Sony Xperia Z3+ preview: First look

Android 5.0 with a touch of Xperia UI

The Sony Xperia Z3+ boots Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Sony typically adds little customizations to Google's OS, and that's the case on the Xperia Z3+ as well. The interface is consistent with previous generations and models across the company's lineup which provides simple transition when upgrading or switching devices.

The lockscreen is dominated by a clock widget, for which you get a choice of three clock faces. The lockscreen notifications, introduced with Lollipop, are below the clock. On the bottom you have shortcuts for quick access to the camera and dialer.

Lockscreen with clock widget and notifications

Past the lockscreen you're greeted by the standard Android homescreen with a five-icon dock, app shortcuts and widgets. The middle icon in the dock takes you to the app drawer where your apps can be arranged alphabetically, by most used or by most recently installed. Across the interface Sony relies heavily on the menu pane evoked with an inward swipe from the left edge.

Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer with menu pane

The notification shade is the stock Lollipop flavor with a two-stage pull down, notifications in the first, and quick toggles in the second.

The task switcher is your familiar Sony take on the matter. It uses the Lollipop rolodex for sifting through the running apps and a Kill all button saves you countless swipes. Sony's small apps provide a sort-of multi-window experience though the number of apps is limited and the implementation could use some polishing.

Notification shade • Task switcher • Small apps launcher

Software

The Xperia Z3+ comes with the usual setup of two browsers, a skinned stock app and Google Chrome.

Stock browser • Google Chrome

Sony bundles its Xperias with proprietary multimedia apps and the Z3+ comes with Album, Movies and Music for the respective tasks.

Album is the gallery app and organizes images into groups of thumbnails and sorts them by date. You can change the thumbnails size by pinching. The navigation drawer in the left lets you select which albums to display and the app can pull images from your online albums, as well as other devices on the network.

Album is a capable gallery app

Movies is the video player of the bunch and it also relies on a custom interface. The Gracenote integration helps you find additional information on the video you're watching. There's extensive subtitle support too.

Video player is called Movies

Music is the audio playing app which carries the Walkman heritage. The interface is based on tiles that sort your music collection by Artist, Albums, Playlists, all songs and even the songs your friends are listening to (but you need to link your Facebook account).

Music player

The Xperia Z3+ packs an FM radio receiver with a nice interface, automatic station search and multi region support, but oddly, no RDS. Track ID works straight from the radio app, recognizes the track you're listening to and pulls info on the artist.

FM radio with Track ID

Sony provides a rather comprehensive activity tracker app, named Lifelog. It monitors a host of daily activities, including walking, running and sleeping, but also the music you listen and the photos you take. It then presents the info in a splitscreen view with a timeline on top and detailed numbers on the bottom.

Lifelog tracks your daily routine

Power management is not a standalone app, but is part of the settings menu. From there you can enable various stages of Stamina mode to extend battery life if need be. Sony promises a two-day battery life, but that's probably without resorting to Stamina mode, we'll need to wait for a production unit to test battery autonomy.

Power management and Stamina modes