Last week at IFA, Sony launched a slew of new products including the new flagship Xperia Z3 smartphone, the smaller (but no less fully-featured) Xperia Z3 Compact and the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact. Luckily for us we were able to get our mitts all three, so if you’re interested in what they look like in person we have all of the pics below.
Sony Xperia Z3
We’ve already covered the technical changes that Sony made from the Xperia Z2 to the new Xperia Z3, but from a design point that have done so much more. Where the frame of the Xperia Z2 felt a little but bulky at times with its squared off design, the thinner, more rounded frame of the Xperia Z3 feels incredible in hand. The corners have had polycarbonate (plastic) inserts put in place instead of continuing all the way around with the aluminium strips around the edges, which we were told was because of users complaining about denting that occurred when they dropped their Xperia Z2s on the corners – it’s a thoughtful change from Sony and it doesn’t interfere with the look and feel in our opinion.
The bezels around the display have been slimmed down to make the phone even thinner and easier to handle with one hand and the display itself looks incredible from our initial time with it. The camera, which still uses the same 20.7 megapixel sensor, has been upgraded quite a bit according to Sony. From a few quick test pictures that we managed to nab using the Xperia Z3 we were mighty impressed with it.
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
As with its larger sibling above, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact has been given a spec update as well as a bump in the cosmetic stakes. The new range of colours look bright and vibrant and we’re hoping that some of the networks choose to bring them in rather than relying on the old faithful combination of black and white.
While the phone is squarer in design to the full-size Xperia Z3 (and has polycarbonate edges instead of that all-aluminium frame) it feels just as good in hand as the larger device does. This is mostly due to the fact that the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is, well, a more compact smartphone allowing your hands to more easily wrap around the phone, making one-handed operation much simpler.
As with its predecessor and the Xperia Z3, the display of the Z3 Compact was bright, responsive and full of colour. And like the Xperia Z3 the camera was – upon an initial cursory observation – capable of taking excellent photos as well.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z3
Design wise, the Sony Xperia Tablet Z3 looks very similar to its bigger brother the Xperia Tablet Z2 – it has the same soft-touch plastic back and incredibly thin edges that we love in the larger tablet. The smaller 8 inch display makes it easy enough for those with medium-sized hands to grasp it around the edges (albeit far from comfortably if you’ll be holding it that was for prolonged periods). The Xperia Tablet Z3 weighs just 280 grams which feels like almost nothing once it is in your hands and, as with the rest of the range of the Z3 range of products, the display is beautiful and everything runs smoothly with all of that power behind it.
Sony SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk
While it isn’t the first Android Wear smartwatch to arrive in South Africa, Sony does have a longer history of producing them than anyone else does at this point having moved onto their fourth generation with the SmartWatch 3 (it confused us too at first). The rubbery texture of the strap and metal clasp combination didn’t wow us, but the fact that it can be popped in and out of the strap in seconds makes us hopeful about third-party watch straps that will be more to our tastes. That said, the Android Wear OS absolutely flies on the SmartWatch 3 hardware and the fact it, like the rest of the range mentioned above is IP68 water and dust proof, gives us confidence that it’ll last for a while without getting destroyed by the elements.
The SmartBand Talk is an intriguing gadget, one that we’ll have to play around with it some more before we pass a real opinion on the usefulness of the product… but from a build quality stand point it felt the least premium of everything on display. Although the e-paper display was, as advertised and expected, easy to read in bright or dim light, it wasn’t as responsive as the display in the latest Kindles (for example). So depending on pricing our opinion of it may change drastically but it’s an interesting direction to take smartwatches – even though Pebble has been using e-ink displays since inception.
We’re looking forward to getting a chance to review all of the latest from Sony to give them a proper run for their money some time soon, so look out for the reviews coming up.
