Sony Xperia Z2 - Third Time's a Charm

Overview

The Xperia Z2 is the third iteration of Sony's flagship Xperia Z line of smartphones. Known for their sleek designs and dust and water resistant builds, the Xperia Z series has done a great deal to put Sony back on the smartphone map. So with two top tier handsets already under its belt in the Z range, and with tough competition from Samsung's Galaxy S5, and HTC's new One M8, expectations are certainly high for the Z2. But with only slightly over a year since the original Xperia Z launched, and just six months since the launch of the Z1, can the Z2 prove itself as more than just a marginal upgrade over previous devices? Let's find out.

As usual, we'll start with the Z2's spec sheet, and for reference, we've also included the Z1 and Z.

Design

Once again available in black, white or purple, at first glance the Xperia Z2 looks much the same as its predecessor. It utilizes the same rectangular OmniBalance design with a one-piece aluminum frame and tempered glass front and back panels. Sony's signature round metallic power button, located as usual, halfway down the right-side of the phone, is also present and accounted for, as are the tightly sealed micro-SIM/micro-USB and microSD card slot port covers, which help give the phone its dust and water resistance. Like the Z1, the Z2 is IP58 rated, which means it can be dunked in up to 1.5m of water for up to one hour, with no risk of damaging the internals.

Visually, the most obvious bit of differentiation from the Z1 are the side panels, which are reversed on the Z2, with the silver accent in the middle instead of around the edges.

Scrutinize a bit further and you'll also spot that the thin glossy plastic bezels seen on the Z1 between the frame and the glass panels have disappeared, resulting in a cleaner overall aesthetic.

Pick up both a Z2 and a Z1 and you'll discover that the Z2 is actually slightly thinner and lighter than its predecessor. It is however, a fraction longer, although this can be forgiven considering that its display is also 0.2-inches bigger - all of which is additional vertical screen space. Best of all, we're pleased to see that Sony has finally ditched the awful anti-shatter film it laid over the Z and Z1 screens, which ended up scratching far easier than the glass beneath it and also gave the displays a plasticky feel. The Z2 display is raw, naked glass - the way it was meant to be. Still a major fingerprint magnet though.

Upon closer inspection, you'll also notice a slightly longer camera shutter button, a neat, front facing stereo speaker setup - you can barely see the thin speaker grilles at the top and bottom of the phone - and the relocation of the lanyard hole from the bottom right to the bottom left - in its old position, lanyards had a tendency to get in the way or awkwardly jut into the palm of right-handed users.

Display

The Z2's Triluminos mobile display is not only slightly larger, it's also the first IPS display in the Xperia Z range, making its viewing angles far superior to that of the Z and Z1. The Z2 is also the first phone to utilize Sony's new Live Color LED imaging technology. While Sony hasn't gone into complete detail on how Live Color LED works, it's described as "the use of red and green phosphor with blue LEDs and customized color filters to produce a brighter and more uniform light". Compared to the Z1's display, colors on the Z2 look more vibrant, but thankfully without the accompanying oversaturation often seen on OLED displays.

Pixel resolution remains the same on the Z2 at 1920 x 1080 pixels, while the screen size has increased, resulting in a slightly lower pixel density of 423 pixels per inch - the Z1's is 441 - but the entire screen remains pin sharp. Like the Z1, the Z2's display is very bright with good contrast and deep blacks.

Audio

Some of the best audio we've heard from a smartphone came from the HTC One, thanks in large part due to its extra loud front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers. Sony seems to have had a similar idea with the Z2, which also boasts two front-facing stereo speakers, neatly positioned as narrow slits at the top and bottom of the screen.

Compared to the Z1, sound on the Z2 was noticeable louder and clearer. We also found the Z2 much better for watching content in landscape orientation as the dual speaker positioning no longer results in one-directional sound. Compared to HTC's new One M8, which boasts improved BoomSound stereo speakers, we found both phones to be about equal in terms of volume and clarity, but we felt that the One M8 produced a slightly wider sound, with a bit more bass and tonal range. Having said that, both the One M8 and Z2 are fantastic devices for listening to music or watching content, and are far better than anything else currently available, although the slightly larger screen of the Z2 probably makes it the better choice for movie watching.

For those that prefer listening to music through their headphones, the Z2 also features digital noise-cancelling technology. But before you get too excited, know that the technology in question only works when specifically paired with Sony's new MDR-NC31EM earphones. In some countries these earphones are bundled for free with the Z2 - unfortunately, Singapore is not one of them, and we're stuck with the regular old earphones in the box. The MDR-NC31EM set is available as a separate accessory, and can be purchased for S$79. Unfortunately, as we don't have a set available, we're unable to comment on the effectiveness of the noise cancellation.

And finally, while it will likely only appeal to audiophiles, as a nice touch, the Z2 also features USB DAC support out of the box.

OS Improvements

With the upgrade to Android KitKat 4.4, the Xperia Z2 finally has an OS to match its clean, minimalist aesthetic. As usual Sony has also included a number of its own optimizations and apps to enhance your user experience - a number of which seem to be 'inspired' by the competition. For example, the new Smart Backlight feature will keep the backlight on as long as you're looking at the phone, just like Samsung's Smart Stay Function.

The Z2 also includes one of our favorite features from LG's G2 and G Pro 2 smartphones, KnockOn, or in this case, the less creatively named "Tap to wake up", which lets you double tap the screen to wake it up. Surprisingly - or perhaps deliberately - these functions are turned off by default, and are buried deep within the Z2's settings menu (both can be found in the Display submenu).

Like a few other flagship smartphones, the Z2 also includes a motion gesture call answer/reject feature, which lets you simply bring the phone to your ear to answer a call, or shake it to reject.

Benchmark Performance

Like Samsung's Galaxy S5 and HTC's One M8, the Xperia Z2 is armed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. However, the Z2's version has a lower clock speed of 2.3GHz, while both the S5 and HTC One M8 are clocked at 2.5GHz. On the plus side, the Xperia Z2 does boast 3GB RAM, compared to 2GB on both the One M8 and S5.

The old Z1 is, of course, armed with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor. Other than clock speed increases, the difference between the two is an improved 28nm HPm process which not only offers better CPU performance, but also better power efficiency.

We will be comparing the Sony Xperia Z2 against the HTC One M8, the Xperia Z1, the LG G2 and, as we haven't received our S5 review unit yet, the Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE+.

Sunspider Javascript

SunSpider Javascript helps measure the browsing performance of a device when processing Javascript. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience. The Z2 was about equal with the HTC One M8, but surprisingly fell behind the old Z1. In terms of real world browser performance, we couldn't tell the difference between the two, and both were snappy and responsive.

Quadrant

Quadrant evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performances. There wasn't much improvement here, and the Z2 only performed slightly better than the Z1, which is on par with its marginal clock speed increase. The faster HTC One M8 performed much better and the Z2's extra 1GB RAM didn't seem to help much.

3DMark (2013)

Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones, mobile devices and ARM architecture computers.

For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark consists of three test sections:

• 3DMark Ice Storm is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark test that uses fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of your device. Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU performance of your device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance.

• 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.

• 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited is used to make chip-to-chip comparisons of different chipsets, CPUs and GPUs, without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result.

Almost all the recent flagship smartphones maxed out the scores for the Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme, hence we will only be looking at the scores for Ice Storm Unlimited.

Once again, the HTC One M8 outperformed the Z2, which only showed a small increase over the Z1. Perhaps clock speeds play a bigger role than we expect in 3DMark scores due to its CPU component that contribute to its final results.

Camera Performance

The Z2 uses the same 20.7 MP camera and 1/2.3 Exmore RS CMOS sensor as the Z1, with a few software upgrades packed in. 4K video recording is now enabled from the get-go, as is slow motion recording at 120fps (although, you can only choose 720p for this mode). A number of new modes have also been added to the camera app.

Like a few other flagship smartphones, Sony has jumped on the bokeh bandwagon with its background defocus mode. This mode will take two pictures in quick succession at different focal lengths, letting you artfully blur the background for a DSLR-like narrow depth of field effect. A slider lets you decide how much blur you want, and you can also opt for speed blur if you want to depict motion. It's quite fun to play with, but as you can see, it's not perfect as the software isn't smart enough to recognize the edges of some objects, causing them to blur as well, which can ruin the effect.

Our one major complaint with the camera is how laggy everything is. Even with the extra 1GB RAM and the Z2's faster processor, it can take up to 10 seconds to save a photo - especially a complicated one like background defocus. Other apps with significant lag included the Augmented Reality mode (which adds dinosaurs and other fun objects to your scene) and the live-view filter mode. Part of the problem seems to be the way Sony has designed its camera app. Rather than one united app, each camera mode opens a new app individually, which leaves the other modes running in the background, significantly slowing down performance.

In terms of actual image quality, as expected, the Z2 was good, and about the same as the Z1 - although there was much less graininess this time.

Battery Life

Our standard battery test for mobile phones includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100%

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on

• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

The Z2 is armed with a slightly larger 3200mAh capacity battery compared to the 3000mAh found in the Z1 - although, the slight increase in screen size probably offsets any gains in battery capacity. The Z1 was one of the weakest competitors in terms of battery life and, while the Z2 is an improvement, it still lags behind the rest of the field, lasting just six hours and 39 minutes in our video looping test. Power consumption was also quite high, and roughly the same as the original Z1. As with all Xperia Z smartphones, extended use also causes the rear of the phone to heat up significantly.

In terms of everyday usage, the Z2 lasted a full day in the office, consisting mostly of messaging, internet browsing, a few phone calls and about twenty minutes of gaming, with battery reserves running down to 16% at about 10PM.

Portability

We measure the portability of a device by calculating its battery life to (weight x volume) ratio. Due to its poor battery life, the Z2 didn't fare that well here, once again beating only the Z1 thanks to its slightly longer battery life and reduced weight and thickness. Notice that the HTC One (M8) was only marginally better despite its much better battery life because of its size and weight (refer to comparison table on top).

Conclusion

Having used the Z2 for a few days, we can't help but think that this is the phone the Z1 should have been in the first place. The IPS display is noticeably better, with richer colors and better viewing angles, and the removal of the anti-shatter film finally gives the Z2 the full, luxurious feel the Z1 and Z just fell short of. The speakers are fantastic and, provided you have a power supply handy, the combination of the Z2's beautiful display and booming audio makes for a very satisfying movie watching experience.

Still, it's not all good. Hardware upgrades did little to boost performance over the Z1, and battery life, while better, still falls short of the competition. A laggy camera app was also frustrating, and the startup delay, as well as the lag while saving shots, could cause many missed photo opportunities.

Our biggest disappointment is that there's no innovation here. Sony hasn't taken any risks with the Z2, sticking to the same design and features through and through. Even the features that are new to the Z2, we've already seen in other devices, from the front-facing stereo speakers on the HTC One, to the useful but uninspired software knockoffs of Samsung's Smart Stay display and LG's KnockOn wakeup feature. Other features like Sony's new camera apps are all software-based, and seeing as the Z1 utilizes exactly the same camera as the Z2, we hope that Sony will do right by Z1 owners and eventually release a camera firmware update for the Z1 that includes all of the Z2's new camera functions.

As for whether the Z2 is worth upgrading to, owners of the original Xperia Z will find the Z2 an excellent upgrade, as it fixes almost all of the Z's problems, with a far superior display, better audio and a much better camera. On the other hand, Z1 users should probably give this one a pass, as there's just not enough new here to justify shelling out flagship prices for a new phone.

As for users of other devices thinking about making the switch to Sony, the Z2 is certainly a good choice, but it's worth considering that Sony's recent track record seems to indicate that it will be releasing as many new flagship devices as it can, in as short a period as possible. With the Z2 basically just an upgraded version of the Z1 - a Z1S if you will, to borrow Apple's naming conventions - could an entirely new flagship device really be that far over the horizon?