Sony - XPERIA XZ3 with 64GB Memory Cell Phone (Unlocked) - Black

The Sony xperia xz3 is a good looking phone with cool specs. Released before the end of this year, it's weird Sony did that. The xz4 will be released this coming February and that means this phone is just a transition before the xz4 and is shortlived. The xz4 has better cameras. DSLR. Amazing for a phone camera. The only thing that i like about it. But the xz3 has good enough specs also. And the shape, colors, and appearance is way better than the upcoming xz4 which shape is flat. No curves. It makes it look so plain and ordinary. The xz3 looks well balanced when it comes to features and looks.

The XZ3 is by far Sony’s best Smartphone to date! I upgraded from XZ2 that came out in June but was not expecting much to be added within Sony’s 6 month product cycle, but I was wrong! After watching reviews on YouTube, there were two points that they all agreed on…The gorgeous BRAVIA OLED display and the refined stunning design. So I decided to see that to myself and bought one! I am going to break down this review by category and add my own input on each. DISPLAY After unboxing the phone and turning on the display for the first time I knew it from that instance that the 6” screen was a massive upgrade from the IPS display used on the XZ2. The color accuracy is amazing and contrast is as good as their BRAVIA OLED TVs. Its probably one of the best displays on a Smartphone thanks to Sony’s X-Reality engine and Triluminous display technology for mobile. The jump in resolution from FHD+ to QHD is very will noticed. I was hoping for 4K but that feature is reserved for their Premium line. Watching HDR on Netflix and YouTube is just pure enjoyment. The phone has been added to Netflix HDR certified devices and YouTube Signature Device list recently. Note that HDR on Netflix won’t adjust the brightness on the phone automatically so the user has to slide the Brightness to max to order to see HDR kick in…Watch DareDevil on this screen and you won’t be disappointed! DESIGN The design looks similar to the XZ2 where Sony improved on its new Ambient Flow design language. Switching from LED to OLED display gave Sony more freedom to make it slimmer since there is no backlight required for OLED panels. The frame or chassis of the XZ3 is much slimmer and the use of high quality 7000 series Aluminum and Gorilla Glass 5 makes it very durable. The screen is now curved around the edges and bezels are smaller than previous designs. They are not as slim as other phones on the market because Sony uses big front camera sensors and Front firing stereo speakers. The phone feels solid and great in the hands. Thanks to curved back side it sits well in the palm of your hands. Note that the phone can be slippery because of that curved glass back, so pay attention on the way you hold or buy a case online if you want more piece of mind. A lot of reviewers online complain about the placement of the rear fingerprint scanner. Which I have to admit it was awkwardly placed low on the back side, but after few days I got used to it and feels normal to use. Also, the dedicated camera button is still there, it has always been there since Sony Ericsson days, which I applauded Sony for sticking with it. It’s very useful compared to using on screen camera button. The colors that XZ3 comes in are just gorgeous! My favorite 2 colors are the Forest Green and the Bordeaux Red (The red not available in the US atm) They use 3 different layers of colors in the glass back cover and it gives the user a nice luxurious look to the phone depending on the angle of light hitting the phone surface. The green for example can sometimes look blue, light green or deep green for the Forest Green model SOFTWARE The phone is running Android Pie out of the Box! That’s right! You will get Google’s latest speedy software in this phone. A lot of big name manufactures don’t offer that on their phones and it might not be till next year! The software feels light, don’t expect Vanilla Stock Android experience but it’s very close to it. Sony uses their own home Launcher and have their Media apps pre-installed in it. Their Media Apps are one of the best apps in the market specially the Music and Album apps. Other apps in the phone uses Google stock apps (Messages, Calendar, Email, Dialer, Calculator etc..) which ensures timely updates whenever they get released on the Play Store. CAMERA The camera UI has been finally redesigned for much easier use! Getting around the camera UI is easy...Swipe up and down to go from Photo to Video modes and swipe left to right to easily access selfie mode. Each has its own settings and you can access other features as well such as AR and Panorama etc... The camera uses the same Motion Eye camera tech from Xperia XZ Premium but it has been improved. The colors are vibrant, sharp and detailed compared to the XZ2. Night shots produces some noise so I recommend using the manual mode for night shots and adjust your settings for optimal low light shots which will have great results. Predictive capture is slightly improved from XZ2, it automatically detects movements and smiles and will start buffering images (thanks to the memory tacked senor) even before you hit the shutter button resulting in 4 pictures to choose from (1 shutter) and (3 predicted pre-shutter) pictures to choose. The front camera has been pumped up from 5MP to 13MP! That’s a big beefy upgrade and takes some nice Portrait pictures. Bokeh mode is good and can be adjusted for Portrait style pictures but requires some practice to use it when it comes to the background blur effect. Movie recording is amazing, you get 4K HDR movie recording and super slow motion in FHD (no other phone in the market offer these features). The 5-axis electronic stabilization similar to their Alpha DSLR cameras and works great as well. However, it can only be used in FHD mode at 30fps under “Intelligent Active” in camera settings. PLAYSTATION REMOTE PLAY You bought a Sony flagship Smartphone! Then get ready to launch your PS4 games on it! Phone exclusively supports PS4 remote play. You can access your PS4 game remotely on it whether you are at home or outside. Just requires a fast and stable Wi-Fi connection. Plus you can pair your favorite DualShock 4 controller to it wireless for easy gaming control! PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY The XZ3 is one of the fastest Smartphones in the market. Sony’s software engineers got very good at optimizing the speed on their devices and offers you timely monthly updates whether it was security or stability updates, or new OS updates. The SnapDragon 845 chip is similar to the XZ2 but it runs much smoother on the XZ3! You will get 4 GB of RAM (6GB in Asia) which is well enough to run the phone without any slowdowns or hiccups (even Pixel 3 uses 4GB of RAM). Internal memory is 64GB and can be expandable using a micro SD card up to 400GB as of today. Battery have similar performance to the XZ2 but lasts me for day and half with moderate usage. Luckily the Phone supports PD Fast charging (Power Delivery) and the phone can be fully charged in 1.5 hours using a PD certified charger. Unfortunately the phone does not come with a fast charger out of the box, But I recommend buying the Anker PowerLine II PD Power adapter (SKU: 6221200) and a USB-C to USB-C cable. The battery also uses Qnovo Adaptive technology where it monitors your charging behavior and optimizes your charging speed to 90% then it resumes charging your phone to 100% by the time you wake up. It take a couple of week to learn your pattern then it works like a charm! The phone supports Qi wireless charging. I am not a big fan of wireless chargers but if you are interested in getting one make sure it’s more than 10W for optimal fast charging speed. AUDIO The XZ3 comes with front stereo speakers that has S-Force surround tech similar to Sony’s sound bars. The S-Force is not enabled by default but can be easily turned on under Audio settings. ThSteareo speakers audio level are improved compared to XZ2. Sony claims that they are 30% louder than the XZ2 which I find that believable. Sony also packed great audio tech inside the phone such as DSEE (up scales your compressed audio files to near Hi-res), LDAC (Hi-res audio over Bluetooth), CLEAR BASS and CLEAR AUDIO+ Now the DVS (Dynamic Vibration System) made its return from the XZ2. For those who are not familiar with this. It’s a vibration system that make the phone vibrates with low frequency sounds. So, you get that nice vibration feedback when you hear gunshots in movies, bass in music, loud explosions or sound effects in gaming for example. It’s nice to have but I don’t have this feature turned on all the time. For instance, when I listen to music using wireless headphone I have it off. I turn it on when watching videos on YouTube such as Music videos or trailers. NEW FEATURES Sony added two new features to the phone. One is dubbed as Side Sense where the user double taps the edge of the screen to launch a quick small menu where you can have easy access to your most used apps it one hand. Swipe up and down on the side of the phone to navigate pages or double tap the edge of the screen in camera mode to snap a picture. All of that sounds great on paper but I found that I keep accidentally launching side sense mode by my simply holding the phone without tapping on the edge of the screen. You can adjust the delay time between the double tap on the edge but no matter what I still randomly activates it. I ended up deactivating that features until the sensitivity gets addressed in a future update. Smart Launch is a cool new feature. It works better than Side Sense. It works great when you want to snap quick photo. Just lift the camera in a horizontal position then the phone will use its built in AI in combination to Gyroscope and shift in XYZ axis and will launch the camera for you to take a quick picture, which is cool! CONCLUSION Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, it feels like the ultimate multimedia device. It’s a step in the right direction for Sony and feels more than a 6 month upgrade from the XZ2. The gorgeous screen, much better front camera and newly improved stunning design was worth it for me. If you want a speedy phone with fast Android updates, amazing HDR OLED display to watch your favorite movie and shows and have an Excellent all around camera and PS4 Remote Play….This phone is worth checking out!

No WiFi calling. Not available on US phones. Sony continues to really not give a flip about their US customers even though it's Sony's fault we can't find their phones for sale anywhere. Otherwise this phone doesn't excel at anything, Sony's OS tweaks don't improve the experience (quite the opposite, case in point total lack of Wifi Calling). Side by side with my Pixel 3a, that phone opens apps faster and is smoother overall. Very disappointed, I wanted to love this phone. That's my last Sony.

This is one of the best, if not the best, screen on any phone to date. Battery life is fantastic, camera is great as always with Sony's. Absolutely stunning phone. Once you get a Sony, you won't go back. The one issue is that the body of the phone is very slippery. Get a case.

The screen is really spectacular and the colors are very real, the applications open quickly and if you restart it is done at the moment, fast recharge and the battery is hard, 8 hours of continuous use, it has fast charge and without cable besides, The sound is very good, feels good in the hand, records in 4 K, I am very pleased with this Sony,The camera gets good photos even in low light areas

This phone is un update to my old phone Xperia xz and the pictures are way better and fast in comparison to the old one this phone it's great.

This is my fourth Xperia phone. Have to say that this is the Best so far. Screen is awesome. Colors are vibrant. Front dual speakers have a rich sound. Great job Sony!! Keep up the good work.

Wow, incredible screen, fabulous camera, super fast, solid top notch quality, get one now, you won’t regret it. Sony does it right.