Sony Xperia Z1 review

The Sony Xperia Z1 has a 5in, 1,920×1,080 display, which is currently de rigeur for a top-end smartphone. At first we felt the Z1’s screen looked a little cold when compared side by side with a Samsung Galaxy S4‘s panel, but on closer inspection the Z1’s IPS display has more accurate colours; the S4’s AMOLED screen has a very slight yellow cast.

As expected, blacks aren’t as deep as on the S4 or the G2’s screen, but we feel the Z1’s pure whites make up for this, and the screen is easily bright enough to read on a sunny day. There have been some comments about the Z1’s screen having narrow viewing angles, but seeing as we always use phones facing the screen straight-on, it didn’t bother us. The only problem we had with the Z1’s display was that something about its surface coating attracts pocket dust.

The Sony Xperia Z1 has finally being upgraded to Android 4.4 KitKat, bringing this great phone bang up to date. The release of the new software started on 10 April 2014 and Sony has also updated its stock email and camera apps. Android 4.4 KitKat has great features like Google Now, so you can control your phone and search the web using your voice. Multitasking and managing apps is also a lot easier, while the operating system has been optimised to be quicker and improve battery life.

Despite the Sony Xperia Z2 being just weeks away, the Xperia Z1 shouldn’t be forgotten. You can pick one up for £426, which is £120 less than its launch price. By comparison the shiny new Xperia Z2 will set you back £535.

The Z1’s version of Android is fairly heavily customised, but as with all Sony’s current handsets, it’s classily done, with some tasteful custom icons and a preference for sombre colours over the brash primaries of Samsung and LG’s handsets. There’s a fair amount of Sony software installed, which mainly serves to sell you Sony content, but it’s easy enough to remove if you’re not interested in buying music and videos from Sony’s services. Out of the box the X1 has around 12GB free for apps and files, and you can add more space with the microSD card slot.

We like the home screen management. A long press on a vacant bit of screen will show you a carousel of your homescreens and let you move widgets and icons around, while the bottom-third of the screen contains the apps and widgets to drag and drop on to spare Desktop space. It’s a neater system than the stock Android app tray, split into apps and widgets.