Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Design: Like the Xperia Z, but Better
The Xperia Z1 is nearly identical to the Xperia Z — the front camera position (right instead of left) and aluminum frame being the biggest differentiators. The phone is elegant, beautiful even, but big. The Z1's 5-inch screen is nearly identical in size to Galaxy S4's screen, but the bezels around it are much bigger, and the difference is not negligible. If modern 4.x and 5-inch smartphones are too big for you, the Z1 is not for you.
And even if you do have hands that are big enough, the rectangular shape and slick surfaces of the Z1 will cause you a problem or two while handling the phone. It's just not that easy to hold, and I had to be extra careful not to drop it on more than one occasion.
That said, if you don't mind the size, the black variant of the phone looks great. When the screen is off, it's like a shiny, black block of granite. We prefer its design to the Galaxy line of products, while the HTC One and iPhone 5S still remain, in our eyes, slightly more appealing devices.
Hardware: Fast and Powerful
We'll keep this section short: The Z1's 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor, coupled with Adreno 330 graphics and 2GB of RAM make the device faster than most high-end smartphones. Its Geekbench 3 score was 2,712, far ahead its main competitors, the HTC One and the Galaxy S4. In day-to-day usage, the phone feels and operates extremely fast, period.
