The final update on our week with the Xperia Z1 is here, this was going to be a two week test be we feel we have seen enough to get some final thoughts onto paper.
Lots to talk about and I guess plenty you have read else where.
The Good
The screen is excellent - the viewing angles improved over the Z but not prevented all together, however how much you can live with is a personal preference. Lets say they are not as bad as the LG 4X which was bloody awful, and not as good as the Nexus 4. Should give you some idea of where this handset lays.Colours are not the nasty false eye bleeding experience you get from Samsung - again this is a personal preference.
However why the home keys are taking up screen space is beyond us but it is what it is.
UI and features are great we liked the Smart Actions (ala Motorola) and some of the Sony Unlimited which is every bit as good as the Google counterpart.
Its fast and well designed - even the 'flaps' have been changed slightly to be more durable over the Z.
The Bad
We only managed to get an average screen time of around 4-6hrs, however in standby the STAMINA mode does keep the handset going for quite a while. Would be nice to keep it going for longer but we felt LG have managed to double this time, couldn't have Sony got at least somewhere close to the last gen of handsets, let alone the next gen.Glass back is so slippy its untrue, we have had to order the only rubber case on Amazon to keep it from skidding off at what seems like at the phones will. Some small rubber inserts in each corner would help no end, they could be tiny and hardly noticeable.
The camera while excellent in all areas, fails in S.Auto because you cant use it in 20mpx mode. We asked Sony to help but their solution didnt work. We are waiting for a reply but its bloody annoying the best feature and its USP is broken - whats worse is THEY DONT SEEM TO BLOODY CARE !
The speaker is feeble, and the microphone really suffers with Google Hangouts in video, hardly impossible for someone to hear me when out and about.
Final Thought
We liked Sony's latest effort and if it can fix a few niggles it could really have a winner, we are very pissed the USP is broken - shame as its a great camera but if you want full auto you are stuck with 8mpx.