Sony Xperia Z2 Hands-On

Since the launch of the Xperia Z,  Sony has been back in the mobile handset game, and today, I was impressed with the quality of the new Xperia Z2 that was unveiled at the press conference at MWC.

The key features of the latest Sony flagship are its gorgeous 5.2-inch Full HD Triluminos display and a 20.7 Megapixel camera featuring an Exmor RS sensor and Sony’s G lens.

Sony’s mobile camera sensor quality is quite well known, specifically for its good low light performance, in fact the Japanese manufacturer counts Apple among its customers.

Display

Although Sony made an impressive come back in the mobile arena with the Xperia Z and the Z1, both devices were lagging behind other manufacturers such as LG in terms of display quality.

I was very happy to see that this time, the display is actually amazing, and on par with the leaders in the market. Sony is very proud of this achievement, and you can tell by the many demos they are showing at MWC, the first one is entirely dedicated to the display.

The 5.2-inch Full HD Triluminos delivers bright colors with high contrast, and the black levels are great. The colors look more natural than on AMOLED displays, the image quality was in fact comparable to the LG G2 and the LG G Pro 2, which is no small feat.

It is important to note that Sony typically does a lot of image processing to improve the color rendering with its X Reality engine, so even if someone else had the exact same display hardware, Sony’s image quality would end up on top.

Camera

Sony has a great expertise in camera design and manufacturing, and the company has leveraged this competitive advantage for the mobile market for quite a while now. The shooting mode are similar to the one you can find in the Sony Cybershot or the NEX lines of products.

Just like the Xperia Z1, the Z2 features a 20.7 Megapixel camera with Sony’s own G-lens. The Z2 can record 4K video (3840×2160) at 30 FPS and can record at an accelerated frame rate to play back at slow motion speeds. Thanks to Steady Shot, Sony’s image stabilization feature, it is easy to record smooth videos in 4 K, according to the manufacturer.

Sony added four new applications for the camera (see pitcutre: background defocus, new AR effect, Creative Effect, and Timeshift Video. We got a demo of the new AR capabilities on stage this morning, and it was quite fun (photo).

Product Design

The design language of the Xperia Z-series is my favorite in the mobile handset market. I really love the minimalistic look and feel and the rectangular shapes that sets the Sony devices apart from the rest of the crowd. At 8.2 mm, the Z2 is  hair thinner than larger phablets such as the 5.7” Galaxy Note 3 or 5.9” LG G Pro 2. Additionally, the device is really light and very comfortable to hold in the palm of the hand.

Noise cancellation

Sony has added a noise cancellation feature that works with its MDR NC31EM Noise Cancelling Headset. According to the claim we heard this morning on stage, it suppress over 90% of the ambient noise. We still have to test this in a plane and compare it with larger noise cancelling headsets.

Perceived Performance

The XPERIA Z2 is equipped with a 2.3 Ghz Quad-core Snapdragon 801 with 3GB of RAM, so the user interface is quite responsive. The battery has been upgraded from 3,000 mAH for the Z1 to 3,200 mAh, a capacity that is now the standard in the high end smartphone market. We hope that will provide a good battery longevity.

Conclusion

With this new flagship handset, Sony is truly back in the game. The Sony Xperia Z2 delivers an impressive image quality in a beautifully crafted body. The display quality was the only thing really missing in the Z-series and Sony just corrected that today at MWC. We have not have the time to play much long with the device here, and we hope that the device will live up to our expectations when we will get a unit to review.

Eliane Fiolet
Categories: Cellphones, Featured
Tags: MWC, MWC 2014, Sony, XPERIA Z2