Introduction
Even though Sony had no product announcement to make here at the MWC in Barcelona, its booth is
drawing crowds. The already announced Xperia Z and ZL flagships are on display
there, along with the international version of the Xperia Tablet
Z.
The Xperia Z was the headliner at CES and is already available in some
markets, even more to follow this Friday. Quite predictably though, the Xperia Z and the soon
to be released Xperia
ZL are still getting plenty of attention and people wait in line to play
with them.
Sony booth
The real newsworthy piece of gear however is the Xperia
Tablet Z. Both the Wi-Fi-only
and LTE-enabled
versions will become available before this quarter ends. Previously, the Xperia
Tablet Z was announced
only for Japan.
We spent some quality time at Sony's booth and managed to play with all of
the gadgets. Since we already know everything there is about the Xperia Z,
we'll be focusing on the Xperia Tablet Z and the Xperia ZL smartphone.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z
This is probably one of the highlights of the MWC 2013 even though the Sony
Xperia Tablet Z was announced a few weeks ago.
The Xperia Tablet Z utilizes the same design as the Xperia Z flagship, inch
by inch. It is a lot bigger, of course. The Tablet Z features a 10.1-inch
LED-backlit 1920x1200 display and has the same IP57-certifications for water
and dust resistance as the Xperia Z. We had some time to play with the screen
and we came to believe it has better contrast and viewing angles than the
Xperia Z display. Perhaps the LED-backlight gives the desire boost in the
quality.
Sony advertises the Xperia Tablet Z as the slimmest slate so far with its
6.9mm thickness. While this is nice, what really stands out is the tablet's
weight - just 495 grams. The Xperia Tablet Z feels so light in hands and yet so
solid that it feels right from the first encounter. We were really impressed
with the build quality in the same time, the light weight and ultra slim
profile.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z in black
The Xperia Tablet Z is powered by the same Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset as the
Xperia Z, but comes with an 8.1MP rear camera with 1080p video recording with
HDR available on both stills and videos. It also features a 2.2MP front
snapper, also capable of 1080p video recording. The rest of the specs include
16GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot, 2GB of RAM and LTE
connectivity (depending on the model).
Sony will be offering the Xperia Tablet Z in black and white colors. The
paintjob is exactly the same as the Xperia Z smartphone. The back of the slate
uses a matte plastic that looks rather fingerprint-resistant unlike the glass
Xperia Z.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z in white
We went back to the Sony booth to do a hands-on video with the Xperia Tablet
Z. Check it out below.
The raw performance of the Xperia Tablet Z turned out to be quite similar to
the Xperia Z's, with minor differences because of the higher display
resolution.
Sony Xperia ZL
The Sony Xperia ZL has the same internals as the Xperia Z flagship. It is
powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with a 1.5GHz quad-core Krait
processor, Adreno 320 and 2GB of RAM.
We're dealing with the same 5" 1080p display, 13MP stills and
connectivity package as the Xperia Z. The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean version
seems identical too, with the promised upgrade to 4.2 later this year.
Sony Xperia ZL
Where the Xperia ZL falls short is dust and water resistance. Unlike the
Xperia Z, the only protection the ZL gets is the shatter proof and scratch-resistant
glass.
Having lost some, the Xperia ZL is quick to gain some: an infra-red port
enables TV remote functionality and there's a hardware shutter key. The phone
is a tad more compact too, even if a bit thicker and a few grams heavier. You
can check out the head-to-head comparison below.
Sony Xperia ZL next to the Xperia Z
Up front, the Xperia ZL looks just like the Xperia Z, but the back is
completely different. It's made entirely of glossy plastic and has a rather
ugly lid at the bottom that covers the SIM compartment and microSD slot. The
camera lens placement is also different.
The Xperia ZL costs less than the Z and is expected to hit several markets
any time now.
As far as the raw performance is concerned, it's quite similar to the Xperia
Z's. You can check its benchmark scores here.
The phone is really snappy with buttery-smooth UI transitions and minor loading
times.
We went back to the Sony booth to do a hands-on video with the Xperia ZL.
Check it out below.
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