Sony Xperia Z2 - Reviews

(3.9)

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For Sony Xperia Z2, 126 customer reviews collected from 1 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 3.9.

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14.5.2014

SUMMARYI have my Z2 for a month now, I got it from Three on a contract.What I love about it:* screen - crisp, vivid, reproducing colours properly, BIG* speed - it is FAST, applications fly, scrolling is very smooth, games fly.* camera - fast, sharp photos, properly saturated colours, good light metering* video recording - very effective software image stabilisation, sharp* battery - a monster, lasts for 2 days, gives freedom* design - premium and classy look and feel, nice in touch* UI - minimalistic, close to vanilla AndroidWhat could be better:* optical image stabilisation would be nice* max audio output volume could be bit higherIN DETAILS* CameraGood:I own Canon 40D DSLR with excellent 17-55 2.8 lens and I'm a bit intophotography.Over years I've made a lot of photos with my 40D. I can tellyou the camera in Xperia Z2 is excellent, it's probably the best one ina smartphone at the moment. It makes very well color and exposurebalanced photos.White balance is especially good, I sometimes think it is better than myfew years old Canon 40D in that aspect. Whites are white grays are grayand human skin looks very natural, you can count on it. Saturation is also very nice balanced,it produces natural looking photos like DSLR cameras tend to do. Some pointand shoot cameras make oversaturated photos, which I personally dislike, but not Z2.Noise is kept at low levels and details are very well reproduced. Autofocus is fast andreliable. I expected this camera to be good, but it really blown my mind, it's fantastic.You can sell all your point and shoot'ers right now.Could be better:- It doesn't have optical image stabilisation, which is always welcomed.- The lens gets soft at corners.* Video recordingVideo recording is great thanks to effective software image stabilisation.Autofocus works well in video mode too, videos are sharp and detailed.Timeshift works great, you can record in 120fps in 720p and after recording is doneyou can easily select which parts of the video should be slow motioned.* ScreenSony used IPS screen in Z2 which is noticeable from the first look. Colours arebeautiful, vivid and precise and viewing angles are excellent. I like how the screenis calibrated to reproduce natural colours, instead of oversaturating. Brightnessis at very good levels too, I compared it with my friend's iphone 5S next to eachother outdoors and they both looked very similar in terms of reflections and brightness.I turned off X-Reality setting which enhances contrast of photos and videos, as I preferphotos to look like they should, without artificial saturation/contrast boost. Theyalready look beautiful without X-Reality thanks to outstanding IPS screen.* BatteryThe 3200mah battery is a beast, it lasts easily for one and a half to two days. Withoutusing the phone too much it seems it can keep going for a few days. The STAMINAmode got a new option, which is turned on by default, to queue and send background dataat set intervals.* BodyGood:It has premium and very classy feeling. Well, this is subjective butthere is something really cool about phone being so thin and flat.It is stiff and well-built. The back panel is made from glass, but don't worry that itwill get scratched easily as there is a minimal, barely noticeable bezel around so when youput a phone on a flat surface it rests on the bezel not the glass panel.I moved from phone with 4.3" screen and I found typing on the 5.2" screen much fasterand precise, using two hands, I can now type with less errors and faster in general. Sonykeyboard is also ergonomic and well designed.Could be better:The first Xperia Z had 5" screen and nice, small bezels. With Z2 Sony went for 5.2", I would prefer it to stay at 5".* Noice cancellingI tried noise cancelling on my way work in London tube and on train. It works pretty good,it removed all continuos, low frequency noise, with higher frequency noise still left, butthis is how most of NC will work. The headphones included with the phone, are all right but theycan't compete with my B&W P5, so I won't probably use noise cancelling too much as P5 aremy main mobile headphones and NC in Xperia Z2 currently works only with included headphones.* User interfaceSony ships its phones with its own Android skin, I find Sony skin very close to vanilla Android.If you compare it to HTC or Samsung skins, Sony is much less modified and closer to Googlevision of the Android UI.The UI is designed with taste and doesn't feel bloated or inconsistent. It is minimalistic and doesn'ttry to get in your way. It also feels very fast.There are some useful additions compared to stock Android:- left menu in app launcher with: search app by name, most used apps, alphabetical order, etc.- STAMINA mode - of course, this is known already and it works greatThe dialer and contacts apps are excellent, minimalistic, simple, good looking and fast.In the end comparing Sony latest UI to Samsung TouchWiz, I would say it is day and night.* High-res USB AudioMost reviews you will find won't mention that Z2 has native support for high resolution, digitalaudio output via micro USB port. For music lovers and audiophiles this is a nice add-on. Thanksto that you can connect high fidelity USB DAC to the Z2 and experience the best music qualitypossible. There are DACs available that are very mobile and of very high quality like MeridianExplorer or Audioquest DragonFly.Regarding other reviews here:- There is one saying you can't write to SD card with this phone. It is not true, the thingis that with Android 4.4 KitKat Google changed the way applications can access data on theSD card. Before, simply any appliation could read and write to any other's applicationdata which was insecure. That has been made more secure and now application can only write datato its own folders. This is also the case for Samsung and HTC, it's just how Android now worksand it is good thing.Hints:* I use DashClock Widget for lockscreen, looks great with Xperia lockscreen and provides useful info like number of new emails, weather, currency rates, etc.* First I did was to swap default email and browser applications for Gmail and Google Chrome

11.5.2014

Took delivery on 10 May and gave 5 stars initially, but after 3m of use reducing to 4 stars.The lost star is because the flap covering SIM and micro USB socket won't stay shut, mean the waterproof feature can't be trusted.I rarely open the flap as have a cradle charger, but despite this the problem has arisen. I imagine that it will not be until a future model that the apparent design fault will be fixed.That said, other than this flaw I love the phone, but the flaw is disappointing.In case you experience call distortion : I experienced an important problem with the phone. When I made calls, my voice was badly distorted when the other person was trying to listen. It got a lot better if I switched to speaker phone,but still not very good. At first I thought problem must be at the other end, but ltested on several calls to different phones and left voicemails that I have listened to and definitely a major problem. Other than that I found the phone is great, so got replacement from Amazon. I found the problem with my voice being distorted happened again though, with the new phone. I therefore tried a different sim, reverting back to a Vodafone sim from the giffgaff (O2 network) I had moved to. This solved the problem, so looks like some kind of compatibility issue between the giffgaff sim and the Sony z2. The giffgaff sim doesn't cause any problems in my old Galaxy S3... If you experience thisvtypebof problem, it is worth trying a new Sim before returning the phone.Overall review:Phone meets my expectations and a bit of a step up from my old Galaxy S3.Screen is great, with good viewing angles. Keyboard seems easier to use, though spell correction function does not seem to spot two words accidentally typed together without a space.Seems very responsive and also quick to get to grips with.Physical quality of the phone is way better than my old S3 (except for flap issue mentioned above). I was a bit nervous of how ergonomic it would be, but I needn't have been. The tweaks done to shape and dimensions from the Z1 have done the trick, and in comparison it is much better to hold.Put front screen protector on from 3rd party, as only one came in box and I wasn't lucky enough to get application right first time.I also get a protector for the back to help protect the glass. Pleased I did!The sound from the front facing speakers is pretty reasonable but not quite as good as I had hoped. Maybe I was expecting too much, but will be fine for audio to videos.On the charging front, I bought a cheap third party magnetic charging dock for under £9 and it works great. Would recommend one so no need to open the waterproof flap to charge every day - especially given the flaps are the only weak point I have found.The battery life seems good. For example, took phone off charge 18 hrs ago, had bluetooth and wifi on all day, made a couple short calls, being using email and about an hour on the Internet, followed by watching 2hr film stored on my micro sd and there's still 25% of battery left. Pretty good and better than previous phones...]Overall, it seems to be a great phone, and pleased I waited for it. I popped my old 64gb Micro sd card in, but pondering over whether to buy and try the new 128gb SanDisk card... Will see.Couple of extra points: I saw a review just after mine that said you can't write to a micro sd card. In setup there is an option to transfer data from internal memory to a micro sd card you have inserted. Also, you can switch to saving all photos and video footage taken to the micro sd. When it comes to music and films, I usually copy to a micro sd card inserted to my laptop via adapter, so unlikely to check if possible to copy across by USB lead. Consequently, I don't really understand the problem raised by the person leaving one star earlier today. One warning though - when I tried the function to transfer files from the phone to micro SD , the function managed to corrupt many existing photos on the micro SD, so I suggest this function is avoided.So far really like the function where you can choose to blur backgrounds and keep the main subject in focus. It works surprisingly well. Photos in bright light are great, though dimly lit photos aren't as good as expected. Videos are very good, including 4k ones, though when recording 4k the phone heats up a little, but not a problem.P.S. As I bought this phone because it was unlocked and sim free I have now found which sim only deal I prefer. I went for a giffgaff monthly deal that as at May 2014 cost £12pm for unlimited data, 250mins, and unlimited texts. It works on O2's 3G network and so far I am very pleased with it. Just mentioning in case, like me, you're looking for a decent Sim only deal. Update: see the call problem I have had with the giffgaff sim... Looks like I will have to give up with it and try a different provider. I ended up getting a Sim only 4g deal with unlimited calls and texts and 5gb of data and Spotify premium for £15pm. Going well...FINAL UPDATE: AFTER OWNING THE Z2 AND LIKING IT, IT INEXPLICABLY "DIED" ON ME.NO SIGN OF LIFE OR LIGHTS FROM IT WHATSOEVER. I used Amazon instant chat to arrange immediate return for a full refund. Now bought the Z3.

5.9.2014

I upgraded from a Nexus 5 to the Xperia and I couldn't be happier. The Z2 just oozes class from the glass front and back to the brushed metal sides. It's Android KitKat with a sprinkling of Sony. It still looks and feels Android unlike Samsung devices which don't seem to bear any resemblance to an Android device these days. A nice feature is the ability to remove the Google search bar from the home screen which you can't do on the Nexus devices.The reason for upgrading was to amalgamate my devices and store all my music on the phone. Boy was I in for a surprise.The sound quality is superb. I was using a 4th gen iPod with AKG K495 noise cancelling headphones which I was happy with,but when I plugged the headphones into the Z2 I was amazed at the difference. The Z2 sounds a lot more open and natural. the only thing I don't like is it doesn't go very loud. I suspect it's the European directive for restricting volume levels that's driving this, but Apple have overcome it with their new iPods so hopefully Sony will to.I initially didn't bother with the supplied earphones as they're generally crap, but I noticed the box said they were noise cancelling so I gave them a go. I was pleasantly surprised how good they sounded, but the noise cancelling didn't seem to make any difference. I initially thought it was a gimmick as there is no way Sony could fit the NC electronics into these earphones then I discovered it's the phone that performs the NC so I delved into the phone settings, turned on the NC and was blown away. These little earphones do a much better job of cancelling out the background noise than my £350 AKG's! They are so much better on the train and underground that the AKG's have now been resigned to home use.The other thing I love about the phone is the SD card slot. At Last a phone with expandable storage! Although Sony say it supports max 64GB card, mine is running quite happily with a 128GB card so I've been able to fit most of my music collection on it.A work of caution. I tried to delete a film from the SD card using MX Media Player, but it said the card was read only. This made me think the phone didn't actually support the 128GB card so I purchased a 64GB card and had exactly the same problem. I tried using ES File Explorer, but that said it was read only too. I plugged the phone into the PC when I got home and was able to delete the file. Hmmm what could be causing this? A quick google of "android 4.4 sd card read only" revealed applications can no longer write/delete from external storage because of restrictions introduced in Android 4.4. This is to primarily stop malware reading/writing through the systems to steal data, or so Google says. We all know it's to force Android users to use Google's cloud services, so don't blame Sony for this. The only file manager that's capable of write/delete to the SD card is Sony's built in File Commander, the brilliant ES File Explorer can't. Of course there are ways around this if you're prepared to Root the phone.....The next thing to do is get a magnetic charging cable so I don't have to keep opening the waterproof flap to charge the phone as I'm sure this will wear out or break after time.Overall a fantastic phone. Sony have definitely got it right with this one.UPDATEWhen I plugged the phone in to charge this morning I noticed the display wouldn't turn off. Every time I turned it off it came back on again. It had 70% charge so I left it charging for about 30 min. When I returned to the phone there was a message saying the battery was discharging faster than it was being charged and the battery had dropped to 40%. I plugged it into a mains charger, but that made no difference. I tried a factory reset, but this didn't make any difference either. The charging indicator flashes on and off approx once a second so I think there may be a problem with the battery. The battery's now dead and it won't charge. A google search didn't show anyone with the same problem so I'm hoping it's a one-off. I've now got to return the phone to Google.

30.6.2014

Finally, I have found my ideal phone...After years of looking for the ideal device that would meet all my expectations, I have found it and it is here with me.I went through many Android smartphones, Nokia E52, the very first Samsung Galaxy S, then Galaxy S2, Samsung Wave, Nokia Lumia 920, Htc One, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and now Sony Xperia Z2. All of those phones were great but then again, each one of them was missing something - be it weak camera (Htc One), weak battery (HTC One, Samsung devices), slow performance (Samsung devices because of Touchwiz) etc.Sony ticks all the boxes for me, although it is not ideal. The screen is not as bright and does not have as good contrast as Amoled's on Samsung's,but it is good enough for me and I prefer the natural colors.The phone likes to be warm especially when using the camera, but I have not experienced the overheating myself, that many users complaining on the web did (and by the way, those who have good phones do not complain and ususally do not praise it online either, so do not be scared by those numerous horror stories!). Well, the phone gets really warm when using the AR camera app, 4k recording etc, but I do not use those too often and do not need them.I was also a bit concerned about the glass shattering stories reported by others, but hopefully, I will not experience it as well..Other than that I find no minuses for the phone!The battery lasts me up to 3 days with all the Stamina mode and battery saving options, which are great and do not make the use of the phone any less pleasant. That is with 6 hours plus screen on time! No phone, even Galaxy Note 3 came close to this.After owning HTC One M7, I appreciate the stereo speakers, that do make a difference although they are a bit louder on the HTC. The screen is beautiful, and the phone is just the right size for my hand, which is a small hand as for a guy.The biggest, less mentioned plus of the phone is noise cancelling headphones and boy, those make a difference! I have never used this technology before but now I cannot imagine not using it, especially when talking or listening music on the street or in any noisy environment!The call quality is perfectly adequate, clean voices in the earpiece and no one complaining on the quality of my voice.Android experience on this phone is great! After being tired of Samsung phones (and spoilt by HTC's Sense UI) I have to say, I love what Sony did. The launcher is light, fluent, low on resources and pleasant for the eye. It is really customaizable and even lets you choose your own skin/color.As with HTC One, I have no desire or need to root the phone, because I do not need to alter it like I had to with previous Samsung.Sony includes a bit of bloatware, but you can remove some and the remaining does not drain the battery or hog the RAM.By the way, there is 3 gb of RAM and this amount means you will surely not run out of it...What can I say, I was really hesitant to take the risk and buy this phone after reading so many overheating and glass cracking stories, but I took the risk and I no longer need to change my phone in pursuit of the ideal one.I hope I could help.

10.9.2014

I have always been a fan off sony products ever since the ps1 came out.I enjoy using this phone.I got my one from 02 and they say it doesn't come with a mains charger. this is not true as when you open the box for the phone, their is one inside.I have noticed a few faults with this phone, here are the following faults:1: Overheating when using apps2: Pixels in the screen are damaged3: Unexpected shut down; this happened to me today. the phone screen will go black while it is on but you can not accesses any off the android features. You will also be able to still receive calls and text but you will not be able to answer them.4: Touch screen sometimes plays up.I have looked into this and it is an know fault with the phone; If you are thinking off buying one make sure that it has no faults,

13.5.2014

I've come from a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which was a great phone but I didn't like the plasticy feel of it.The design of the Z2 is great, and I appreciate the slightly bigger screen, compared to the Z/Z1.The waterproof design means I can be relaxed about being out in the rain with the phone, and it protects me from accidents involving liquids.Sadly I'm not happy with the camera: It has the same issue I had with the Z1 phone, and there is serious lens distortion, particular on close by things, which gives straight horizontal lines a noticeable bump. Also pictures lack far more detail and look more pixely, despite the 20MB sensor. From what I hear it might be that only some devices suffer that problem.

16.6.2014

Bought the Sony Z2 on the 30th May 2014, arrived the next day. At first I was reluctant to buy it as HTC M8 and S5 looked appealing. The day before I made my order I tested them all at carphone warehouse and felt that the S5 was just like my S3 with very minor improvement. I was left with just the M8 vs the Z2. M8 felt good and solid however I was not amazed with it on first impression in comparison to the Z2. I went home asking friends on facebook and many adviced me to go for Sony as Sony has a big point to prove if they were to succeed in the smart phone market. Their Z2 ticks every box and I am amazingly impressed with how the phone works, the camera is brilliant and the 4K display is amazing.

20.6.2014

For many years I have been a big fan of Sony products and had the original Sony Xperia Z. I bought the Sony Xperia Z2 mainly for the extended battery life it provides which is now 2 days and no charger!The screen is fantastic and displays very vivid and vibrant colours, along with the larger 5.2" display. When running applications they open much faster and smooth. The phone is well built and nice to hold in the hand and feels solid. Sound output has also been improved along with the extra waterproofing the phone works really well in the shower.I have over the years had many Android phones and I would highly recommend this phone to anyone who wants a phone for business and pleasure and isn't

7.8.2014

Don't normally write reviews. However, just want others to know - I was considering iPhone 5S, HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5. So glad I chose this phone. It is AMAZING. Best phone I've ever had.- Amazing camera - huge detail in photos and look amazing on the screen.- Battery life is phenomenal - I get two full days easily using the brilliant Stamina mode. This is unheard of with Apple Phones.- Great storage - this phone can take 128GB Micro SD cards.- Great Sony Apps - Walkman and Photo Album are my personal favourites.- Screen is huge and full of colour.- Good sound from speakers.If you are in doubt, don't be. You won't be disappointed with this powerhouse.

16.6.2016

The best smartphone I had. Menaged to drop it a few times, put it under water, even dragged it in the sand. It just resists everything.The body is made with top quality materials and has a nice size/design if you have a large hand.Only issue is that the camera button is very low, which makes it difficult if you want to take a picture holding the phone in just one hand. You struggle too much to press the camera button with your thumb.

24.5.2014

Much more stable than Samsung phones I have had, but.Ringtones not loud enough, keep missing calls even turned up full.Downloaded Apps can't save to external SD card (Android 4.4 problem) but Sony could have made a backdoor.Camera controls inadequate for setting sizes etc also flash tend to bleed direct into camera lens washing out some shots, could have been fixed with small recess for LED flash.

14.5.2014

Main strengths:+ water resistance+ minimalistic design+ great performance+ great battery life+ LTE module (option)+ beautiful 5.2 inch display+ front-facing stereo speakers+ great cameraWeaknesses:- poor front-facing camera- touch sensors visible in directlight- lack of IRDAVIDEO REVIEW: http://youtu.be/F-PKr6STqw0

5.4.2015

This phone is one of the best phones I've used, its superfast, and the sound quality of this Sony phone is excellent whether it's through the earphones or loudspeaker it sounds good. Of will keep this phone for sometime before I upgrade it's pure quality

11.3.2016

Very good solid phone. Was disappointed that it did not come with the earphones that were marketed so heavily alongside it, and also with the single audio output, but loving it overall - a great upgrade over my ancient Samsung Galaxy Ace.

30.9.2015

Love this phone, much better than the M2. I've never had a problem with the overheating that's supposed to be an issue?Only problem I have is the flap you have to keep opening to charge the phone... It keeps opening every now and again.

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