Solid build quality, lovely screen, very powerful processor, waterproof and dust resistant, terrific camera
Blocky styling won't be for everyone, eats up during heavy use
The big boys are coming out to play with new hero handsets in the last week or so from HTC, Samsung and now Sony. Like its rivals, the Sony Xperia Z2 offers incremental improvements over its predecessor rather than a redefinition, but there's still plenty to get just a little excited about.
Chassis and screen
At first glance, the Z2 doesn't look a whole lot different to last year's Z1. Once again it's protected back and front by sheets of Corning Gorilla Glass with the same aluminium edging around the sides but now it's ever so slightly longer, slimmer, and a teensy bit lighter too -- not by much though.
Also like the Z1 it's water and dust proof with IP58 certification (which should protect it down to a depth of 1.5m for up to half an hour in fresh water). To achieve that the SIM and microSD card slots (it can handle up to 128GB to augment the 16GB onboard) plus micro USB power/sync port are all safely hidden behind sturdy, rubber-edged covers.
On the sides there's a docking port for Sony devices and a dedicated camera button while on the front at the top there's a colour-coded notification LED which flashes white, green, red, orange or purple depending on whassup and seems to be brighter this time round.
The screen is now a little bigger -- 5.2 inches rather than 5, and although the phone itself has been slightly stretched, the bezel is smaller, so the screen takes up more of the real estate on the face. With a full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels (424ppi) it's actually slightly less sharp than the Z1's smaller screen, but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. It still uses Sony's Triluminos tech but now it's an IPS panel (which offers improved viewing angles, amonst other benefits) and it has an extra ingredient with Live Colour LED.
Sure enough, colours are bright and vivid, just a little bit more popping than the Z1, while contrast is sharp and blacks look deep and rich. Movies look great, and they sound good too through the phone's front-facing S Force Surround Sound stereo speakers -- and even better using the supplied noise-cancelling headphones which are worth £40 on their own.
OS and processor
It's running the very latest 4.4.2 KitKat version of Android (ahead of the Z1, which hasn't officially received the update yet) and as usual Sony has tweaked it with different icons and widgets.
They look pretty good for the most part -- stylish and intuitive -- which isn't always the case with Android tweaks.
The quad-core processor has been beefed up just a little so it's now clocked at 2.3GHz rather than 2.2GHz but more significantly it's now backed by a full 3GB of RAM rather than 2GB. Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 34,424, which is similar to our Z1 results in truth, and which puts it a little behind the highest scores currently enjoyed by the LG G Flex and the Samsung Galaxy S5, though not by much.
HD games like Real Racing 3 looked terrific and played with wonderful smoothness but we found the Z2 got alarmingly hot at the back when playing for any length of time. This is an issue which Sony is apparently aware of, and may delay the phone's official UK launch.
Photography
The 20.7-megapixel camera includes autofocus, an Exmor RS sensor and LED flash plus touch focus, face detection, image stabilisation, HDR and panorama modes. At first it seems much the same as the camera on the Z1, but it's now been enhanced with a few extras. For example, the video camera can record in 4K Ultra HD, use SteadyShot image stabilisation and you can now use it with the Vine app.
Quality-wise, the Z2's camera delivers better than just about any we've tried. For one thing, it's very quick to start up, ready to go about a second after you hit the button. Next to Samsung's Galaxy S5, the Z2 snapped into action just a fraction of a second before it each time -- that's good for capturing the moment. So is the Superior auto mode, which does a very good job of identifying what you need, automatically adjusting for low light conditions, or switching to macro mode when you focus on something close-up so that you generally get good results each time.
But if that's not good enough for you, you can switch to manual mode to play with white balance and scene settings yourself. Taking pics even in near darkness without flash still got okay results -- a little blurrier than the flash version, but still delivering a surprising amount of detail. In good light pics are crisp and detailed with natural looking colours -- just what you want really.
There's a heap of still camera effects, including Timeshift burst, which gives you the option to select the best pic both before and after you press the shutter; Timeshift video, which allows you to add slow motion effects to video; AR effect, which adds pre-set animations to your pics; and Background defocus, a filter designed to help foreground objects stand out by adjusting the amount of blur afforded to background objects. There's a similar feature on both the new Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8) but all are fairly crude effects, designed more for fun than serious photography.
There are more processing apps available for download, including Motiongraph, which allows you to include animated elements in a photo; Vintage 8mm Video Camera, which pretty much does what it says on the tin; and a variety of editing apps. It all goes to make up one of the most efficient and flexible cameras out there. Plus, there's also a more than adequate 2.2-megapixel camera on the front for video calls.
There's a frankly huge 3,200mAh battery sealed inside, so unlike Samsung's Galaxy S5 there's no option to replace it. It's a little bigger than the Z1's 3,000mAh and you can rely on a good day's worth of steady use out of it -- even more if you engage Stamina mode, which disables power-hungry features like Wi-Fi and mobile data when the screen's off; or low-battery mode, which disables functions to keep you going when the battery's running low.
Conclusion
The price is high, but the build quality is excellent and there are an awful lot of features packed into the Xperia Z2. Its camera is one of the very best and its performance easily matches, if not exceeds its high-end rivals.
It's very nice that it's waterproof too but that large, toughened glass body with its inflexible feel won't be for everyone. Like other recent hero handsets such as Samsung's Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8), the Z2 improves on its predecessor in lots of little ways without making a great leap forward or changing the gameplan. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're not an Xperia fan already, it's unlikely to convert you.
Software: Android 4.4 KitKat
Processor: Quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm MSM8974AB
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 5.2in Full HD TRILUMINOS with X-REALITY, 1920x1080 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 20.7 megapixel with autofocus, Exmor RS sensor, LED flash; 2.2 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: 3GPP, MP4, M4V, MKV, AVI, XVID, WEBM
Audio playback: AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, FLAC, MIDI, MP3, PCM, Vorbis, WMA
Radio: Yes
Battery: 3200mAh
Size: 146x73x8mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
