Flashback: Sony Xperia Z, ZL and Z Ultra lay the foundations for the modern Xperia flagships
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- A S
- nxA
- 18 Apr 2021
My Sony Obsession:
Sony Ericsson K750i (can't remember)
Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo (much loved - still using when off-roading or mountain climbing)
Sony Xperia X (meh - still works like a champ though)
Xperia 5III (loading... - going nuts for)
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- MarkP74
- gDL
- 18 Apr 2021
I still have Z, but it's very slow with today's apps. I also have Z Ultra. i had it, I sold it, then I bought iz again last ywar only to watch serials and movies and I really loved to work on this phone. almost like Z3 tablet compact, but smaller, which ibalso have and use regularily. Then my son has Z5 premium, my mother x compact, my ex wife xz2, my current wife xz1, wecre waiting for 5 iii, i still use xz premium sometimes (together with my 1 ii). I just love the 21:19 ratio. I love everything on the phone except that the sony album was replaced with google photos, but they have different filters available right away. But I'd love to buy the 1 iii, it has a lot very nice new features, but not enough to buy it.
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- Anonymous
- r9m
- 18 Apr 2021
pangolinpanda, 18 Apr 2021My first Android was an Xperia Z, and what a horrible exper... moreAll those problem you mentioned are a staple of Sony phones
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- Akinaro
- a0K
- 18 Apr 2021
Sliderpro, 18 Apr 2021Honestly, Sony and many other companies like LG are on the ... moreoh how true!
Sony almost always change thing that worked and make them worst, remove them or just never fix them.
Overall they always had pretty good hardware but software was just low end and mess up that hardware.
I was most pissedoff when they removed walkman player... remove all useful GUI elements and made mess of it.
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- Anonymous
- kx8
- 18 Apr 2021
My ZL, XA2 and xz2 compact still working ! Without any issues. I own now samsung s10e because Sony no more selling mobile in Canada. I don't know why there is so many trolls and haters against Sony.
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- Fromhell
- 3%W
- 18 Apr 2021
Sony could be the top Smartphone Producer, but mismanagement caused them to fail.
They had everything to compete camera software and hardware know how, battery and Display tech, design, a well known famous brand name...
But all their devices had too many downsides mainly:
Camera picture quality (shitty SW and no OIS for quite a long time), too small batteries, huge bezels (not saying to go full screen but could have easily shrunken bezels Just like they did quite early with the Xperia ZL) and pricing.
Beside those one another Problem: quality
I don't know any other brand where Smartphones have the same SIM module defect after a while. After a while some Sony Smartphones don't recognize SIM cards anymore. Xperia Z ultra, Xz1, Xz1, Xa, Xz1 Compact, X compact....all had the same problem.
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- Anonymous
- 8tU
- 18 Apr 2021
Sliderpro, 18 Apr 2021Honestly, Sony and many other companies like LG are on the ... moreSonys Software from Alpha is maybe the best that is out now. If you talking Quality per se.
Lg was a great phone also.
iPhone is ok.
Samsung I absolutely hate everything about.
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- Anonymous
- LkB
- 18 Apr 2021
Funny to see people that use xiaomi and oneplus are always wishing more companies leave mobile.
But they do not want Apple to be out as well? Guess why .... 😏
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- Yoedi16
- 61K
- 18 Apr 2021
Anonymous, 18 Apr 2021to this day, Z Ultra is still among my top favourite.. it&#... moreIt isnt normal thought, yep today phone is taller but z ultra had big bezel and 16:9 screen ratio so still unwieldy even for today standart
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- Dometalican
- rb2
- 18 Apr 2021
Anonymous, 18 Apr 2021ip67 isnt waterproof ?No IP rating is 'waterPROOF'. Ulefone seems to have potentially made some but yeah, no phone is waterproof; only water resistant.
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- Dometalican
- rb2
- 18 Apr 2021
Alang Praharja, 18 Apr 2021Sony make a new phone with Bezel less.Heck...no...no need for the phone to look like EVERY other phone out there.
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- Lanier
- p65
- 18 Apr 2021
pangolinpanda, 18 Apr 2021My first Android was an Xperia Z, and what a horrible exper... moreYou are right with some comments, but all at all I can not agree with you!
I'm still using a Sony Xperia Z today that I will replace in a few month. It became slow (maybe too many pages open in Chrome?) and the battery is getting weaker. But hey, even after 8 years (I bought it in march 2013) it's still a nice smartphone and my one is still looking like new!
In the beginning I had to send it to repair because I had dust behind the camera lens. That was one issue they had in the beginning, but after that everything was fine. Yes, I removed the screen protector about 1 year ago and the Sony logo was printed on it, so I removed the logo with it. And the borders are now higher than the display. Well - it was never ment to remove the screen protector.
All in all it was a very good smartphone for that time. The screen is still OK, I liked the music player, the size was small compared to today. And Sony ALWAYS delivered a loading station with their smartphones. Even the early Sony CMD-Z5 that I had, had one. And the one from Sony Xperia Z was well done! Just slide the phone into it and it will load. No wireless charging, but no need to plug in any connector. Just 2 contacts at the side that are used for loading, which is still working without any issues.
I've played Fallout 4 on PC with the additional Android-App and the loading station was very useful for that and also that the phone has to be plugged in by turning it to landscape.
Well, the Sony Xperia Z was a high end smartphone for about 600 Euro by that time. Today you won't get any high end smartphone for just 600 Euro!
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- Alpha
- 80i
- 18 Apr 2021
pangolinpanda, 18 Apr 2021My first Android was an Xperia Z, and what a horrible exper... moreAs a person who used 8+ models of Sony phones, I can tell you safely its not what it was like before. Then again before you lash out remember all companies have had issues. Note Explosion, Apple Bend issues and so forth. People need to stop bashing Sony for no reason!
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- Alpha
- 80i
- 18 Apr 2021
Anonymous, 18 Apr 2021I agree Ok hater!
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- Sliderpro
- swN
- 18 Apr 2021
Honestly, Sony and many other companies like LG are on the way out for a single 2 reasons: they can't talk to their customers and they kill great features for no good reason.
Sony always had horrible camera software. HORRIBLE. It blew out the sky on sony Z1 and still does it today. It still can't capture photos with high shutter aka photos in motion. Sony pioneered "high megapixel count" thing. Yet they oversharpened the image which was already sharp which led to detail loss. Their IP rating is crap. A lot of phones died from water damage and Sony never did anything. I had 2 dead phones from water. Recently I dug into their recent phones - and what? They still blow the sky and have shit HDR while claiming to be "pro" and costing a lot of $ "because they have X feature!". Yet the first time I saw OLED burnout was.. on a Sony 1k$ phone in a shop.
Another thing - they had good features. But they never held onto them. Because they never asked people what was good. Rubber corners we're good. Magnetic charger was good. High end compact phone was good. All cool stuff lost and there just leveraging on a brand name. It ain't car world where brand matters. Brand doesn't matter in a smartphone world.
Sony is one of the brands I measure bottom line with. It's always 1-2 good feature surrounded by lots of problems, low reliability and ridiculous price.
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- Anonymous
- yQJ
- 18 Apr 2021
Religious Playboy , 18 Apr 2021Sony camera and battery life were garbage back then and tha... moreI agree
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- Akinaro
- a0K
- 18 Apr 2021
Anonymous, 18 Apr 2021Whoa. I thought a friend of mine was just joking when he to... moreSony used that weird digitizer that you actually can see in some light angle on the screen( that weird grid/mesh)
Im not sure but I thing that they use mutual capacitive technology instead of self capacitance where all grid part can work independently.
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- pangolinpanda
- nT9
- 18 Apr 2021
My first Android was an Xperia Z, and what a horrible experience that one was.
The design and exterior was very nice but with lots of stupid decisions. For example, Sony printed their logo and stuck it onto a thick plastic screen protector not meant to be removed. The camera was absolute shit with a weak LED flash and extreme noise, speaker was bad, battery life bad, the Sharp display was tuned so dull and blueish there was basically no colors and lowest brightness was really high. Furthermore the unit I got had a camera with defective pixels, after replacement I got one with defective autofocus.
Since the crap S4 chipset heated like crazy, within months the back glass of the phone came unglued resulting in a large gap.
Also, the vibration motor and LCD died by themselves after about 2 years.
Been on Huawei and Xiaomi since then, and now my phones usually last 3 years or more. However after seeing some teardowns and reviews of the newer Xperia 10/5 II I've been interested in trying another Sony, because Sony's products have been good otherwise. I own Playstation 1, Playstation 2, NEX-5T and a pair of mdr-7506's, love all of those.
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- cyber
- S2D
- 18 Apr 2021
are you still breathing sony?not for long...
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- Alpha
- 80i
- 18 Apr 2021
Had a Z1, Z3, Z5 and all of them absolutely amazing phones.