Sony teases stock Lollipop on Xperia Z family

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Listeners to today’s Pocketnow Weekly podcast already know how stricken we are with some of the new features in Android 5.0 Lollipop. While only having had the opportunity to try out the public release on a Nexus 9, our interactions have been so promising that we’re itching for our Nexus 6 to arrive and give us a chance to see what the finished Lollipop has to bring to smartphones. Owners of existing Nexus models are eagerly awaiting for their own Android 5.0 updates to ...

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Why Sony’s seven-month Xperia Z-series cycle isn’t all bad

Posted on by Taylor Martin

I remember a time when I was switching phones every other week. Literally.I would buy a phone without a contract from an AT&T or Verizon store (or my place of employment), use it for a week or two, then turn around and sell it to the highest bidder on Craigslist. In most cases, I would trade the new phone for a slightly older phone plus some cash. Then I would sell the phone I had just received through the trade for its full value, thus walking away with more money than I had put into the original phone.It’s not like I was making money hand over fist, but I was playing my cards ...

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Sony already delivering Android 4.4.4 updates, leaving other OEMs in its wake

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

When did Sony become the manufacturer to compete against when it comes to delivering timely Android platform updates to its smartphone lineup? Lately it’s felt like Motorola had the upper hand in that department, quickly getting Google’s latest releases out to its near-stock handsets, but Sony might be raising the bar even higher this week, as it distributes Android 4.4.4 updates to a number of its smartphones.Granted, Android 4.4.4 isn’t a big update itself, but it only even started rolling ...

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Sony announces freebies for Xperia Z2, Z1, and Z1S owners

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Delivering a smartphone with great hardware and a refined software experience isn’t always enough to win over shoppers anymore, and in a market chock full of competition, some OEMs have really been trying to go that extra mile to win the favor of consumers. Back in March we told you about Samsung’s Galaxy Gifts, a collection of software and premium service subscriptions designed to sweeten the pot a little. Today we learn of a similar offer from Sony, this one intended to draw attention to

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Sony delivers fix for Xperia audio glitches

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Yesterday we spent a little time looking at reports of some hardware issues with the Xperia Z2, the latest Sony Android to hit the scene, but far from the first to run into a few problems. In addition to other Xperia models experiencing their own share of hardware faults, we’ve also heard about a few software bugs in our time. Luckily for users, those tend to be a lot easier for a manufacturer to resolve, and Sony is committed to getting such ...

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Unlocked Sony Xperia Z1 LTE released with US-compatible bands

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

A month before Sony announced the Xperia Z2 — and quite some time after the release of the Xperia Z1 — the company brought the flagship to America’s T-Mobile, so about the only choice you had, if you were in the US, and wanted an Xperia Z1, was to go with the Magenta version. Now that the Z2 is out (or should be soon, but not necessarily in the US), Sony has released a version of the Z1 which appears to ...

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KitKat updates incoming for Sony Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact, and Ultra

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

So far this year, Sony’s introduced us to plenty of new hardware, including the Xperia Z2, the Z1 Compact, and the Xperia Z2 Tablet; that’s all well and good, but what’s cooking over on the software side of things? Sony’s been working at updates for a number of its Android models, and today announces the start to distribution of KitKat updates for the Z1, Z1 Compact, and Z Ultra. Android 4.4 is on its way to all three of those handsets beginning today, but expect the usual regional delays as ...

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OnePlus One 5.5-inch screen should be flanked by some incredibly narrow bezels

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Slowly but surely, new information about the OnePlus One CyanogenMod phone has been arriving. Last week we saw the company divulge the details behind its choice of SoC, with the promise that full specs on the phone would land sometime this week. Rather than dumping everything all at once, we’ve instead seen OnePlus reveal the specs little by little. The company just shared news of a 3100mAh battery with some sort of special “mystery tech,” and today follows up ...

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Sony Xperia Z2 camera greatly improves on Z1 image quality, despite hardware similarities

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Giving the two phones a casual look-over, it can be easy to miss some of the differences between the Sony Xperia Z1 and the new Z2. On a spec sheet, the changes seem subtle, like an SoC bump, extra RAM, and and a slightly larger display. As time goes on, though, we’ve been getting a greater appreciation for just what the Xperia Z2 offers, like how that bigger screen also brings with it much superior color ...

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Four reasons we want more Sony smartphones in 2014

Posted on by Michael Fisher

While Pocketnow’s North American roots come in handy quite often, the arrangement isn’t without its snags. We do miss out on the occasional smartphone release by virtue of our location, and the brand most often affected by this is the somewhat Euro-centric Sony. As listeners of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast are aware, this causes us some heartburn; it’s frustrating to miss the chance to go hands-on with the latest and greatest. But we almost always manage to snag Sony demo units somehow. Over the past ...

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Bring on the salt water smartphones

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Confession time: I’ve destroyed a review unit or two in my day. I lost a brand-new LG flagship in the back of a cab once. During a durability test late last year, I did enough damage to an LG G Flex that we ended up having to buy the thing from Negri Electronics. And just a couple weeks back, you all saw me

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Sony D6503 Sirius “Z2″ comparison: head-to-head with Xperia Z1, Z

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

The past several weeks have already offered us more than a few opportunities to look at the Sony D6503 “Sirius,” the handset expected to be the next Z-series flagship, and a phone that just might launch as the Xperia Z2. Back in January, some images arrived that showed Sirius up against the Xperia Z1, letting us see what changes to the design (and there really weren’t that many) Sony might have in store. Today we’re back in the same ...

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Sony Xperia Z2: here’s what we want

Posted on by Taylor Martin

Sony’s current flagship, the Xperia Z1 (or the Z1S here in the States) may only be a few months old, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from already pouring out word of its successor. The Xperia Z2 is said to be a lot of things – bigger, better, more powerful, and the rest of the typical hype-mongering buzzwords – and we’re hearing rumors that is just might show its face as

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This is how Sony can improve its presence in the US

Posted on by Taylor Martin

Sony is capable of making compelling smartphones. I have never for a second doubted that. The Xperia Z, my first device review for Pocketnow last year, was a stellar phone. Its design was great (though I’m not partial to the additional slab of glass), the specifications were on par with its counterparts from Samsung and HTC, and performance was not an issue. That said, the unit I received for review from Clove was not compatible with AT&T in my area. It supported UMTA bands 1, 5, and 8, and I was stuck switching ...

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Sony Xperia Z1 for China now confirmed; begins to resolve Z1s mystery

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Rumors about an international version of Japan’s Sony Xperia Z1f – the Z1 “Mini” – have created a fair deal of confusion in recent weeks, as the leaks surrounding this so-called Z1s seemed to branch off into two directions: one towards an international Z1 Mini as we were expecting, and one towards a hardware refresh of the full-sized Z1 itself. While we’re still waiting to get the full picture on the Z1 Mini, today we finally see what was happening down that other road, as a new version of the Z1 ...

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