Z5 general feedback

[azzido]

Hi,
I would like to share some of my thoughts after playing with Z5 some time.
Starting from the Pros:

1. Display is really good. I do not know why Sony is not advertising it as it is a huge step forward. I had both Z2 and Z3. Z2 had great colors but too low brightness, Z3 had good brightness but cold pale and colors was a bit washed out. Z5 benefits from both great colors and even higher brightness than Z3! Basically, no matter resolution is the same I really have a feeling this is brand new and very good display + viewing angles are great. It is the best Xperia display ever. It should get more attention in advertising.

2. Camera. I thought it will be similar to Z3, but it is not. Quality is noticably better. Of course it still can be better, for example the speed of taking shots and saving can be improved. Very nice option to adjust brightness and color saturation in Auto mode. Waiting for it in Manual.

3. Design and materials. You have a feeling of something really premium, something new, solid and simply nice. I really like opened usb port and that the camera is really flat, it is now 1 art of the back, covered by the glass
Do not see the reason why Xperia mark is almost not visible in Black (graphite) version.

Cons:

1. Laggy UI. Unfortunately there are some lags here and there within the UI. Considering it is the first build I assume Sony will fix it soon. It is not acceptable in flagship device.

2. Battery life needs to be improved, now it may be hard to achieve 2 days. The display caches the screen to save battery, display is very bright so I hope Sony will improve it to achieve 2 days.

What are your thoughts?
  
 
 

[Uliwooly]

@azzido

Thanks for the heads up, now that's a neat feature  

[laxu]

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@azzido wrote:

Thanks laxu for sharing thought.

7. What calibration did you use? Can you please mention the Green, Red, Blue values? I would like to check the difference. 
 

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It won't work for your display as the settings are different. If you see a tint towards a color (easiest to see on gray colors) then adjust the other sliders. For example if you see a red tint on grays, add a bit of green and blue.

[hedrox87]

Low battery performance is... AS ALWAYS a new Android Fault... The System, Again, need to lie down and learn the device usage, what we do usually in which part of the day and for how long.. After every update even from 5.1.0 to 5.1.1 first week is huge battery usage, my Z2 learned to keep up for 2 days now, but they packed a huge 3200 mAh a year ago which was 1-st place on market even with S5's "go all black" option in korean oponent device.
The accu low life issue is returning like a bomerang with every device in fact all of you had Android before, and it's pointless to explain it all over again. Android is learning the device usage and will become better in time, end of the sentence!

After reading all forums and test I'm affraid to jump for Z5, compact model especially, low quality and blurry photos in 520 euro phone is not acceptable, another confirmation that Z2 was the best they could do even if everybody says it's less comfy to handle... I don't mind, we all use protective cases or hardened glass stickers to prevent from damage, so the shape changes and feels different than out of the box.
Z2 might be oldish, out of date, everything worse you say, but still is a rare model on the market in which most of people use middle range phones sold by phone brands in shops, mostly LG leon LTE, Galaxy Core Prime or Xperia M4, Galaxy A3... Comparing to them Z2 rules in every aspect, screen ratio, photo detail, overall performance, battery life. I had Xperia T for 3 years, my Z2 is 6 months old (exchanged by Xperia Care for fresh one 15W03, after "premiere version 14W17" had charging section issue), so I don't feel any panic to change the phone right away for little fresher one.

[azzido]

Indeed uliwooly it is a great feature and I am waiting to see it also in manual mode

Hope someone can send this request internally to Sony. 

[augie7107]

Love the device as usual. Some of the lags and other issues are a result of release firmware and will smooth out with updates as they did on Z1, Z2 and Z3. Keep up the good work Sony!

[SebastianD]

Some people are reporting that the maximum megapixels in any other camera applications are 8.

Is this Sony's fault? I mean. We need a firmware update to be able to choose more MP in other camera apps? Or it is a problem in all the other apps? (They still don't support Z5 camera)

Thanks!

[ppiixx]

Sony's fault. They haven't published any documentation on how to access the full resolution. The standard android APIs just list the camera as supporting 8MP.

[hedrox87]

Best way to have an answer quick and directly is to contact with sony support members, not other users, so You should write directly to Rickard, Hampus or Jake. Private message will guarantee they'll read it within 24 hours. Good luck to You All.

[SebastianD]

Ok I received my Z5 compact yesterday. I've used it for less than 7 hours (Screen on time) so far. So take this as a pretty early review of Nexus 5 user: 

In general the Z5 compact is a great phone. 

If I compare it with the Nexus 5 (I used the N5 for almost 2 years), the main advantage is the size/resolution (specially when gaming) and, of course, the battery of the Z5 compact, seems to be pretty good against the Nexus 5 battery.

The battery is just awesome it is a big improvement over the Nexus 5. (I use the Nexus 5 without location, "selective Google sync", etc and still cannot pass 2-3 hours of SoT and a whole day). 

The 2 negative points against the Nexus 5 are camera functions (only for photos) and the performance.

Camera vs Nexus 5: Ok I still prefer the Nexus 5 camera (in general, the speed to take a photo, the smoothness of the process to take a photo and enter the gallery, the quality of the picture when you try to zoom the photo in the gallery app and see the details at 100% size; how the camera focus when the flash is activated; etc.).

In Z5 I've tried both Sony stock camera and Google Camera, still prefer Google camera and the integration with "Photos" app (in general phones, but not in the Z5 compact, because it doesn't work great).

The Z5C in Google Camera have some lag when you press shutter button and doesn't have a great quality.

The Z5C in Sony camera (the obvious choice) has some stutters too, sometimes it takes some time to "preview" the photo (in the Sony gallery app) and the process to take a photo is not really smooth.

The Z5 compact could have one of the best sensors of the market, but all the software/drivers/binaries/etc behind it feels like "beta/uncompleted" and  not optimized/standarized with all the Android camera2 api etc.

I don't think Sony is using the 100% power of this camera hardware, I think it need a lot of software updates  (this counts for any camera, Sonys or not). 

Also, 8MP is the max supported outside the Sony's stock camera which is rare.

I we take photos at short distance, the detail between both cameras is huge. I don't know why, maybe because the Z5 Compact camera is "crafted" to take photos at a longer distance. 

Z5 Compact 20.0MP (16:9) Sony Camera (Superior auto):
http://i.imgur.com/sojFzZ6.jpg

Nexus 5 6.0MP (16:9) Google Camera (HDR+):
http://i.imgur.com/Kjl9yAx.jpg

Videos? I think it's an improvement over the Nexus 5, the sony Steadyshot seems to be great in FULL HD video. I think the videos are better than the N5. 

(I will update this post in a future with a much better one) Please consider that the "720p screen vs de 1080p screen", the different panels, etc, could affect my opinion in all this (I still prefer a 720p display in a Z5 Compact than a 1080p one). 

Performance Z5C vs N5: I cannot compare 5.1.1 with 6.0, because 6.0 is much more smoother and faster (since they've cut some animations, etc) than Lollipop. (Also they've improved ART a lot). 

But If I compare 5.1.1 (N5) vs 5.1.1 (Z5 Compact), there are a lot of things smoother/faster in Z5 compact. But at the same time there are a lot of random stutters as well, that are really important.

(for example: Chrome seems to open much slower and seems to hangs sometimes. On the contrary, scrolling seems to be a bit faster and the "unlock process" is much faster too, specially with this Finger Print sensor). 

I think they need to tweak a bit the Kernel governor (or whatever is needed) to stop using 1.5Ghz cores and start using more the faster available cores. 

So in performance, the Nexus 5 still wins against the current Sony firmware/kernel version. But the Z5 compact is fine.

I think that Marshmallow will have a better managament over the slower cortex cores (at 1.5Ghz), since it's faster than Lollipop. 

Summary (so far) vs Nexus 5:

Pros: Battery life (it is in another league), Size.

Contras: Camera software (for photos), Performance (but depends on the process/action, some actions are faster in Z5 Compact). 

Another important thing: The "Free RAM". This Sony's Lollipop version eats a lot of memory. Sometimes I have like 300-600MB of Free Memory. While with the Nexus 5 (also in 5.1.1) the regular free memory oscilates between 800-1200MB. This could cause some random stutters or delays when opening appps or multitasking.

PS: I bought my Z5 Compact (Black) E5823 in Amazon.it (using it in Spain). According to the box, it's a "Rev 3" phone. Current software version: 32.0.A.4.11 (5.1.1)