Sony Xperia Z2 - hands-on preview
Presented at the Mobile World Congress 2014, the new flagship smartphone of Sony caused a lot of discussion and related issues. To answer them, we have prepared a detailed preview based on a test copy of Z2, with which we invite you to immediately familiarize yourself!
Appearance
At first glance - it's still the same Z1, they are striking, except that the noticeably reduced frames around the screen and the increased diagonal of himself. The side panels are now covered with a soft touch type of coating, and the connectors for SIM cards and USB cable are now hidden by one common plug. Well, the hole for hanging jewelry moved to the lower right corner. The factory film disappeared from the glass, since the glass itself is now more resistant to scratches. However, no one forbids sticking the film on their own.
Compared to the Z1, the phone has become a little longer, but thinner and lighter. It lies very well in the hand, fits in an average pocket and does not cause any inconvenience there.
Together with Z2, eco-leather transformer covers returned to production, one of which you can see in the photographs. When unfolded, it allows you to conveniently place the phone on a table or any horizontal surface, for example, when watching a movie on an airplane.
Camera
The camera module itself remained the same, but the increased performance allowed some improvements to be made to its software part. The image compression algorithm has been changed, so now they weigh a little more, but become sharper. The number of graphic effects has increased, the most interesting of which can be called a very reliable simulation of blurring the background, typical for DSLRs. In this mode, two frames are taken, which are superimposed on each other, after which you can choose the degree and type of blur, for example - simulate shooting in motion (motion blur).
An option has appeared that allows you to shoot video with a resolution of 4K, it can also be played on the corresponding TV directly from your smartphone. In Slow Motion mode, you can shoot video with a frequency of 120 frames, then select an unlimited number of sections that you want to slow down in the final clip. In addition, now during video shooting you can use real-time filters and the effect of augmented reality, moreover, with animation and without brakes.
Screen
Here we have the long-awaited IPS matrix with Live Color LED technology, which consists in adding phosphorus to the red and green LEDs (but the blue ones are made in the traditional way to avoid the overexposure characteristic of many displays). In practice, this gives an extremely bright and saturated picture with a coverage of 132% of the RGB spectrum. All claims to the viewing angles were decided by the Xperia Z1 Compact, and Z2 consolidates this success - the image does not lose any contrast and saturation at almost any tilt, well, maybe around 80 degrees, but the accompanying glare already plays a role here. Among other things, the screen has grown by a couple of millimeters by reducing the side frames.
Sound
One of the notable innovations is the digital noise reduction system, which, however, only works with a special headset, but the results are absolutely amazing. The headphones are equipped with small external microphones that pick up external noise and transmit it to the smartphone, where a similar noise is generated, which is in antiphase to the surroundings. The effect exceeds all expectations - for example, the low hum of air conditioners is completely neutralized and only quiet high-frequency noise inherent in any audio devices is heard in the headphones. At the same time, the listener is not completely isolated from the surrounding sounds - such critical things as the sound of the car he will quite hear. During a call, the microphone located in the left earphone is used for talking. It is worth noting,
The five-pin connector that appeared in Z2 is needed not only for the “noise reduction”, but also allows you to connect a stereo microphone (it is supplied separately), with which you can record high-quality audio track while shooting video.
The speaker finally became stereo, or rather, there were two speakers and they are really very loud, which can be aggravated with the help of traditional functions in a standard player (but monocompatibility is no longer required).
Iron and software
The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset and as much as 3 gigabytes of RAM (I don’t always use this much on my computer) provide very serious performance - at the Barcelona MWC 2014, representatives of the AnTuTu team tested the key new products and Xperia Z2 scored maximum points, outperforming even the most severe competitors. In practice, this consists in increasing multitasking, new options when working with video and the absence of problems with playing even the heaviest videos, and, of course, there is a large supply of power for the most gluttonous games.
As for the software part, the Xperia Z2 will be the first Sony smartphone to ship with preinstalled Android 4.4.2. A temporary firmware was installed on the test instance, so it's too early to judge the changes in the shell, but all the innovations, including noise reduction and grandiose innovations in video mode work great.
Screen : 5.2-inch, 1920x1080
Processor : Quad-core Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz
Memory : 3 GB operational, 16 GB internal, SD card slot
Camera : Exmor RS 1 / 2.3``, 20.7 megapixels
Battery : 3200 mAh
Protection : IP58
Appearance
At first glance - it's still the same Z1, they are striking, except that the noticeably reduced frames around the screen and the increased diagonal of himself. The side panels are now covered with a soft touch type of coating, and the connectors for SIM cards and USB cable are now hidden by one common plug. Well, the hole for hanging jewelry moved to the lower right corner. The factory film disappeared from the glass, since the glass itself is now more resistant to scratches. However, no one forbids sticking the film on their own.
Compared to the Z1, the phone has become a little longer, but thinner and lighter. It lies very well in the hand, fits in an average pocket and does not cause any inconvenience there.
Together with Z2, eco-leather transformer covers returned to production, one of which you can see in the photographs. When unfolded, it allows you to conveniently place the phone on a table or any horizontal surface, for example, when watching a movie on an airplane.
Camera
The camera module itself remained the same, but the increased performance allowed some improvements to be made to its software part. The image compression algorithm has been changed, so now they weigh a little more, but become sharper. The number of graphic effects has increased, the most interesting of which can be called a very reliable simulation of blurring the background, typical for DSLRs. In this mode, two frames are taken, which are superimposed on each other, after which you can choose the degree and type of blur, for example - simulate shooting in motion (motion blur).
An option has appeared that allows you to shoot video with a resolution of 4K, it can also be played on the corresponding TV directly from your smartphone. In Slow Motion mode, you can shoot video with a frequency of 120 frames, then select an unlimited number of sections that you want to slow down in the final clip. In addition, now during video shooting you can use real-time filters and the effect of augmented reality, moreover, with animation and without brakes.
Screen
Here we have the long-awaited IPS matrix with Live Color LED technology, which consists in adding phosphorus to the red and green LEDs (but the blue ones are made in the traditional way to avoid the overexposure characteristic of many displays). In practice, this gives an extremely bright and saturated picture with a coverage of 132% of the RGB spectrum. All claims to the viewing angles were decided by the Xperia Z1 Compact, and Z2 consolidates this success - the image does not lose any contrast and saturation at almost any tilt, well, maybe around 80 degrees, but the accompanying glare already plays a role here. Among other things, the screen has grown by a couple of millimeters by reducing the side frames.
Sound
One of the notable innovations is the digital noise reduction system, which, however, only works with a special headset, but the results are absolutely amazing. The headphones are equipped with small external microphones that pick up external noise and transmit it to the smartphone, where a similar noise is generated, which is in antiphase to the surroundings. The effect exceeds all expectations - for example, the low hum of air conditioners is completely neutralized and only quiet high-frequency noise inherent in any audio devices is heard in the headphones. At the same time, the listener is not completely isolated from the surrounding sounds - such critical things as the sound of the car he will quite hear. During a call, the microphone located in the left earphone is used for talking. It is worth noting,
The five-pin connector that appeared in Z2 is needed not only for the “noise reduction”, but also allows you to connect a stereo microphone (it is supplied separately), with which you can record high-quality audio track while shooting video.
The speaker finally became stereo, or rather, there were two speakers and they are really very loud, which can be aggravated with the help of traditional functions in a standard player (but monocompatibility is no longer required).
Iron and software
The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset and as much as 3 gigabytes of RAM (I don’t always use this much on my computer) provide very serious performance - at the Barcelona MWC 2014, representatives of the AnTuTu team tested the key new products and Xperia Z2 scored maximum points, outperforming even the most severe competitors. In practice, this consists in increasing multitasking, new options when working with video and the absence of problems with playing even the heaviest videos, and, of course, there is a large supply of power for the most gluttonous games.
As for the software part, the Xperia Z2 will be the first Sony smartphone to ship with preinstalled Android 4.4.2. A temporary firmware was installed on the test instance, so it's too early to judge the changes in the shell, but all the innovations, including noise reduction and grandiose innovations in video mode work great.
Screen : 5.2-inch, 1920x1080
Processor : Quad-core Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz
Memory : 3 GB operational, 16 GB internal, SD card slot
Camera : Exmor RS 1 / 2.3``, 20.7 megapixels
Battery : 3200 mAh
Protection : IP58
