretty good, and temperatures no issue under bursty real world loads.AndrewJacksonZA - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
@Xajel I hope so too.Crazy1 - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Agreed. If 1080p improves battery life over higher res displays, I am all for it. I'm glad the pixel war happened but it needs to end, at least for smart phones. The water protection and SD card support make this a real contender for my next phone, especially if they release it on the Verizon network.Laxaa - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Such a low key announcement. Makes me wonder if there will be a successor announced at IFA again this fall. While Xperia design language is solid, this looks very much like a Z3 and it feels kind of tired at this point.I hope the camera is decent though. Sony has the hardware to show for it, but the software has so far been lackluster.
soccerballtux - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Sony seems to have a completely dead marketing department. I don't think anyone knows they actually make phones. I wonder why they never advertise?mortimerr - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I'm almost certain I read somewhere that Sony is going to reduce the amount of time and energy (and money) they spend on the smartphone market and focus on their cameras and gaming divisions.khanikun - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
They had a short story of it on GSMArena about Sony putting more time into their camera sensors and gaming. That's not to say they are exiting the smartphone market, just that they'll reduce time/effort/money/etc in it.I personally think that's sad, as I love my Sony phones. My Xperia T and current Xperia Z2. They've been my only trouble free phones. LG G2x, Dell Streak 5, and Samsung Galaxy S were before that and I always ended having some kind of issue with it. I also had a Sharp something rather Android flipphone, which was hellaciously slow.
AndrewJacksonZA - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
In my opinion as a very happy Z3 owner using a SanDisk Extreme 64GB micro SD card, the Z4 is nice evolution of the Z3, but I was hoping for more. That said, this is the Japanese version, not the international version, so the international version could be better. :-)I was hoping for a device that would make me envious and want to jump and get the Z4 RIGHT NOW, but I don't see the advantage of paying big cash for just a 64bit 8 core 810 and 32GB of internal storage when I'm content with my very responsive 4 core SOC and my micro SD card.
Will the OS be 64 bit? Will it be more responsive than my Z3? Will the battery, even though it's smaller, outlast my Z3?
I'm glad it's still waterproof though. Having a waterproof phone with a micro SD slot is a dealbreaker for me. And yes, I really mean that, I'm not just being a Sony fanboi (even though I am a Sony fanboi. :-)
hughlle - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
I can't really think of any brand that has has made anyone want to jump on a new phone immediately from the previous iteration. Seems they design them to get people go go from the z2 to the z4, gs4 to gs6, m7 to m9 (or not in this instance as the m9 seems a bit of a flop).Think you might have unrealistic expectation to expect such change year on year.
AndrewJacksonZA - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
@hughlle: A few years ago I went from a P990i to a C905, it initially felt like a downgrade (from stylus to slider) but the camera made it worth it.Then from a C905 to an Xperia T (I tried an old Xperia X10 for a month before going back to the C905), the change was quite dramatic, a revelation almost! The C905-Xperia T switch was the most dramatic, including going from a monochrome to a colour phone in '98/'99 (IIRC it was the Siemens S10.)
Then from an Xperia T to the Z3 - wow, what an improvement. Not as dramatic as before, but this phone does what I need, at the speed I need to it (although being more and more responsive is ALWAYS appreciated! ;-) If only the image post-processing(?) software could be the same that Sony uses on their cameras... I mean, other phone manufacturers use Sony lenses and sensors but it seems that they can produce as-good-or-better pictures as the Z3. I don't own another camera, my Z3 is my camera, so I'd appreciate better-quality images from my camera.
hughlle - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
a few years ago, sure, there was a good reason to upgrade, there was constantly evolving tech. Nowadays though, it does seem to be based on a 2 year cycle (tick tock) as the technology is now just stagnated. There are no longer new features from one phone to the next such as greyscale to colour, polytronic to mp3 or whatnot. Nowadays the only things manufacturers seem to be able to do with new releases is increase ppi, faster processing, or a better camera. Current tech just doesn't allow for the kind of innovations that would really make you grab the next version like it did in the past.Impulses - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Yup, I went from an OG EVO to the 3D cause going dual core AND 2GB RAM made it a lot more fluid when switching apps, the EVO LTE a year later was a whole lot thinner, ushered in ICS which was a big step for Android, etc etc.That was probably the biggest jump, I got my current Nexus 5 mostly for convenience's sake (KK, unlocked phone and whatnot), but I've pretty much lost the upgrade bug.
The Z3c was tempting last year for the combination of small size + great battery life, I'm not sure they'll be able to replicate that this year with a Z4 Compact tho. I wish they'd worked in Qi too.
tarqsharq - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
With a yearly change in models, they can probably get ~1/2 of the user base as many people work on 2 year contracts.Spunjji - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Android 5.0+ are 64bit capable, so that question at least is already answered :)Responsiveness /should/ be better too as it has a more punchy SoC (when not heat restricted) and, again, 5.0+ is nice and nippy.
The rest? Hopefully we find out without having to buy one..!
Chaser - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
I have the Z3. It is a great phone. But like prior Samsungs it's more a spec phone than anything else. My S6 Edge is arriving this morning. Then the Z3 is going to hit Ebay.AndrewJacksonZA - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
@Chaser: Which Z3 is it - D6603? I'm thinking of getting my sister one.ayqazi - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
If they can cram all that into the Compact version, and keep it's screen at 4.7" at the most, I'm sold!lilmoe - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Dear Sony,Samsung sells Exynos. Buy Exynos. Oh, and 1080p AMOLED. Your phone would be too hard to resist with your design and software.
nikaldro - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Dear lilmoe,Sony is broke. They sure as hell can't afford Exynos.
Oh, and SAMSUNG took years to get to that high quality AMOLED.
sna1970 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
AMOLED is being used by Nokia , Motorola , Lenovo , Nexus 6 , Black Berry , Oppo ...Samsung are selling them. but Sony Just refuses to buy them from Samsung .
kspirit - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
They're selling them pretty cheap actually. Here in my country a Chinese OEM offers a phone for $290 which has the same 1080p AMOLED panel that the S5 does :Darayoflight - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Even the Moto X 2014 don't have the Galaxy S5 generation AMOLED. They use the S4/Note 3 gen 1080p AMOLEDs. Are you aure it's the same as S5?kspirit - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
YES, sorry, I meant S4. But it was launched nearly over a year ago, so at the time they would have been much more expensive than they are today, kind of like how this year someone puts out a phone with an S5 screen. Clearly they can't be *that* expensive.nikaldro - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Most any non-samsung AMOLED display plain SUCKS. Completely off colours, low brightness. You won't find an S6 quality panel on any other smartphone, not even S4 quality.nikaldro - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
*on any other smartphone from a major brandMaxpower2727 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Samsung is basically the only company building AMOLED panels for smartphones in Bay meaningful capacity. They don't give other OEMs access to their latest tech, hence AMOLED displays on phones from other companies that don't stack up to Samsung's latest and greatest.Maxpower2727 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
in *any* meaningful capacity. Stupid autocorrect.mortimerr - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
Reading stuff like this makes me really sad. Because it's mostly true. I just want to have stock android with good hardware. But it's not possible.kspirit - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Low brightness? Bad quality? You must be unfamiliar with the Lumia 930.nikaldro - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
400 nits, which is OK. grayscale and saturation accuracy of about 4 are NOT good. If I remember correctly, anandtech called it a "mixed bag".You must be unfamiliar with it too.
Sushisamurai - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I actually prefer Sony to use an LCD screen instead of an AMOLEDdevione - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Been using Sony for a while now since they relaxed their policy with regards to phone modding and supporting of said modders / AOSP community.Exynos would be 10 steps back.
xchaotic - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Snapdragon 810 :(kspirit - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
No OIS? What year is this? Android OEMs can't do in 2015 what Nokia did in 2012. :')And the S810 is a hot mess. Literally. I think the S6 is the only worthwhile Android flagship this year. Waiting for the Lumia flagship to be better tho. :)
Laxaa - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
The Galaxy S6 seems to be one of the top choices for this year, although I wouldn't count out LG just yet(the phone might be huge, but the features they've teased so far seems promising)I hope MS hits hard with the new Lumia flagship. The 930 is already a great device, but it need better battery life and more internal storage. Or at least give us the option to expand it.
BMNify - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Even the upcoming Lumia flagship will be on SD 810 as Qualcomm is the sole SOC partner for windows phone. Microsoft even stated few months back that they will use SD 810 soon in their phone.Laxaa - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
And that worries me. Maybe I should just pick up a 930(they're pretty cheap these days) and wait for some more solid Qualcomm silicon.kspirit - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I know, and that's problematic for a lot of reasons. Sure, WP is more resource efficient than Android, but it can't really be efficient enough to prevent the S810 throttling. :/ Hopefully it'll perform better than the M9 and G Flex 2. Hopefully.josephnero - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
I would love to have one.As a Z2 user i love waterproofness,Sony UI,and build quality is just awesomeserendip - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
I wonder if there will ever be a successor to the Z Ultra. That thing had a huge and lovely screen but was let down by a terrible camera (with no flash!) and a small battery.jagadiesel1 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Agreed - the Z Ultra was absolutely beautiful in design, the screen was both big and amazing to use, and the waterproofing was addictive once you got used to it. The combination of a screen that big with a thinness slimmer than the iPhone and the design language made for an incredibly striking phone. My colleagues immediately wanted to know what it was - they had never seen anything like it.Also - with kids around, the waterproofing moved beyond 'nice' into 'almost a necessity.' Hobbling it with that bad camera and no flash was a travesty - if it had a real camera and flash, the Z Ultra would have been a near-perfect phablet.
I would love to see an updated Z4 or Z5 Ultra.
And to echo Rustico - yes, Anandtech, please review the Sony smartphones! Their business acumen may be questionable, but the phones have been great. And the Android market could use another of the big 4 (Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony) to come up with a legitimate competitor to the S6 this year. Curious to see if Sony's implementation of the 810 is better as well....
Zoomer - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
Second the review requests. I'm actually more interested in the Z3 - but you should do so to have a base to compare from.Rustico - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Can you guys review the Z4 once it's released, please? I feel like Sony devices have been left out in the past.BMNify - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Sony didn't send them review samples in the past, so Anandtech have not reviewed Sony phones but hopefully the new/young staff will contact Sony and ask for review samples.erple2 - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Sony verybrarely releases any of their products to reviewers. Anandtech has reviewed a grand total of about one laptop from Sony, also, because of this. The staff at anandtech has always asked for models from Sony, but they never seem to send any.When looking to buy a new phone for a relative, I had a choice between a Samsung Alpha and a Z3c. Due to the general lack of coverage of Sony products, and a rumor that Sony was planning on exiting the smartphone business, I had to go with the Alpha.
Zoomer - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
So the additional hits and ad revenue wouldn't cover the marginal cost of going out and spending $600 for the device?I seem to recall Anand going out and BUYING random processor samples from various outlets to compare their overclockability.
zodiacfml - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Nice specs......if without the S6 though some people would swear with the external memory and waterproofing.It is without a camera hump because it doesn't have OIS and a very wide aperture.
syxbit - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
It's really sad that there's so little competition in the SoC space.I miss TI's OMAP.
Intel still isn't competing too much. Tegras run too hot, and Samsung doesn't sell much outside Samsung
When Qualcomm is on its game, (like with the Snapdragon 800), domination makes sense. But the Snapdragon 810 is a terrible chip, and yet, bar Samsung, it's still everywhere :(
P1l0t3 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Coming from iPhone 5s, I was waiting for this news as soon as I heard of a Z4 being on track.I love the design and functionality over iPhone 6. However, as there is no word on a Z4 Compact, I may have to go with the Z3C. Any info on that ?
BMNify - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
Z4 compact was not released today but we can expect an announcement soon, you should definitely wait if you can, if not then Z3 compact is still a good phone going at good price in most countries.phoenix_rizzen - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
While 2 releases doesn't make a reliable pattern, the Compact releases are every other generation. As in, there's an Xperia Z1 Compact and an Xperia Z3 Compact. Which means, there won't be a Z4 Compact, but there should be a Z5 Compact.The Z series releases annually. The Z Compact series releases bi-annually.
plewis00 - Monday, April 20, 2015 - link
The Z series is 6-monthly actually, not yearly, if you count them back.phoenix_rizzen - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Actually, you are correct. :) My bad.Either way, there's 1 Z Compact release for every 2 normla Z releases. :)
jospoortvliet - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
The good part about that is that there is probably going to be a Snapdragon 820 based Z5 later this year, and a Z5 Compact based on it. And that would be a darn nice phone ;-)Front facing speakers and waterproof do set it apart quite a bit - and that in a compact form with high end hardware. Should ensure good sales if you ask me.
watzupken - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
No surprises from Sony as usual. I think they are playing it safe. Why fix something that is not broken. I do hope that the battery don't disappoint since one of the winning formula for the Z3 series was the battery life.Brakken - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
I'm glad they're focussing on a product that will ensure good user experience rather than ridiculous specs! Good work Sony! Now, if only they can for Android and develop a secure platform...