Having found an irresistible deal on Ebay for a "used" Xperia Z2 that included the charging dock and noise cancelling headphones I decided I'd see what Sony had to offer as far as cell phones go. At the price I found it for, I can always sell it for a profit if need be.
Anyway, now that I've received it, it's obviously a very (very!) high quality phone, almost matching the quality of materials of my current GPE HTC M7, and actually surpassing it as far as actual build quality goes (absolutely no gaps, raised glass corners, light bleed through on screen, etc). Overall it's a very solid feeling phone, though it's also quite a bit heavier than the M7.
The hardware on this phone is great. The front speakers, while not quite as good as the M7's, are still much better than any other cell phone I've seen with the possible exception of the M8 and it's got a beautiful screen that has better contrast and colors than my M7. Even the software is nice, and as dirty as this makes me feel, I even think I prefer Sony's Android modifications over the pure stock Android on my M7.
Plus the little side tweaks/features/gimmicks like the knock to wake are amazing. It's a small thing, but you don't realize how nice it is to be able to wake your phone up by just tapping on the screen until you have a phone that can do that. Every phone, ever, should have that simple feature.
I've not played with the camera much, since I've only had it for around eight or so hours, but from what few pictures I've taken, it seems to do reasonably well. Certainly better than the pitiful little 4 megapixel camera on my M7, though I'll probably do some tests to see if the Z2's lack of OIS affects the image quality during movement compared to my M7, which does have OIS.
Anyway, while all of that sounds great, this phone does have a serious problem. It's big. Really, really big. And it's not an ergonomic shape like the M7 either. It's a huge, bulky, cumbersome glass and metal brick. Either Sony forgot about that little thing called ergonomics, or they intentionally sacrificed usability on the altar of aesthetics here. Sure, they made a very good looking phone, but using this thing one handed is an exercise in hand gymnastics worthy of the Olympics. On the plus side, if I'm ever attacked I feel like I'll be able to use my phone to beat the attacker off of me...
Still, if you like big and non-ergonomic phones then I highly recommend this phone. It's hardware and software combines into a (nearly) perfect package. For my part, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. I like a lot about this phone, but I'm going to have to decide if I want to carry around a brick everywhere I go. If only this phone had a 4.5 to 4.7 inch screen... *sigh* :'(
Anyway, now that I've received it, it's obviously a very (very!) high quality phone, almost matching the quality of materials of my current GPE HTC M7, and actually surpassing it as far as actual build quality goes (absolutely no gaps, raised glass corners, light bleed through on screen, etc). Overall it's a very solid feeling phone, though it's also quite a bit heavier than the M7.
The hardware on this phone is great. The front speakers, while not quite as good as the M7's, are still much better than any other cell phone I've seen with the possible exception of the M8 and it's got a beautiful screen that has better contrast and colors than my M7. Even the software is nice, and as dirty as this makes me feel, I even think I prefer Sony's Android modifications over the pure stock Android on my M7.
Plus the little side tweaks/features/gimmicks like the knock to wake are amazing. It's a small thing, but you don't realize how nice it is to be able to wake your phone up by just tapping on the screen until you have a phone that can do that. Every phone, ever, should have that simple feature.
I've not played with the camera much, since I've only had it for around eight or so hours, but from what few pictures I've taken, it seems to do reasonably well. Certainly better than the pitiful little 4 megapixel camera on my M7, though I'll probably do some tests to see if the Z2's lack of OIS affects the image quality during movement compared to my M7, which does have OIS.
Anyway, while all of that sounds great, this phone does have a serious problem. It's big. Really, really big. And it's not an ergonomic shape like the M7 either. It's a huge, bulky, cumbersome glass and metal brick. Either Sony forgot about that little thing called ergonomics, or they intentionally sacrificed usability on the altar of aesthetics here. Sure, they made a very good looking phone, but using this thing one handed is an exercise in hand gymnastics worthy of the Olympics. On the plus side, if I'm ever attacked I feel like I'll be able to use my phone to beat the attacker off of me...
Still, if you like big and non-ergonomic phones then I highly recommend this phone. It's hardware and software combines into a (nearly) perfect package. For my part, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. I like a lot about this phone, but I'm going to have to decide if I want to carry around a brick everywhere I go. If only this phone had a 4.5 to 4.7 inch screen... *sigh* :'(