We had a chance to play with the Sony Z1 at the O2 Store in Maidstone Kent today, courtesy of the local Sony Xperia rep.
Very much liked the handset, while we didn't get a chance to do any filming or take pictures, the Sony rep we bumped into did give us some useful info.Firstly as regular IHAG readers will know, we hate piss poor battery life, and had a massive axe to grind with the 'Z' because of the poor battery endurance the badly executed Stamina Mode.
So asking to take a peak at the Sony reps Z1 battery stats showed a 67% screen time over 6hrs and 50% of the battery had burnt. The screen was on 100% and he was showing off the camera etc so it had taken a bit of a bashing over the day. That made me a little happier about its endurance.
Z1 seems to score there...
The Sony rep put the Z1 into a dark draw and demonstrated the low light abilities and the noise was there in the camera shot however it wasn't shocking and as bad as the S4 he put it up against. Much lighter contrasts too.
Secondly put the Z1 up against the Nokia Lumia 40mpx camera and while it has more pixels etc the macro noise sucked big time. Z1 really showed up well against the Lumia here however we didn't test the low light against the Lumia.
The speed of the Z1 is fantastic, zips through the screens well and the dedicated button for the camera is a welcome addition and starts within a second of pressing without intruding on screen lock either.
The Z1 didn't feel over sized in the hand even with that enormous bezel.
We will do a battery review when we receive the phone from Phones4u this week.
Had a quick demo of the Sony Smartwatch 2 as well however I think its not really appealing to me as the Omate Smartwatch - the clock faces were good though but its the SONY logo stamped on the front which puts me off.