Z2 or Z3?

[Deleted User] · 22/08/14 - 00:35

Hi, I'm soon to come off of a contract and was looking to get another with the Xperia Z2. However I recently found out that the Z3 is being announced at IFA in early September. I was mostly looking for advice on which to get as although the Z3s specs are only marginally better I'd still prefer to have the flagship, even if it's only for a few months.

Getting the Z3 would leave me 'phoneless' for a while though, at which point I'd like to ask, how long is the wait between announcement and release usually? If it's only a short while I don't mind the wait.

MrSuper · 22/08/14 - 02:30

I expect the Sony Xperia Z3 to be released in Europe in the month of September, probably the 2nd half i imagine. It's not a great leap forward to be honest, but it will be Sony's newest flagship.

rjb101 · 22/08/14 - 06:02

Can't you just go Sim only for a while and wait for the Z3?

Lidtop2013 · 22/08/14 - 07:07

Does Sony still take ages bringing out software updates?

victor mel · 22/08/14 - 08:23

Yes what I have been looking on the net the Z3 is not much different tech wise than the Z2. More like a Z2s. Wait until it's released and see what deals you can get on the Z2.

simon69c · 22/08/14 - 09:57

I had problems with my Z2 - crashed a lot and generally not very stable. I know others have reported similar problems on this board. I ended up going back to my iPhone 5S while I recall another user exchanging their z2 for the htc one m8 and being very glad that he did.

[Deleted User] · 22/08/14 - 20:26

Thanks for the help guys

M1kos · 23/08/14 - 14:51

my Z2 has been fine (well untill I dropped it

but all fixed now) and running 4.4.2

jonmorris · 23/08/14 - 15:39

Mine too. Got a bit too hot when we had the recent heatwave but is fine now.

My M8 was fine too, until a column of pixels died and it needs to have a new screen.

MrSuper · 02/09/14 - 16:38

The Z3 will be officially announced tomorrow but some pics have leaked of the phone incl. specs.

http://www.gsmarena.com/sticker_with_sony_xperia_z3_specs_allegedly_reveals_all-news-9519.php

A brighter and more colour-rich screen and better low-light photography look like being on the cards.

jonmorris · 02/09/14 - 17:19

If it's a newer version of the image sensor, maybe we'll see better low-light images but as the article said - it could just result in ridiculously noisy photos, and be nothing more than a cheap marketing stunt to make it appear that the camera is better than others (including the Z2). I've been in the game since the start of the 1990s, so I am now rather cynical of such things!

A brighter screen may help when using the phone outdoors. One thing the Z2 is really poor at is daylight visibility, but to be honest, so are all the others (M8, G3, GS5) and at full brightness, the battery takes a big hit.

Again, sounds like another thing Sony had to do in order to be able to tell people the Z3 is improved, as against the same phone in a different, thinner, case.

Personally, the smaller case and new design would have been enough for me - but we all know it wouldn't be enough for most people, including the tech press that will also be seeing the Note 4 launched the same day, and many other devices in the coming days/weeks.

Gigabit · 02/09/14 - 18:23

From the photos it looks like the speakers are improved.

Carl_Boys · 02/09/14 - 18:29

Seriously considering changing to android but don't wanna lost all whatsapp messages and other ios stuff, any software that scans your ios phone and tells ya what can be transferred over? I'm looking at the z3 compact or z1 conpact.

MrSuper · 22/09/14 - 18:21

I like what i'm reading about Z3's battery performance.

We are not going to mince words here - Sony is the current king of battery life when it comes to brand-name smartphones. We did our grueling battery benchmark on the Xperia Z3 over the weekend, and it broke all records in its respective category, just as we suspected it would do, given Sony's consistent performance in that department this year.

The phone lasted for nearly nine and a half hours of screen-on time when we ran our grueling battery benchmark, putting it comfortably ahead of any other flagship big-screen phone or phablet we've tested at the moment. This is more than any other flagship we've measured so far - phone or phablet - and even more than the Ascend Mate7, which comes equipped with a whopping 4100 mAh juicer, while the Z3 has an "only" 3100 mAh piece in a 7.3mm thin waterproof body .

The camera has also improved considerably from the Z2 according to the DxOMark website sharing the No1 spot alongside Samsung Galaxy S5.

So it might be a minor upgrade from the Z2 but it's still rocking top results.

AxeVictim · 22/09/14 - 20:05

Better be quick at this price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Xperia-Z3-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Copper/dp/B00N8N48BS/

Gigabit · 22/09/14 - 20:13

Guaranteed Amazon cancel orders at that price.

Carl_Boys · 22/09/14 - 20:15

I ordered at £430 copper version, still think id prefer the conpact version.

MrSuper · 22/09/14 - 21:37

AxeVictim wrote: »

Better be quick at this price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Xperia-Z3-SIM-Free-Smartphone-Copper/dp/B00N8N48BS/

Absolute value for money at that price! £430 is a great price for a phone of that quality.

MrSuper · 23/09/14 - 15:58

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact ousts the Xperia Z3 from the top spot for battery life.

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact comes with the promise of not only being a flagship-grade device with top specs in a compact body, but also with one particularly alluring proposition - that of two-day battery life. Such big claims for Sony begged for some real-life testing, and we're happy to say that we've concluded our exhaustive Xperia Z3 battery life test and the results are in.

The Xperia Z3 with its 2,600mAh battery proved to be not just good, but quite exceptional: it easily grabbed the first place amongst all non-phablet smartphones with a battery longevity of 10 hours and 2 minutes on our test.

We’re also very happy to see that Sony has added a new Ultra STAMINA mode that turns wallpapers to black and white, leaving only very few basic apps. This mode is clearly there to squeeze the most out of your battery. With the Ultra STAMINA mode enabled and 40% of charge left, the Z3 Compact shows that it can last for more than 4 days, which is nice.

Incredible results!

MrSuper · 26/09/14 - 22:47

This is crazy, but crazy good.

The world's first underwater unboxing video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIf9GdCzY_Y

The Z3 is waterproof so CPW put it to the test. Genius!

MrSuper · 01/10/14 - 20:30

I didn't really want to create a new thread so thought i'd pop this into here.

It looks like Sony is making a whole series of products using the Z3 name.

You have Sony Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, Xperia Z3 Tablet, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact and coming next year the Xperia Z3X, a phablet to success the Z Ultra.

It's been benchmarked and the alleged specs show a monster of a phone.

The Z3X has a 6.2-inch touchscreen with QHD (2,560x1,440) resolution, and a whopping 4GB of RAM. That amount isn't there by accident, as the phablet will be powered by Qualcomm's 64-bit Snapdragon 810 chipset with an Adreno 430 GPU. This part is expected to be in shipping products sometime during the first half of next year. It will have an octa-core CPU, with four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 ones.

The Xperia Z3X that is currently being tested runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It's said to sport Sony's curved photo sensor that got unveiled around three months ago. This is rumored to be a 2/3 inch sensor with 22.1 MP resolution and f/1.2 aperture. It also has high dynamic range and a high signal to noise ratio.

I wonder if Sony will do the same thing when the Z4 rolls around next year?

allie4 · 01/10/14 - 21:21

simon69c wrote: »

I had problems with my Z2 - crashed a lot and generally not very stable. I know others have reported similar problems on this board. I ended up going back to my iPhone 5S while I recall another user exchanging their z2 for the htc one m8 and being very glad that he did.

I wonder if that was me? I had a very dodgy Z2 and swapped it for an HTC one M8!
I'm a SHE by the way.. but well remembered. Unless someone else did the same thing.
I've looked at the Z3 and seen some UT stuff - it is lighter than the Z2 and has, I think, a better camera in that it fits more into a shot.
It's not a huge improvement but I think if I was getting a Sony I'd go for the 3.

Also - if you buy a sim free phone from Amazon for example - how does that affect prices for say O2? Presumably you wouldn't get free texts/ calls etc?

jonmorris · 02/10/14 - 01:07

MrSuper wrote: »

You have Sony Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact, Xperia Z3 Tablet, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact and coming next year the Xperia Z3X, a phablet to success the Z Ultra.

It's been benchmarked and the alleged specs show a monster of a phone.

The Xperia Z3X is intriguing as I know someone at Sony Mobile that told me there's no phone to replace the Ultra coming anytime soon after the original flopped big time.

Now he could obviously be wrong, although if he wasn't aware of it then it probably isn't that close to being released.

I wonder if the screen size is wrong? It seems odd that Sony would be back in the Ultra territory when it failed so badly before? That is unless it has managed to reduce the bezels massively so it won't be such a beast.

allie4 wrote: »

if you buy a sim free phone from Amazon for example - how does that affect prices for say O2? Presumably you wouldn't get free texts/ calls etc?

If you buy SIM free, you can put any SIM in and that could be any tariff you like, but at a lower rate because there's no phone subsidy. Look at what O2 charges for SIM-only, as well as other networks. Go for a 30 day contract and you can now swap and change to take advantage of short term promotions if you so wish.

And if you don't fancy the up front cost of the SIM free phone, just buy on a credit card and pay it back within a year or two. You'll obviously need to factor in the interest, but it's still likely a lot less than what you'll be charged by an operator.

Hey there!

Quick Links

Z2 or Z3?

Comments