Sony Xperia Z3 UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

I Lov this device it is so so GOOD!You can check out my review in 4K Resolution on my youtube channel: Extreme Remake ProductionIFA 2014 exhibition ended quite recently. Many companies represented their new devices. Among them — Sony which announcement was recognized as the best at an exhibition. Japanese showed update of all their key positions: there was a compact flagman tablet, and the third generation of Xperia Z smartphones: Z3 and Z3 Compact. The predecessor of today's leader turned out as a balanced Sony smartphone, which is good enough to beat its competitors. With a new hardware platform, water protection, qualitative materials.In the new Z3 model developers passed from change of specs to design change. The smartphone became much thinner and it is lighter, bezels around the screen been reduced, metal end faces became smoother, water protection was improved. Overall, Xperia Z3 can be called a stylish leader of Sony, the smartphone looks very pleasant, and it is much smaller in comparison with Z2, not so angular. But technically there is no breakthrough: people who expected Quad HD screen will be disappointed.Here at once it is necessary to tell that Xperia Z3 was created for the competition to already existing leaders, such as Samsung GALAXY S5, HTC One M8: they all have same screen resolution, similar processor (in GALAXY S5). Only LG with their G3 smartphone went before others ahead for the Quad HD display resolution. Proceeding from this fact, the recommended price of the Sony smartphone will be same as its competitors, about 530 pounds. We will have a look how did the important parts of the phone changed: operating time, productivity with the new processor and so on, in our review …Design:First thing to notice is the changed design, the metal frame of the case now got the rounded end faces, thickness is decreased. If you remember, Xperia Z2 angular case was one of minuses, Z3 is much more convenient to hold in hand. The reduced sizes of the frame around screen and weight can also be written down as pluses.In Xperia Z3 a framework on each side the screen been strongly reduced, remained only from above and from below. However, it is explained by water protection, at the minimum thickness a sealing have to settle down somewhere. In the iPhone 6 frame even bigger, thus there is no water protection.The glass back surface remained, but now it is more organically entered in a metal frame. I think that Xperia Z3 will be more resistant to falling, than the predecessor.Actually, the integral metal frame in Z2 during the falls distributed blow force on all surface, including glass, it could burst. In Z3 (and in whole z3 series) this problem solved by inserting polycarbonate on corners so fragility when falling reduced. Corners are executed from unpainted polycarbonate as a colour of metal, they almost aren't noticeable at allThe second moment is colouring: Sony changed colour scale, now in addition to the black and white very pleasant colours are added such as copper and silvery-green. There is no violet any more. Before we could see black front panel on the white colour phones but now it is all white.in comparison with Xperia Z2 thickness, went down to 7,3 mm. Actually change is felt at the expense of smoothed end faces, smooth metal, Xperia Z3 is much more comfortable to hold. because of its thickness battery capacity went down from 3200 to 3100 miliamps, but it would not affect the operating time. Also the design of flaps was changed, they are more accurate now. Before putting phone in water tightness of flaps should be checked.The smartphone has traditional protection against water and a dust, the IP65/IP68 standards. The second figure 8 means that the device can be for half an hour in water, depth — to 1,5 meters. The main competitor Samsung GALAXY S5 protection against water of the previous generation, IP67. Besides Samsung have no camera button, to take photos under water.Screen:The Sony Xperia Z3 screen uses the LCD IPS panel a diagonal of 5,2 inches. Resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) such diagonal provides density of pixels at about 424 ppi. there are no problems with clearness, density of pixels reads off scale — fine details on the screen don't lose sharpness at all.The maximum brightness was 690 cd/m2, this is one of the greatest values I ever seen. The coefficient of contrast left about 920:1, good result for IPS. As well as on other Sony devices, the screen does not contain an air layer therefore antiglare properties appear at high level. Viewing angles typically wide for IPS also do not cause any complaints.Summing up the results, it is necessary to tell that the Sony Xperia Z3 screen leaves inconsistent impressions. it has a huge stock of brightness and good external execution of the display — an effective anti bleaking, lack of an air layer.Hardware:Xperia z3 has a qualcolm snapdragon 801 , 2.5 ghz processor. Xperia z2 had similar processor but with the power of 2.1 ghz. There is a nice feature to its hardware. Smartphone switches on the screen straight away after pressing lock button. Z3 has 3gb of ram which is 1 more gig than m8 and galaxy s5. It has internal 16gb of memory and also micro sd slot for memory cards up to 128gb.Camera:Camera was upgraded. The resolution is the same but viewing angle got increased up to 25mm. There are new AR effects such as advanced selfie mode and new 3d objects. There is a point to letyou know. When u start up the camera with camera button it automatically switches on in 8mp. So if u will need higher resolution you will need to go to manual settings.Battery:Battery life is perfect as you would expect. It has stamina mode and ultra stamina mode which will help you use your device at least for 5 days in ultra stamina mode, Phone handles full day of hard usage but i will recomend not to use it on full brightness because it does eat hell lots of battery.Sound:Xperia z3 has a Sony DSEE HX codec. Which makes a low quality and normal quality music files in higher quality and makes them sound close to high resolution audio. Also there is a digital noise cancelling technology which is cancelling 98% of the noise when you are listening to music through Sony 31EM earphones.Evoluation:Sony Xperia Z3 can be called the improved version of Xperia Z2 , after all the main changes concerned design, dimensions, external elements. The angular Z2 case wasn't really convenient, now the metal frame received roundings off, and thickness decreased to 7,3 mm. As a result of Z3 it is more convenient to hold in hand, also the smartphone became stronger against falling by having the polymer inserts . Design and built quality at high level, so as protection against water according to the most modern IP65/68 standard.Must say i love this phone to much!

My original review with 5 stars is shown below.However, I am here to warn all fellow amazon buyers; think and choose wisely. I will share my experience here and you better read it to understand the risk you are putting yourself in when buying this now-490GBP smartphone. After all, purchasing this Z3 is identical to binding yourself to a contract with Sony under warranty.And I am here to tell you that such contract they have prepared for you as an end user is unjust for situations of my sort.Conclusion first; buy this phone IF and only if you do not mind risking throwing away the money you paid. No product should come with such risk, but I assure you this one does.If you want to know why I can say this, then please keep on reading. Otherwise, just take my word for it.*If you're bothered, search SBE extranet; these are the people your device will be sent off to for repair work in case of a fault. See the reviews on Google? As of 10/12/14, there are 79 reviews and scores 1.7 stars out of 5. Would you want them to fiddle with your 500 pounds?*I purchased this as soon as it was released, started using from early October 2014.As my previous review states, it was a brilliant phone; only given that it works as advertised.After exactly a month(November 2014) Z3 abruptly stopped dead, screen backlight bright as ever but nothing shows on the display. Reboot, software installation, re-charge nothing helped so I shipped it off for a warranted repair service.(I will also warn you about the seller on amazon "total digital stores" which I chose due to its highly positive rating, but turns out they do not care at all about selling a defective product for 500GBP and refused to have it replaced/returned; apparently their return period is a laughable 14days)The repair took a week, and when I received it indeed, it was back and healthy. Now this isn't too bad; they may have sold me a faulty piece but such things do happen, and I won't blame too much on them as long as they do have substantial after -care service.But in 2weeks, the phone encountered the exact same issue. Naturally, doubtful of their "repair" work, I requested a replacement and not a repair.I mean, the same problem happening twice? in a month and a half? Already (supposedly) "repaired"? Such quality for a brand new 500GBP smartphone?Still, I contained my frustration and had it shipped off again for yet another repair as SONY insisted upon it.Now, it came back last week (4 Dec) and prepare to laugh people; it broke on the 6th of December.How can this not be enough evidence that the SONY repair centre engineers(...are they?) are not capable of handling this particular issue?Clearly, this calls for a replacement but I guess this is the difference between SONY and APPLE; to my surprise, they refused to replace it.**I will go on further with detail on the impeccable logic SONY has talked to me over the phone, but if this is getting tedious, here's my point; Sure, buy the Z3 or any SONY product. That is if and only if you are prepared to, in case given a defective product, to undergo the risk of handing it over to incompetent repair service and probably never get a replacement and pretty much end up paying 490GBP for a handful of "we're very sorry for the inconvenience but we won't do the most obvious thing that would fix the issue and keep trying the method that has clearly shown to be non-effective so here's a middle finger to you and we'll still take your money"**Be wise, this is powerful than the iPhone 6 but if you want to be stress-free in case of a defect, this as well as all SONY products are NOT the choice for you.Now, this sums up the conversation I had with SONY over the phone;Me:"This is the third fault in the past 2 months, and you're still telling me to send it for repair which has proven enough to be useless for this matter?"Sony:"Yes"Me:"It says in the warranty that you will either repair or replace it. Why not replace it already?"Sony:"We will replace it if our engineers are unable to fix it"Me:"Which clearly is the case given that 2 consecutive attempts have not worked"Sony:"No, it worked on the engineer's side and if it turned on without a problem on your side, then that's repaired"Me:"This is a smartphone. That definition of "repair" is silly because the last time it broke in 48hrs"Sony: "That still means it has been repaired"Me:"So if this goes on forever, say 10, 20 times of repair during the warranty period and if it turns on at least once, that's not enough to get it replaced?"Sony:"No. It's case by case"Me:"But it's the same device having the same problem. This should not at all be considered to be functioning as a smartphone for daily use, no? Even if they are distinct issues, 3 malfunctions in 2 months is more than enough to show that the phone is clearly vulnerable and faulty than what has been advertised"Sony:"There may be different causes so it is case by case"Me:"(Sigh, Man these people are like preprogrammed answering-machines)Sure it doesn't say in the warranty that there is a set number of repair attempts to be made before replacing the device but don't you think 3 repairs in 2 months is rather absurd?"Sony:"That's what the warranty is for. It covers you for 24 months"(i.e. we don't care about the inconvenience caused as long as we can keep hold of your money)So1. Sony's definition of "repair" is apparently if it turns on at least once when it gets back to you and even if it doesn't a minute later, it still qualifies as "repaired."2.There's a trap in the warranty; NO SET NUMBERS OF REPAIR ATTEMPTS BEFORE REPLACING. In other words, we don't have common sense or we don't care or we're both so you send in your device 10,20,30...100 times if need be as long as we can "repair" it(i.e. from the definition above, "as long as we can make it turn on at least once when it reaches your hand")Don't get me wrong, I am(was) a SONY lover my PC, tablet, HDD, phones were all SONY. But now that I have seen how truly ridiculous they are(if they really think they can get away with 500GBP of someone's money with a product and after-care/repair service like this) and how customer satisfaction is next to second on the priority list(you won't see this like I didn't until you get unlucky enough to be in a situation like this), I will, from now on, never purchase a SONY product and further do my best to prevent my friends, family anyone I can contact(Facebook, Youtube, amazon) from buying SONY products in order to save them from the risk of undergoing the same frustration, anger, and waste of time, energy and money as I have experienced.Sure SONY, you think "Yeh, sod off it doesn't even bug us to lose one customer out of millions." You'll see in the long run, you won't be losing just a handful. I have exams coming up now but once they're done, I'll keep sharing this horrible experience and exposing the true "SONY way" of treating customers. Still of course, it is for the potential customers to decide if they will try your products. But for their good, I will try my best to convince them otherwise."Demand Great" was it? Z3? No, for me, this was "demand great, receive a bowl full of apologies"I have learned a hard lesson at a very expensive lesson fee, but it won't go in vain. I will spread word to the maximum of my power and ability for as long as SONY remains this way; deceptive promises, ludicrous logic, pathetic engineers.So I repeat one last time. Unless you want to risk what I have endured, leave this page now. Do not type "SONY" or "Xperia" or "VAIO" in the search bar. Other major smartphones may not stand out as much as the Z3 is advertised to, but believe me, that is a smarter choice and promised for a more stress-free future.And good thing I didn't buy the smartband talk, was very interested and determined to buy it but Z3 is already enough stress, not willing to agonize myself with more of their products and unreliable "service"(The following is my previous review when I was naive and before I found out how SONY is seriously lacking common sense)-------------Incredibly nice piece of tech.The design is very good, the curves make it easier to hold with your hands. I can even do easy things with one hand, maybe for texting, two hands are needed.It's very light weight for its size and measure too.Screen is beautiful and vibrant, even web browsing gives you an eye opening screen display performance. Simply beautiful.The speed is very fast too; at least a 10000 times better than the previous phone I had, Xperia J. 3GB RAM is definitely doing it's job, I see I'm using 1.3-5 GB RAM just for apps in general, so 2GB phones are a bit too....meh.If you are having problems with the speed, it's either your wifi or 3G provider, not the phone's fault!In general,application usage is smooth and swift, stress-free.The sound quality is fair too, I have no complaints using it both via speakers and headphones.If you have a problem with this phone or not happy, either that you were unlucky and got a faulty one or you're looking for a phone from the future.Though...one complaint I might make to Sony, not the phone, is that .... why would you not release the protective case for Z3 at the same time?Having trouble getting it, I pre ordered the official Sony case on amazon but it takes a while until release and further more for arrival. Don't see the reason why not, I'd say it makes more sense, and smarter, to release it at the same time.So, no problem at all with the phone, cool just having it in your bag, convenient web browsing and app using. Fully recommended, especially for the price, unlike most of the over-priced phone out there with no-big-deal quality packed in.