New Tablets Surface at Microsoft

The biggest Tablet News since the March release of the New iPad was last week’s unveiling of Surface, Microsoft’s own line of New Tablets based on Windows RT and Windows 8. Both Win 8 Tabs, introduced last week in Los Angeles, were designed and built by Microsoft itself. Price and release date for the new tablets are still question marks.
The Surface Pro and Surface RT versions look very similar, but there are key differences between the two. We’ll first discuss the RT and then point out some of the differences between it and the Microsoft Surface Pro.
Windows RT Surface Tab
As far as specs, the Windows RT Surface Tablet is powered by a yet-to-be-named ARM-based chipset. The new tablet weighs slightly less than 1.5 lbs (676 grams) and features a 10.6-inch, 16:9 ratio high definition screen display under Gorilla Glass II. Both USB 2.0 and HDMI-out ports are integrated into the side of the tablet’s thin 9.3-millimeter case. The magnesium case features a neat pullout kickstand that props up the device on a table or desk while using a keyboard or watching video.
The tablet’s case has a magnetized connector that holds a “Touch Cover” in place. This new, innovative tablet cover appears to be a winner – it’s only 3mm thick and serves double duty as a fully functional multi-touch keyboard and trackpad, The Touch Cover’s keyboard has touch-sensing keys that become inactive when the cover is closed.  Also, there’s “Type Cover”  as an alternative to the Touch Cover that’s a little thicker and features tactile keys that depress.
The MS Surface RT tab will be available with 32-gigabytes or 64-gigabytes of memory. This model appears to be geared for the consumer. It will come with Xbox Live as well as a native app for Netflix. The MS Surface RT will run Metro-style apps, engineered for Windows on ARM. According to Microsoft, its new Metro user interface and Windows 8 will provide the complete mobile solution for tablets. The new tablet will feature front- and rear-facing cameras optimized for Skype, which is owned by Microsoft.
MS Surface Pro Tab
The Windows 8 Pro MS Surface Tablet (or MS Surface Pro) is powered by an i5 processor from Intel. The tablet is a little heavier (903 grams vs 676 grams) and slightly thicker (13.5mm) than the ARM Surface model. Also, its magnesium case features an innovative active vented cooling system to keep help cool the processor. With the Pro version, buyers will have a choice of 64 and 128 gigabytes of memory.
Microsoft seems to be positioning the Surface Pro as an enterprise-grade tablet that doubles as an ultrabook. Using the Intel processor, the Surface Pro will be able to run traditional Windows programs. The Pro’s screen resolution ( 1920×1080 ) is also better than the RT’s, although only cryptic details have emerged

on the RT’s screen resolution so far. There is also better peripheral support with the Pro version – USB 3.0 versus 2.0, DisplayPort, as well as SDXC expansion slot. The Pro tablet will also come with a stylus and a cover that reads writing with pen input and digital ink, sampled at 600 dpi.
Questions, Questions
Although there is much to appreciate about Microsoft’s new Surface tablets, it’s far too early for any definitive conclusion about the two upcoming mobile devices. The tablets are currently in prototype form only.  There’s still no definitive information regarding pricing, battery life, processor speed, etc., and reports are coming in that the Surface will be WiFi only (disheartening if true). Microsoft says the Surface RT tablet will come out around the time Windows 8 ships (which is expected in the fall) and the Pro version will come out three months after that.
Microsoft says pricing for Surface for Windows RT will be similar to ARM-based tablets and the Pro version will be priced similar to ultrabooks.
Another question is how the OEMs and Microsoft Partners will ultimately respond to Microsoft building its own hardware. Prior to Microsoft’s announcement,  At least 12 OEMs had been expected to come out with their own Win 8 Tablets.
Initial assessments of Microsoft Surface have been mixed. For example,  PCWorld’s Ian Paul says early impressions of the tablet are generally positive, but we’ll have to “wait a few months yet to find out if the company’s promises will meet consumer expectations.” ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, however, says he fully expects Surface tablets to make his  end-of-year round-up of “tech flops”.

With so many unanswered questions and potentially 4-5 months to go before the RT version comes out, this upcoming new tablet from Microsoft already has “Saga” written all over it. Stay tuned.

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New Google Tablet – Nexus 7 Tab “Best of Class”

One of the most anticipated new Android Tablets coming out in 2012 – the Google Nexus 7 – has officially launched. The 7 inch Google Nexus Tab with 8GB capacity has a price of $199 (the same cost as the first generation Kindle Fire} and is currently available for order in the Google Play store as well a number of retail outlets. There’s also a 16 GB version with a $249 price tag. UK prices will be a reasonable £159 for 8GB onboard storage and £199 for the 16GB model.
Predictably, there are now growing rumors that there will be a 10-inch Google Nexus Tablet, Nexus 10, coming out before the holidays.
The 7 inch Google-branded tab, manufactured by Asus, provides home screen access to the continuously expanding Google Play, the search giant’s online marketplace/ecosystem that the company has developed and quicly grown to compete more directly with Amazon and Apple media stores.

Google reportedly had initially planned a May release date for the new tab, but decided to push it back in order to provide a better tablet for a lower unit cost — the company wanted to reduce the price from $249 to $199, and that meant design changes. If true, then it was worth the wait because the high performance components and features of the Google Nexus 7 truly separate it from other similar sized and priced Android Tabs currently on the market.  The bar has now been raised in the  smaller, lower-priced Android Tablet arena.
Google New Tab Specifications
This new Android tablet from Google sports a sleek (10.45mm thick) design, a nicely shaped bezel surrounding the screen and a rubberized back with a nubbly, dimpled pattern that provides for a good in-hand feel and makes the Nexus 7 Tab easy to grip. The new tablet weighs just 340g (0.7 pounds). High performance hardware includes a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution HD (216 pixels per inch) back-lit display measuring 7 inches on the diagonal. A Tegra 3 quad-core processor (a powerful chip usually reserved for higher-priced tablets)  powers the New Tab, and a 12 core GPU. Google says the tablet will give around 9 hours of battery life while playing at 720p HD video. Nice.
The new Google Nexus tablet comes ready for videoconferencing, equipped with a low-resolution front-facing web camera, built-in microphone and bluetooth for headset use. The new Nexus tab also has GPS chips for use with navigation software as well as one for near-field communications.  This allows the tablet to directly communicate with some Android phones and tablets as well as some store payment terminals when the tab is tapped against them.

The only features  lacking in the new tab include: no micro SD card slot for expandability/local storage, no back camera for taking photos or videos, and no cellular access. It comes with Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.
Know What I Mean, Jelly Bean?
The Nexus 7 comes with the latest version of the Android operating system – Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”. This new OS has been finely tuned to run on this new tablet (and Galaxy Nexus smartphones), representing a significant upgrade for an Android-based tablet, providing a wide variety of new features and performance improvements.  Because the much improved “design polish” of the new OS provides a more consistent user interface and experience, this should also likely lead to better designed third-party apps.
 Tablet Has Gaming Edge
To say that the Google Nexus 7 Tab is a game-enabled Android Tab would be an understatement. It has 1GB of RAM, which provides for a smooth gaming experience.  In addition, its quad-core Nexus Tegra 3 CPU and a 12 core GPU allows developers to finally create complex games for this Android market segment. Gaming developer site Gamasutra reports that Google and Nvidia have both indicated that that several leading game companies are currently developing mobile games optimized for the Tegra 3 CPU, thereby further complimenting the tablet’s new hardware.

Shades of Things to Come?
Only two months ago, the headline for a post by Forbes Contributor Todd Hixon asked, “Are Android Tablets Dead?” Things have looked quite dire for the Android Tablet over the past two years, but by the end of his article, Hixon predicted a wave of new, lower-priced products coming out during the fall selling season that could help Android Tablets turn the corner.  With new releases like the new Nexus 7, as well as the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, he most likely will be proven correct. Given its $199 price, there’s very little to complain about Google’s new tablet. It’s an impressive tab that provides good value.  Hopefully this represents shades of things to come for Android in this increasingly aggressive market.

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Amazon Kindle Fire HD – 7 & 8.9-Inch Feature-Rich Tablets

Amazon is coming out with two new Kindle Fire Tablets – the HD and HD 8.9″. Both tabs offer a full array of new features over the first Kindle Fire introduced last year. The base Fire remains in Amazon’s expanding stable of tablets and its price has dropped $40, to $159. Although it still has the original tab’s lower resolution 7-inch screen, it now has double the RAM, a 40 percent faster CPU and boasts longer battery life.
Amazon Kindle Fire HD Tablet
The new Kindle Fire HD has a 7-inch display with 1920×800 HD resolution and is available in 16GB and
32GB variations, priced $199 and $249, respectively. The new tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and is equipped with an HD front-facing camera that supports Skype integration, plus the new Amazon tab reportedly will provide the user with 11 hours of battery life. Amazon is indicating its HD tablets, which are outfitted with dual-band Wi-Fi, will receive faster download speeds when compared to the New iPad and Google Nexus 7 Tablet. USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) and Micro-HDMI (micro-D connector) ports are two of its features and the device is also outfitted with an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9
With the exception of processor model and screen size, the new 8.9-inch and 7-inch Amazon tablets are essentially the same, spec-for-spec. The HD 8.9 features a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and an 8.9-inch display with 1920×1200 resolution. This model is available in Wi-Fi-only or Wi-Fi + 4G LTE variants. The 4G version will run on AT&T’s LTE network in the U.S. The Wi-Fi only version will cost $299 for 16GB storage and $369 for 32G of storage. Prices for the 4G LTE version is $499 and $599 for 16GB and 32GB, respectively.

New Tablets for Christmas 2012

Amazon knows many parents will soon be looking to buy an appropriate new tablet for children for Christmas 2012. In a brilliant bit of Holiday Season timing, the company’s new HD tablet line will come preloaded with “Kindle FreeTime.” With this new app, parents can limit which apps their kids use and also limit the amount of time they are allowed to use the tablet.

Would you like some ads with those fries?

Advertisements will appear on the lockscreens and home screens of these new tabs. Initially the e-retailer wasn’t offering to remove them for a buy-out price, as it had with its original Kindle Fire. But a few days after its new tablet and eReader media event, Amazon finally came out and said that for $15 owners could opt out of these “special offers”  after registering their device.
This illustrates how new mobile tablet hardware is progressively being made to serve two masters – the owner of the tablet and the tablet’s maker. For Amazon, every new Kindle tablet sold dynamically serves as one more high performance advertising delivery device for the company. Or, it wins a $15 “consolation prize” from those customers who elect not to play.

incremental device improvements bring incremental customer conditioning

But this may actually tell us more about the typical Kindle buyer (and a growing number of other mobile device buyers) than it does the seller. Amazon knows its customers very well. And it knows its market better than anybody because it essentially invented it. We’ll be able to opt-out of the ads for a relatively small cost after accomplishing some time-consuming (like 3-minute) procedure. Like those of us prompted to make a purchase at Fry’s or Best Buy because of a great mail-in rebate offer that we never get around to mailing, Amazon has likely already projected out, by quarter, the tablet customer segment who will convince themselves that they’ll opt out of the ads but never will.

The Soundtrack of our Lives

But a lot of people don’t seem to mind the ads. “Look around,” as Nitrozac and Snaggy has their Jeff Bezos point out to us in their recent Joy of Tech comic. “What once seemed widely annoying and totally unacceptable is now Completely Normal!”
Many musicians have become famous because their unknown song was the soundtrack for a popular ad – a 180-degree shift from not too long ago and propelled even further recently thanks to apps like Shazam. And for those of us who enjoy ADD/OCD-ing our movie-watching experience by incessantly searching for info about the film’s stars, there’s now an app for that –”X-Ray For Movies.” Amazon’s new movie viewer app will let us call up information about an actress, actor and other related info simply by touching the screen as we watch the movie.

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New Galaxy Tab 3 Line & Nexus 7 Refresh Coming Out

Upcoming New Tablets from Samsung (Galaxy Tab 3 line) and Google (Nexus 7 II) will be available very soon. Tomorrow, in fact, (July 7) for Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab lineup of 3 different sized tablets. Although Google has remained mum so far regarding a Nexus 7 Gen2 (Generation II),strong indications are that the company will be coming out with the new model by the end of this month. Google had released the original Google Nexus 7 about this time last year.


Unlike last year, however, besides the iPad and Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung’s and Google’s upcoming 2013 tablets will be competing with an onslaught of new Android Tablets as well as a growing array of Windows 8 Tablets, including Win8 Tabs from Acer, Dell, Levono and others.
Three Sizes, Prices: Samsung Galax Tab 3 
Samsung’s New Tablet line includes the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, and the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0.
The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 features a compact size and lightweight design featuring a 7-inch, 1024×600 resolution TFT display. It’s outfitted with the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, a 3-megapixel back-facing camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor. It has 8GB of storage (plus microSD expansion). Price: $199
The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is being positioned to compete in the e-reader as well as tablet markets. This tab features “reading mode” technology that provides “paperlike readability in various lighting conditions.” It comes with a 1280×800 resolution display (PLS), 5-megapixel back-facing camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 1.5 GB ram and a 1.5-GHz dual-core processor, and runs Android 4.2. Base model has 16 GB internal storage.  Price: $299

Pre-release reviews of the new tabs have been mixed, especially the 10.1, with some early reviewers citing dissatisfaction with the low resolution display for the money

The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 also has a 1,280×800-pixel resolution display (PLS) and runs Android 4.2. It’s further powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU (Intel’s new Atom Z2560 chipset), and has 1GB of RAM. It includes 16GB of storage, IR Blaster, a micro SD expansion slot and, like the other two in the new Galaxy line, a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. Price: 399 Pre-release reviews of the new tabs have been mixed, especially the 10.1, with some early reviewers citing dissatisfaction with the low resolution display for the money.



Google Nexus 7, 2^nd Generation

Although the company has not publicly released any information, Google’s high-res (323 pixel density) Nexus 7, second generation tablet, is anticipated to be released (or at least announced) by the end of this month.
Mingchi Keo, KGI securities analyst reported (source: AppleInsider) that it will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip, 1920 x 1200 7-inch display, 5 megapixel camera for the same price as the original version that came out about this time last year. $199. Sources have told Reuters that Google is aiming to ship as many as eight million of the 7-inch tablets in the second half of the year.
Besides its retina-quality display, sources also says that the new Google tab will be sized very close to or possibly smaller than Apple’s iPad Mini. $199 is far less than Apple’s entry point with its mini at $329. And with its higher resolution screen, better cameras, and larger storage, it’s hard to imagine the new Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 offering any serious competition to the new gen2 Google 7-inch tablet, unless Samsung drops the price significantly and quickly. The generation 1 Nexus 7, however, has lately been receiving reports of a downgrade in performance following extended us, so stay tuned.

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Samsung Galaxy S4

Mystery Caller likes the look of the Samsung Galaxy S4 but with all the recent high-end releases, needs convincing she’s choosing the best phone. How will the networks handle what should be an easy sale?

6: Virgin

Compared to the other networks, Virgin Mobile’s so-called ‘Essential’ tariff is bad value for money

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 2/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 2/5

Total – 17/30

5: Orange

The CSA said: “You will not pay for the 4G. When it launched, tariffs were higher but now they are the same as Orange. You are with Orange.” This was a lie – he made it clear the tariff was 4GEE

Manner – 2/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 3/5

Total – 18/30

 4: Vodafone

My call began with a pre-recorded message: “If you are calling about the Galaxy S4, we are currently out of stock. For more information, visit the website”

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 3/5

Total – 19/30

3: T-Mobile

Lee read my mind, telling me that he understood a £79 upfront cost was a “little off-putting to new customers”

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 4/5 Overall – 3/5

Total – 24/30

2: Three

Charlene was keen on making a sale and when I declined her offer to call me back, she gave me her direct number

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5

Total – 25/30

1: O2

Full marks for clarity and O2’s CSA had an excellent phone manner. His sales pitch was tailored to my requirements

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 5/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5

Total – 26/30

 Summary

This issue’s Mystery Caller was a simple test of sales skills – all the knowledge the CSAs needed could be found on a specs sheet or online.

Orange’s CSA was the only one to really fail in this respect, first misleading me about 4G and then seeing unsure about tariff allowances. He most probably would have come last had I not been cut off from Virgin’s Mary.

It was also close between T-Mobile and Vodafone, although the latter had the disadvantage of having the longest potential delay in delivering the handset (14 days).

Three’s CSA was an excellent sales person, encouraging me to buy the handset while not being pushy. She also had the ability to compare handsets. O2 won by one point for asking more questions about my requirements.

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Nokia Lumia 925

This incremental update from the 920 is less bulky than its predecessor, offers impeccable low-light shots and has an incredibly responsive user interface – is it the perfect Windows Phone experience?


The Nokia Lumia 925 is by no means a revolutionary phone, bringing more evolution than revolution to the table, but this should not fool you because this is a phone which has built on the great work of its predecessors.
With the Lumia 925 being an increment change from the 920, you shouldn’t be at all surprised that the phones are quite similar, although we think Nokia has made enough changes to ensure the 925 remains in a category all on its own.
While the 920 was big and bulky, the 925 is a lot slimmer and lighter, thanks to the aluminium design – which is a first for the Lumia range.
Despite all the chopping down, Nokia refused to take out any of the insides of the 920, with the same innards as its predecessor, plus a few notable upgrades.
When picking up the 925, you straight away notice the difference in both size and weight compared to its predecessor. We have to say that this is the first Lumia we have seen that compares to the lightness and thinness of other phones on the market.
While it’s still thicker than a Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and even a Sony Xperia Z, it wasn’t all that noticeable.
In fact, when compared to an Xperia Z, we’d even argue that it felt less bulky, with the device weighing slightly less in our hands.
When compared to the 920, which came in at 10.7mm, it’s no contest, with this just being 8.5mm thick, which makes it a lot more usable in one hand, as well as a lot less noticeable while in your pocket.
The screen isn’t the largest we’ve seen, at just 4.5 inches, and it isn’t HD, but this is a very different screen from the 920’s, with Nokia opting for an AMOLED panel rather than the IPS LCD we saw on the 920.
We think that this is around the perfect size for a phone screen, not too big yet not too small. It would be nice to have an HD screen, but as it stands it’s still a vivid display – just like the one we saw on the 920.
It also has the same PureMotionHD+ technology that Nokia claims reduces latency on animations – something we noticed on the 925, as well as the 920, with the Windows Phone UI being very responsive to touch and incredibly fast.
One issue we had with the screen is the fact that it simply didn’t replicate colours in the same way as the IPS LCD, despite having excellent colour replication, although we have to say they definitely felt brighter as the AMOLED screen really helped the blacks blend into the bezel, meaning the colourful UI of Windows Phone looked a lot more vibrant.
True colours
Nokia has also included a setting where you can change your colour profile, just as you would your ringtone. This enables you to change both the temperature of the colours as well as the saturation, with many pre-installed options available to you, as well as the ability to tweak it manually.
One issue I find with most smartphones is the inability to read the screen in the sunlight, something that was very much present on other flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S4. With the 925 I was surprised by how easy it was to see everything on the screen even in incredibly bright direct sunlight.
If you loved the ability to use gloves in the 920, then that is back with the 925, and yes you can even use your keys, although it isn’t advised.
Under the screen are the same three soft buttons we’ve come to expect from all Windows Phones, although we did notice that when our phone had run out of charge, the Windows start button would flash after you plugged it in. This flashing logo is something we want to see used more, with it flashing for other events such as notifications – something common with Android phones.
People have reported that the 925 has a notification light, as many have noticed that there is a red light in the top right corner, but Nokia has clarified that this is not a light and is simply the proximity sensor.
The soft buttons have seen an improvement over the 920 though, with the lights being a lot brighter when illuminated – we did have some issues with this however, as the lights did not always show up, even when in a completely dark room.
Turn the device around and you’ll notice a familiar material, something Nokia hasn’t abandoned on the 925 – despite encasing it in aluminium. We had the white 925 which looked a lot better, but also picked up dirt a lot more, a possible downside to choosing polycarbonate for the rear panel.
Issues of dirt aside, the 925 looks very nice from behind, with everything seemingly well thought out, from the speaker grill to the slight bump on the camera.
The camera is definitely an important feature of the 925, with Nokia claiming that it can capture “more than your eyes can see”, something you’ll hear a lot more about later.
Also on the back you’ll notice three small dots just above the speaker grill.  This is where one of the differences between the 920 and 925 really stands out – with the 925 losing its wireless charging capabilities as a standalone device. Now if you want to wirelessly charge your 925 you’ll have to buy a separate case which connects to these three dots – something we’ve seen on similar flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Bumpy ride
As far as design goes, it isn’t challenged aesthetically by those three dots, but one place it is challenged is the inclusion of two bumps on the speaker grill – which were noticeable at first, but as we got used to the device, we didn’t even acknowledge their existence.
That said, unlike other flagship devices, the 925 is nowhere near as flat on its rear.
As for the edges of device, they are all nice and smooth, making it feel a lot nicer to hold, although we thought that Nokia felt a little too passionately about putting all the ports in one place, with them all being on the top rather than spread out.
The ports you do get are standard slots for both micro SIM and Micro USB as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack.
We do have to applaud Nokia for moving the micro USB slot to the top, as it makes the device a lot more accessible whilst charging, although it was annoyingly positioned being slightly left of centre.
There is no microSD card slot on the 925, with the only remaining features on the side of the device being the buttons for the volume, power and camera functions – something which is also present on every Windows Phone device.
As Nokia has chosen to keep both the left side and bottom of the device free, 920 users may find the 925 a bit of a culture shock, as Nokia has even chosen to put the speakers on the back of the device. This didn’t affect sound too much, although we had to be careful not to cover the grill.
As far as sound quality goes, we were incredibly impressed by the clarity of the sound, although we felt that it could have been slightly louder – especially given the 920’s booming speakers.
It doesn’t have a quad-core processor, nor does it have eye tracking, but the 925 is by no means an unimpressive device when it comes to its ability to perform.
In fact, it performs incredibly well, even in benchmark tests, with the 925 even coping with some intensive 3D games, such as N.O.V.A.
Battery life was also not that terrible – although the 925 didn’t manage to last a full day, it was a notable step up from the 920.
With a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, the Windows Phone UI didn’t struggle at all, switching between apps incredibly quickly with no latency whatsoever – which was also helped by the 1GB of RAM on board.
It wasn’t all coming up roses for the 925, however, with our review unit crashing to the lock screen on occasions. While this wasn’t the biggest issue in the world, as all apps we were running were still going, it often became frustrating and on very rare occasions the phone even restarted itself.

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Sony Xperia Z – big can be beautiful

Sony’s latest is a powerhouse phone which runs like a breeze and has a great screen and good battery life – but it does have design niggles, including a mammoth screen that looks strange on calls

The Xperia Z looks both great and bizarre at the same time. The exterior is a slim, black (or white or purple) tablet vaguely resembling Space Odyssey markers, with no physical buttons on its five-inch screen and measuring 139mm x 71mm.
It does help the phone differentiate itself from other black monoliths, but the device is just too big to hold comfortably when making a call.
Calls and Skype conversations can also come across muffled due to a speaker’s apparent location at the bottom right side of the phone – just where you hold it to take a call if you’re right-handed.
The power button is an odd protruding circle – odd because the rest of the phone is so sleek and the power button just looks ugly. A hard casing (the front and back are tempered glass) which makes it scratch and shatter proof – which our testing also backs up. It stood up to the general wear and tear of life, although it wasn’t immune to a scuff here or there.
The Xperia is a sleek-looking phone, despite these niggles. It’s very thin (7.9mm) and light (146g) and, along with its cover colour detail, helps differentiate it somewhat.
Water, water everywhere
As it is water and dust resistant, each plug has a protective tab you have to remove. These worked fine and slotted into place pretty seamlessly but still felt a bit fragile – could be a problem with wearing out and ripping off for more rugged users.
Dunking the Xperia into a jug of water worked a charm and the phone came out as good as new.
Where the phone really looks good, though, is on its screen. Sony has, quite rightly, emphasised the screen quality, describing it as razor-sharp. For once, this is not marketing hyperbole – this is a fantastic screen.
The Xperia boasts 1,920×1,080 pixels resolution, for a whopping great 443 pixels per inch density – far above rivals. Colours pop, fine detail is superfine and in all, viewing things on the Xperia is a joy. On a test run of movies, colours were clear, detail was particularly fine and the phone handled black reasonably well – a problem the Xperia T used to have.
Hard-wearing hardware
The Xperia Z runs the latest Android, 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It runs a grunty Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, quad core Krait at 1.5GHz, with a healthy 2GB RAM. Needless to say, this phone is oozing raw power – what you need done gets done. It has 16GB on-board storage (expandable to 32GB with a microSD card).
The phone handled any tasks thrown at it, although playing movies saw it heat up slightly around the back. Aside from that, it didn’t have any troubles.
The Xperia Z is also 4G LTE-enabled so if you’re running 4G on EE (or the other networks later in the year), you will be able to get high-speed data and browsing. Sony have also made a big deal about its NFC capabilities, which will allow you to interact with any other Sony product – such as speaker systems, TVs and the soon-to–be-launched Xperia Tablet Z. You can throw music with a tap, clone your phone screen on your TV and even use it as a remote (it has infrared built in).

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