We knew this day was coming. Ever since we heard of the worrying sales numbers, it was pretty certain to us that a discount was on the way for the phone we called “the right phone at the wrong price” in our full review. That deal is finally now official, the Amazon Fire ...
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The thing about smartwatches in 2014 is that they’re mostly all function-over-form. Just take a look at entries like LG’s G Watch and even Sony’s SmartWatch 3, and the first thing that pops into your mind is probably “smartwatch,” not “fashion statement.” As one can imagine, OEMs are hoping to change that as soon as possible, and it looks like Sony could be leading the charge. If a report from Bloomberg citing anonymous sources inside the company is correct, that change may come in the form of a Sony e-paper smartwatch next year.Whether the device ...
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Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about Google’s new Devices and Activities portal, and how it benefits you as an Android user. We then talk about the weirdest smartphone camera that we’ve seen so far. Amazon follows as it will now sell you the OnePlus One, though there’s a catch, and a very big one. We then talk about Sony and the company’s strategy to fix its smartphone slump. We end today’s show talking about Apple’s market cap, and how it just reached $700 billion.All this and more after the break.Stories:–
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It’s that time of year again: bargain-hunters bundle up for a long night out in the cold, armed with a vacuum flask full of coffee and a checklist of the stores they’ll be hitting. Retail employees let out a resigned sigh as they prepare to begin a single shift that starts somewhere around Wednesday afternoon and lasts through Saturday morning. And if you’re anything like us, you’re staying warm at home, probably watching way too much Netflix, and hoping to snag a few good deals online.That’s right – it’s
The post Pocketnow Black Friday deal roundup: smartphones, tablets, wearables galore appeared first on Pocketnow.
Apple seems to be drifting farther apart from the original partnership it started with Google on the original iPhone. Surely Google has brought significant competition to Apple on the Android space, but some of these changes have actually been positive for Apple in the long run. We all remember the disastrous move to Apple Maps, but that doesn’t change the fact that Google Maps wasn’t allowed to launch ...
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Samsung hasn’t really gained a lot of fame for its media alternatives. Just recently we learned that its ChatOn messaging service might cease to exist in the next coming months, and we also saw how its Media Hub service simply disappeared. Samsung has decided to re-invent some of these services with its new
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Tablets have proven to be a very odd product category, but then again, so were smartphones before 2007. Most of us that have been using smartphones and tablets since before they became popular remember how long it took for both products to gain traction, though the difference here is that smartphones have continued to grow, and tablets are oddly slowing down. New market estimates for the rest of the year aren’t painting a pretty picture, and it seems the iPad is mostly to blame.IDC has already revealed its estimates for the tablet market by the end of this year, and its analysts are ...
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These aren’t the best days for Samsung when it comes to raw numbers. Surely the company isn’t even close to having economical issues, but it is letting its smartphone dominance slip away with its product lineup this year. We’ve already heard that there is some
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In most cases, whenever a smartphone manufacturer re-imagines its flagship for a more compact size, it also diminishes that smaller phone’s hardware and abilities. Sony has become one of the few exceptions to this unfortunate trend, shrinking its Xperia series without punishing those who dare to prefer a phone under five inches in the process.
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
And so Sony has launched the Xperia Z3 Compact, the latest of these ”compact flagships,” with its 4.6-inch display, Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 801 running a 2.5 GHz clock, 20.7-megapixel camera, glass waterproof body, and UI based on Android 4.4.4. For all intents and purposes, its size is the only significant difference between it and the 5.2-inch Xperia Z3. That is a good, and, sadly, still unique thing.
Nevertheless, the Xperia Z3 Compact follows up on the groundwork laid by its predecessor, the Xperia Z1 Compact. Sony has gone through flagships at a blistering pace since that device was revealed at CES this past January – so much so that the Xperia Z2 didn’t even get a “Compact” equivalent – but the improvements made in that time have been significant, even if there is still room for improvement. Let’s dive deeper into the Xperia Z3 Compact, which is available now for $530 unlocked.
When it comes to design and materials, the Xperia Z3 Compact represents important progress from the Xperia Z1 Compact. Despite a comparatively larger screen (4.6 inches compared to 4.3 inches), it’s slimmer, lighter, and still features a bigger battery. More importantly, the front and back of the device are both coated in smooth glass, whereas the older phone had a lesser-quality plastic back.
Unlike the bigger Xperia Z3, the Compact’s sides are slightly rounded, and made of a solid silicone type of plastic instead of metal. While the change detracts from the rest of the phone’s premium feel, it definitely makes the device more resistant to damage from potential falls and scuffs. That’s not to mention of the fact that the whole thing is still heavily water- and dust-resistant.
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
Indeed, the Z3 Compact is an ergonomic little handset that’s quite reliable in most situations. It lies quite securely in hand, mostly due to its well-suited mass (129 grams) to dimensions (127 x 65 x 8.6 mm) ratio. It’s svelte and attractive in a manner reminiscent of the iPhone 4/4S, only with a larger, more contemporary size, similar to that of the iPhone 6. It’s got the same aesthetic we’ve come to expect from the Xperia line, but we’d definitely consider it an eye-catcher all the same.
The buttons of the Xperia Z3 Compact are laid out exactly as they are on the Xperia Z3. The sensors are on the front, along with an LED notification light, a speaker, and a 2.2-megapixel camera. Sony’s usual capacitive control keys are on the bottom of the screen, but they continue to waste display space, something that is already at a premium on a smaller device.
The back only includes the 20.7-megapixel camera lens and a LED flash. It cannot be opened, unfortunately, so the battery can’t be swapped out. The upper side includes a waterproof 3.5-mm audio jack and the secondary microphone, while the lower side includes the primary microphone.
The left side has the microUSB and microSD ports under one cover with protective seals, while the nanoSIM card slot is situated under another. It also includes the car charger dock slot. The protective seals are IP68 certified, meaning they can be kept under five feet of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. The right side includes the volume control, Power button, and camera button, in descending order.
As previously mentioned, the Xperia Z3 Compact’s display has grown from 4.3 to 4.6 inches, but it has maintained the same resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. This results in a lower pixel density of 319 ppi instead of the Xperia Z1 Compact’s 342 ppi. However, the sharpness here is still fine for ordinary use. Yes, flagship phones are expected to have Full HD resolutions these days, but individual pixels are difficult to spot with the naked eye at this point, outside of the odd animation. The display is still tinier than normal, so having a 720p resolution isn’t a notable problem in practice.
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
What’s more, most everything else about the Z3 Compact’s display is a step up from that of its predecessor. It uses “Live Color” LED technology, just like the larger Xperia Z3, as well as Sony’s proprietary “Triluminos” screen, which is said to combine red and green phosphorous with blue LEDS to achieve brighter and more harmonious colors without increasing power consumption.
In practice, most of those claims are valid. The tech also increased the display’s contrast ratio compared to the previous model, but it’s still far from perfect. Colors fade a bit when the screen when viewed from wider angles, but fortunately it isn’t severe enough to hinder everyday usage (a la the Samsung Galaxy Alpha). The screen is exceptionally bright and capable of producing vibrant, lively colors, which makes watching videos or browsing the web a highly pleasant experience.
The post Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review: The Little Flagship appeared first on Brighthand.com.
The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is a small version of the Xperia Z3, but has almost all of the same features. The primary difference is the latter’s screen is only 4.6 inches. It also comes with 20.7-megapixel camera, IP68 certification, expandable storage, and Android OS, v4.4.4 (KitKat) out of the box.
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Back in 1997, the then “Apple Computer” was just a few weeks from filing for bankruptcy when its executives decided to pull the crazy stunt of re-hiring a guy they had fired more than a decade earlier because of being a rebel. You might remember him as Steve Jobs, the infamous and ruthless CEO who later killed products like the Newton, among almost every other Apple product, in order to focus on just a few specific computer lineups. If people thought Jobs was crazy for wanting to make computers personal in the 70s, reducing Apple to a bare minimum in the 90s was considered ...
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Apps, music, movies, emails, documents, chat history, text messages: if you’re an Android user who’s deeply wrapped up in Google’s ecosystem, you’ve got a hell of a lot of stuff being protected by your Google login credentials. The company offers plenty of ways to help keep your account secure, from things like two-factor authentication to helping you detect suspicious activity. Today we see those activity alerts take on an easy-to-access new form, with the debut of the new online ...
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The OnePlus One: a compelling phone, with attractive hardware, at a hard-to-beat price. Sounds good, right? For many, the biggest problem has been getting your hands on the device, with sales first invite-only, to be later supplanted by a limited pre-order system. Wouldn’t it be nice if OnePlus could simply make the phone available at a major retailer? Maybe someone like Amazon? As it turns out, that’s just about to happen, thought it’s news that’s peppered with so many ...
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Canonical has not had the easiest time breaking into the smartphone market, maybe most publicly failing as it attempted to crowdfund the Ubuntu Edge handset. But even with the dreams of Canonical’s own Ubuntu phone on ice, we had hope that other manufacturers might arrive to bring the platform to market, and earlier this year heard about plans to do just that with the help of OEMs like Meizu. Thing is, we haven’t seen ...
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In an effort to help their models stand out from the crowd, smartphone manufacturers have been turning to some interesting camera designs. Sometimes that brings us phones like the PureView Lumia 1020 with a big ol’ rear sensor, while other times we end up with something like the HTC Desire Eye and its dual high-res front and rear cameras. One old idea from the days of flip phones has even started making a comeback, with
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