Xperia Z2 impressions

If I'd need to buy a new cell phone today, I would not hesitate a sec and get the Sony Xperia Z2. [uhm update 25.06.14: got the Z2 today ;-)

Why?

The good:
+ great Camera
+ great build quality, waterproof
+ great overall product design
+ "It's a Sony" > everything just works, I was very happy with all my previous Xperia phones.
+ great screen > 5.2" 1920x1080, beware it's not the brightest one
+ stereo speakers
+ excellent battery stamina reported by many users
+ has FM radio, which I use everyday
+ good language support, comes with ISO 8859-11 thai font (see white paper p.13) to many this is way more important than the cpu, Samsung removes some languages and fonts in distant markets, rendering the phone annoyingly unusable for Thais)
+ built in hardware is top notch (same as the other flagship phones)
+ Noise canceling feature indeed works, but makes headphones a tad bit heavier
+ good value for money, CHF 699 (599 in Aug.14)  or €582 launch price

+ good the Android UI hasn't been revamped to the max
+ fancy notification light
+ you can set the display's white balance!
+ the smart band receives good critics and might be interesting to you

the bad:
- Speakers are very very clear when listening to audio, but during calls, the speaker u hold to your ear will "chatter" a bit, so phone conversations won't be very clear! confirmed with a 2nd device. This is the phones biggest minus! Forget about this, speaker sound during calls turned perfectly cristal clear after two weeks! No idea, what happened.

- the noise cancelling head phones do not have a remote button to pick and end phone calls! Very annoying on the bike. Noise canceling does work, but not on the bike, doubles the wind sound :-(  doh
- no IR to directly control your home media
- some folks don't like the touch feeling, when fingers meet the loading dock contacts
- touch feeling at device edges not super smooth due to overlapping frame, to protect the glass. Can't be further described, go and touch the thing in the shop.

 

Xperia Z2 sample picture. Reduced to 1600px from original 5248x3936 (7.51MB size)

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More Xperia Z1 pictures

from the site 365dian

Honami Xperia Z1 pictures c6903

 from sony tweet on 23/08/13

Wife's Xperia Z is a charm - while the missing sharpness in the taken pictures and missing camera button are downers, everything else, including the display, is close to perfect.
My excellent Xperia S slowly comes to an end because I let it drop just a few to many times.

I'm most likely to get the Xperia Z1, aka Honami, once it's out later this year. Today gadgethelpline released pictures of what seems to be the phone's final look.
Very pleasing, just like the Xperia Z Ultra but including a flash.

 
Specs are all fine. Up to date hardware, nothing to worry about.
I just hate the fact, that they didn't include a xenon flash. The reason seems to be, that Sony might be developing a camera module (which won't be bought by anyone).


5" 1080p (full HD) display with Triluminos. Reading good things about it only.
very good: uncommonly huge camera sensor 1/1.6 inch (or 1/2.3 inch) for less graininess

20MP cam, LED flash, (5248 x 3936)
2MP front facing cam (who cares)
Snapdragon 800, MSM8974 chipset (2.2 GHz, quad core, Adreno 330 GPU)
16GB internal memory
microSD card slot
3000mAH battery
144 x 73.9 x 8.3 mm
LTE (FDD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20 - underlinded are the ones active in the USA)
NFC, MHL, fm-radio
no IR!
shipping with Android 4.2.2

(source ePrice.com.tw)

again, image source is gadgethelpline.com - thanks a lot!
More and older pictures can be found here at justamp

for pictures of the Honami user interface please check out this thread at xdadev - page1 and page6
thanks eXistenZ

supported frequencies (not all of them active for US market) - source: FCC