Sony Xperia Z3 Compact - Your Thoughts . . .
Discussion
Luke. said:
milner993 said:
Well My Z3c arrived earlier today, I've had nothing but trouble dealing with EE I thought now the phone was here my problems would all be over and I could enjoy the phone Errrrrr NO!!! after careful inspection I noticed on the left had side of the screen about a quarter the way up from the bottom of the screen one of the pixels was broken, so I'm not happy what so ever, the device looks and feels good but I've had the whole experience blighted by bad customer service and now a faulty phone to see what’s good about my new handset.
I'm pretty sure 1 faulty pixel is within acceptable tolerances for LCD technology, therefore not faulty.Hopefully the new one will be better if not it's straight back and then that will conclude my dealings with a Sony phone, back to Samsung.
What's the gps like on these? My current Orange San Diego seems to be kaput on the gps front which is annoying as I mainly use it when I'm out running. I'd been thinking about going for a Z1 compact and that the prices might drop with the release of the Z3 but the Z3 isn't much more at the moment anyway.
Cheers,
Rob
Cheers,
Rob
B19GRR said:
What's the gps like on these? My current Orange San Diego seems to be kaput on the gps front which is annoying as I mainly use it when I'm out running. I'd been thinking about going for a Z1 compact and that the prices might drop with the release of the Z3 but the Z3 isn't much more at the moment anyway.
Cheers,
Rob
The GPS is good, seems pretty quick to pick up satellites. The battery life is amazing as well although it is a slippery little bugger. I put it down on my tablet case which had a very very slight tilt on it and over a period of about a minute my phone slid off onto my desk.Cheers,
Rob
Tycho said:
B19GRR said:
What's the gps like on these? My current Orange San Diego seems to be kaput on the gps front which is annoying as I mainly use it when I'm out running. I'd been thinking about going for a Z1 compact and that the prices might drop with the release of the Z3 but the Z3 isn't much more at the moment anyway.
Cheers,
Rob
The GPS is good, seems pretty quick to pick up satellites. The battery life is amazing as well although it is a slippery little bugger. I put it down on my tablet case which had a very very slight tilt on it and over a period of about a minute my phone slid off onto my desk.Cheers,
Rob
My Z3 showed up yesterday, sadly I think it's going back 
Screen uniformity is poor (there is slight yellow staining in the bottom left of the screen) and the backlight is brighter on the left than the right; I knew from reviews that the white balance is off, but what I didn't expect was how poorly it renders reds/dark pinks! They are almost neon at times; case in point being I was on a website and there was a Vodafone ad at the bottom of the page, the red did not resemble the shade that Vodafone use, and Netflix is the same. It reminds me of watching American Chopper on Discovery years ago where all shades of red were the same!
I've moved from a 7 month old Galaxy S3, and despite it having a 720p screen, it felt sharper and was/is far more colour accurate. The screen is everything to me on a phone and I've returned numerous over the years due to uniformity issues, but I've never seen colour repro as bad as this and the HTC One X I had was poor. Performance wise, the Z3 destroys the S3, as you would expect.
All that said, on a nice dark theme the screen looks fantastic and almost painted on.
The phone itself is beautifully made, really is nice in the hand, although I whacked a Case Mate 'barely there' case (not the best fitting TBH considering it's 'Made for Xperia') and the Sony supplied screen protector on it straight out of the box; I'm wondering if the screen protector has robbed a bit of the screen sharpness as I have never fitted one to any of my other handsets previously? I watched a movie on Netflix last night and it lacked the sparkle of the S3.
Not had time to really mess about with it past setting up; it is very slick in use and the browser (not chrome, stock Android app I transferred?) is lightening fast on home wifi, I mean super quick even compared to my six month old PC on the same network which is 6mb BT!
Have only taken a couple of pictures indoors and they are a bit meh TBH; have seen some good results on XDA, but there are plenty of gripes about sharpness and quality, and that this was an issue on the Z2 that Sony resolved with an update.
I loaded a 24/96 flac file on and it sounds fantastic through the crappy Beats earbuds I have; I tested against the same song from a CD file and it blows it away, however CD files still sound great. Could do with a little more volume (says the man with tinnitus!) Front speakers are excellent, especially for maps, which locates rapidly and works very well in my brief recce of holding it up to the window for a lock.
I've been messing about with it writing this and it is a wonderful handset bar the red issue and uniformity; I'll give it a few more days and see if I can live with it as I love it otherwise.
Hmmm.
Screen uniformity is poor (there is slight yellow staining in the bottom left of the screen) and the backlight is brighter on the left than the right; I knew from reviews that the white balance is off, but what I didn't expect was how poorly it renders reds/dark pinks! They are almost neon at times; case in point being I was on a website and there was a Vodafone ad at the bottom of the page, the red did not resemble the shade that Vodafone use, and Netflix is the same. It reminds me of watching American Chopper on Discovery years ago where all shades of red were the same!
I've moved from a 7 month old Galaxy S3, and despite it having a 720p screen, it felt sharper and was/is far more colour accurate. The screen is everything to me on a phone and I've returned numerous over the years due to uniformity issues, but I've never seen colour repro as bad as this and the HTC One X I had was poor. Performance wise, the Z3 destroys the S3, as you would expect.
All that said, on a nice dark theme the screen looks fantastic and almost painted on.
The phone itself is beautifully made, really is nice in the hand, although I whacked a Case Mate 'barely there' case (not the best fitting TBH considering it's 'Made for Xperia') and the Sony supplied screen protector on it straight out of the box; I'm wondering if the screen protector has robbed a bit of the screen sharpness as I have never fitted one to any of my other handsets previously? I watched a movie on Netflix last night and it lacked the sparkle of the S3.
Not had time to really mess about with it past setting up; it is very slick in use and the browser (not chrome, stock Android app I transferred?) is lightening fast on home wifi, I mean super quick even compared to my six month old PC on the same network which is 6mb BT!
Have only taken a couple of pictures indoors and they are a bit meh TBH; have seen some good results on XDA, but there are plenty of gripes about sharpness and quality, and that this was an issue on the Z2 that Sony resolved with an update.
I loaded a 24/96 flac file on and it sounds fantastic through the crappy Beats earbuds I have; I tested against the same song from a CD file and it blows it away, however CD files still sound great. Could do with a little more volume (says the man with tinnitus!) Front speakers are excellent, especially for maps, which locates rapidly and works very well in my brief recce of holding it up to the window for a lock.
I've been messing about with it writing this and it is a wonderful handset bar the red issue and uniformity; I'll give it a few more days and see if I can live with it as I love it otherwise.
Hmmm.
s off the pair of ye'se 
ZesPak said:
stevoknevo said:
I've been messing about with it writing this and it is a wonderful handset bar the red issue and uniformity; I'll give it a few more days and see if I can live with it as I love it otherwise.
Hmmm.
Maybe request a new one? Could be that your screen is below par? Hmmm.
probedb said:
Anyone done a direct comparison with a Galaxy Alpha? Regardless of cost difference and stuff like miucroSD card, what are the two phones like?
Coming from a Nexus 4 with stock Android, if I get either it's a big jump back into a manufacturers own take on Android
Cheers!
With regards to the skins, Samsung have a heavy handed approach with Touchwiz which I immediately swapped for Nova Prime launcher on my old S2. Sony however are similar to Motorola in that they just seem to add useful stuff (Apart from their own media apps and a couple of other bits which can be put in a folder out of the way) like smart rotate so you can lie down and still have the screen orientation the right way or tap to wake etc.Coming from a Nexus 4 with stock Android, if I get either it's a big jump back into a manufacturers own take on Android
Cheers!
Nardies said:
Tycho said:
Sounds like a duff handset. With regard to the screen compared to an S3, don't forget you will have got used to the oversaturated AMOLED screen on the Samsung so it may take a few days to get used to the real world again
Agreed, my screen is bang on!
Best screen I have had to date
Just a quick bit of good news - I took my Z1 compact swimming a couple of weeks ago. Got some lovely photos but also somehow got water inside. Condensation inside the camera lenses, screen no longer rotating, overheating and battery drain - generally a very unhappy phone.
Sent it off to Sony expecting a "user error - you must not have closed the flaps properly" response but no; it was replaced without quibble and a shiny, good as new handset arrived this morning.
One very happy customer
Sent it off to Sony expecting a "user error - you must not have closed the flaps properly" response but no; it was replaced without quibble and a shiny, good as new handset arrived this morning.
One very happy customer
stevoknevo said:
My Z3 showed up yesterday, sadly I think it's going back
Screen uniformity is poor (there is slight yellow staining in the bottom left of the screen) and the backlight is brighter on the left than the right; I knew from reviews that the white balance is off, but what I didn't expect was how poorly it renders reds/dark pinks! They are almost neon at times; case in point being I was on a website and there was a Vodafone ad at the bottom of the page, the red did not resemble the shade that Vodafone use, and Netflix is the same. It reminds me of watching American Chopper on Discovery years ago where all shades of red were the same!
I've moved from a 7 month old Galaxy S3, and despite it having a 720p screen, it felt sharper and was/is far more colour accurate. The screen is everything to me on a phone and I've returned numerous over the years due to uniformity issues, but I've never seen colour repro as bad as this and the HTC One X I had was poor. Performance wise, the Z3 destroys the S3, as you would expect.
All that said, on a nice dark theme the screen looks fantastic and almost painted on.
The phone itself is beautifully made, really is nice in the hand, although I whacked a Case Mate 'barely there' case (not the best fitting TBH considering it's 'Made for Xperia') and the Sony supplied screen protector on it straight out of the box; I'm wondering if the screen protector has robbed a bit of the screen sharpness as I have never fitted one to any of my other handsets previously? I watched a movie on Netflix last night and it lacked the sparkle of the S3.
Not had time to really mess about with it past setting up; it is very slick in use and the browser (not chrome, stock Android app I transferred?) is lightening fast on home wifi, I mean super quick even compared to my six month old PC on the same network which is 6mb BT!
Have only taken a couple of pictures indoors and they are a bit meh TBH; have seen some good results on XDA, but there are plenty of gripes about sharpness and quality, and that this was an issue on the Z2 that Sony resolved with an update.
I loaded a 24/96 flac file on and it sounds fantastic through the crappy Beats earbuds I have; I tested against the same song from a CD file and it blows it away, however CD files still sound great. Could do with a little more volume (says the man with tinnitus!) Front speakers are excellent, especially for maps, which locates rapidly and works very well in my brief recce of holding it up to the window for a lock.
I've been messing about with it writing this and it is a wonderful handset bar the red issue and uniformity; I'll give it a few more days and see if I can live with it as I love it otherwise.
Hmmm.
As mentioned I suspect you have a duff handset, as the screen on mine is perfect, but before you send it back have a play around with the Display settings, making sure it isn't in Super Vivid mode as that seems to throw the colour balance off a bit. You can also adjust the White Balance from in there as well. Screen uniformity is poor (there is slight yellow staining in the bottom left of the screen) and the backlight is brighter on the left than the right; I knew from reviews that the white balance is off, but what I didn't expect was how poorly it renders reds/dark pinks! They are almost neon at times; case in point being I was on a website and there was a Vodafone ad at the bottom of the page, the red did not resemble the shade that Vodafone use, and Netflix is the same. It reminds me of watching American Chopper on Discovery years ago where all shades of red were the same!
I've moved from a 7 month old Galaxy S3, and despite it having a 720p screen, it felt sharper and was/is far more colour accurate. The screen is everything to me on a phone and I've returned numerous over the years due to uniformity issues, but I've never seen colour repro as bad as this and the HTC One X I had was poor. Performance wise, the Z3 destroys the S3, as you would expect.
All that said, on a nice dark theme the screen looks fantastic and almost painted on.
The phone itself is beautifully made, really is nice in the hand, although I whacked a Case Mate 'barely there' case (not the best fitting TBH considering it's 'Made for Xperia') and the Sony supplied screen protector on it straight out of the box; I'm wondering if the screen protector has robbed a bit of the screen sharpness as I have never fitted one to any of my other handsets previously? I watched a movie on Netflix last night and it lacked the sparkle of the S3.
Not had time to really mess about with it past setting up; it is very slick in use and the browser (not chrome, stock Android app I transferred?) is lightening fast on home wifi, I mean super quick even compared to my six month old PC on the same network which is 6mb BT!
Have only taken a couple of pictures indoors and they are a bit meh TBH; have seen some good results on XDA, but there are plenty of gripes about sharpness and quality, and that this was an issue on the Z2 that Sony resolved with an update.
I loaded a 24/96 flac file on and it sounds fantastic through the crappy Beats earbuds I have; I tested against the same song from a CD file and it blows it away, however CD files still sound great. Could do with a little more volume (says the man with tinnitus!) Front speakers are excellent, especially for maps, which locates rapidly and works very well in my brief recce of holding it up to the window for a lock.
I've been messing about with it writing this and it is a wonderful handset bar the red issue and uniformity; I'll give it a few more days and see if I can live with it as I love it otherwise.
Hmmm.
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