"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys MKBHD here and this is the Sony sparia Z and this little slab of metal and glass here I found to be the most mixed bag of all time allow me to explain when you're Sony you're going out to make the high-end superphone to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Note 2 and the Droid DNA and other super high-end devices you would go all out right you would add you know high-end materials high-end build quality high-end internals high-end software the whole works that's what you expect when you get the Sony sparia Z so taking a look at the body itself it's definitely sexy you can't take that away from it it's 7.9 mm thin and it's got a piano black glass finish on the front and the back so it's nice there's a 13.1 megapixel rear-facing camera and LED flash on the back and all around the phone has a pretty solid button layout the power button itself is a great button it's really big and easy to press and not too sensitive which is nice doesn't go off in your pocket so the whole right hand side is basically the power button the volume rocker which is left easy and the SIM card tray and on the left hand side you have your micro SD card slot which is covered but that allows for expandable storage so notice that all around this device all the ports are covered and sealed by plastic flaps this isn't actually a bad thing this is a good thing because when all these flaps are closed the sparia Z is water resistant for up to half an hour in 3 ft of water so this thing is actually a bit rugged they were demoing it just like that at CES so if you ask me this is a pretty tough device every single important thing about this device has something hugely awesome about it and something hugely disappointing about it everything about this device so starting let's take take a look at the camera it's half awesome with a 13.1 megapixel sensor extremely fast performance I noticed it takes pictures and burst shots very very quickly and it can take 1080p HDR video so the capabilities are really high and the very intelligent and fast autofocus is really pleasing but it's it's pretty versatile yet the images it produces especially for Landscapes tend to be pretty soft with below average LED flash performance and overall not the best image quality something comparable with the Galaxy Nexus so on the software side of things this guy is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean so that's not bad no word on the 4.2 update but that is pretty pretty recent and the positive side is that this is one of the less obtrusive skins on any Android 4.1 device out there so that's a good start that's a good sign there's also not a whole lot of Sony bloatware not a whole lot of bad pre-installed apps like we see on Verizon phones so that's pretty good and the value adding features are definitely welcome however I am not a fan of the light gray software buttons at the bottom and in the notification bar I would have preferred these to be I guess darker to match the black bezel or lighter to be like more transparent but that gray is just really awful in between and that theme kind of permeates throughout so you might not think it's ugly but there's definitely room for improvement with design here and then there's performance this thing in terms of performance flies I actually can't take anything away from the performance frame rates are constantly High the thing just powers through the most intensive apps and games without a problem and that's thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chip and 2 GB of RAM so it's a quadcore thing and this just just flies and of course kills benchmarks and you can check out how it crushes through data when browsing more image heavy sites like The Verge it's very well done but basically overall performance is Stellar on par with the Galaxy Note 2 and it's just about as good if you don't count the huge battery in the Note 2 but then you have to look at that display now the Sony sparia Z has a 1080p display yes it does 440 PPI but that is kind of becoming the megapixel count number and it's extremely sharp and beautiful when you view it headon and if you're going to be spending a lot of time on a high-end smartphone like this you do want it to have a sharp big beautiful display because you're doing all the looking on the display unfortunately the good ends there it's kind of like having a 37 megapixel camera that doesn't take great photos when you look at this display from even a few degrees off axis the viewing angles the color reproduction the contrast just goes straight downhill you don't even have to have it side by side with an Oppo Fine 5 or a Droid DNA to notice that this display is subpar I mean it's definitely not that good I haven't personally looked at the HTC 1's display but from the specs that I've seen I'm expecting it to be really good so it's going to be hard to compete and this thing just it lets me down I'm really disappointed the viewing angles are the most disappointing I couldn't have asked for anything worse than this literally just a few degrees off axis and it's noticeably worse and then there is the speaker this is this is a terrible speaker in fact I'll let you have a listen for yourself so this Spar Z has its ups and its Downs like it has its really really high ups and it's really really far Downs I know it's going to be hard to compare this to the HTC1 and the Droid DNA but it's going to be compared with those 1080p phones it's going to be compared with the Galaxy S4 and anything else high-end that comes out this year but the comparison is really crazy when you try to put a semi-rugged waterresistant but also thin and elegantly designed phone up against something that's just going all out in one Department you may love the sparia Z and I wouldn't blame you this thing is sexy but a lot of people are going to pick it up just for the design which itself is okay but definitely think twice about what you want in a phone and what you don't want in a phone before throwing down the cash so in the end what is the deal with the Sony sparia Z it is the biggest mixed bag ever this phone has so many things that are good about it and so many things that are bad about it now if it was all bad or all good it would be easy to not recommend this phone or to recommend this phone but you really have to pay attention to the goods and the bads and pick what you like about it and what you don't like about it and if they match up with your values you might still go for the spario Z but for me they don't align perfectly with the things that I've gotten used to enjoying about a phone that being said I still love the pixel dency of a 1080p display and I'm excited for the wars of the 5in 1080p smartphones this year or even the HTC1 which is a slightly smaller than 5in screen and it's 1080p so I like the fact that we're seeing more 1080p phones now but honestly it's just getting to that point where you got to make it good if you're going to have a 1080p display on a phone it has to be a great display and for the price point this is just such a hard recommend you really have to look at your values also another interesting fact and I guess a bit of a disclaimer is this phone comes out of the box with a screen protector in the box but it also comes with a very subtle screen protector already applied on the phone it takes up the entire slab of glass and the Sony branding on the front of the spario Z is actually attached to the screen protector so if you take it off it'll just be a perfectly blank black slab which is kind of cool but that screen protector is probably the cause of some of the issues I have with the display but honestly it's a little bit weird that you can't even really tell that the screen protector is applied but I wouldn't take it off of the display because taking it off would mean pretty much exposing uh that less than upt par display uh to the elements and if you're going to have a rized phone you're probably going to want to leave that on which of course brings up the question is this a slick beautiful designed well phone designer phone or is this a really tough rugged water resistant phone because it's really hard to be both and I guess Sony tried to be both and that's where they ended up having some contradictions in this phone either way the choice is yours do you like the SP Z I think it's sexy but again it's all up to you leave a comment down below the like button on this video and uh the comment section is open so you probably see me replying to comments down there either way thank you for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next video peace nhey what is up guys MKBHD here and this is the Sony sparia Z and this little slab of metal and glass here I found to be the most mixed bag of all time allow me to explain when you're Sony you're going out to make the high-end superphone to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Note 2 and the Droid DNA and other super high-end devices you would go all out right you would add you know high-end materials high-end build quality high-end internals high-end software the whole works that's what you expect when you get the Sony sparia Z so taking a look at the body itself it's definitely sexy you can't take that away from it it's 7.9 mm thin and it's got a piano black glass finish on the front and the back so it's nice there's a 13.1 megapixel rear-facing camera and LED flash on the back and all around the phone has a pretty solid button layout the power button itself is a great button it's really big and easy to press and not too sensitive which is nice doesn't go off in your pocket so the whole right hand side is basically the power button the volume rocker which is left easy and the SIM card tray and on the left hand side you have your micro SD card slot which is covered but that allows for expandable storage so notice that all around this device all the ports are covered and sealed by plastic flaps this isn't actually a bad thing this is a good thing because when all these flaps are closed the sparia Z is water resistant for up to half an hour in 3 ft of water so this thing is actually a bit rugged they were demoing it just like that at CES so if you ask me this is a pretty tough device every single important thing about this device has something hugely awesome about it and something hugely disappointing about it everything about this device so starting let's take take a look at the camera it's half awesome with a 13.1 megapixel sensor extremely fast performance I noticed it takes pictures and burst shots very very quickly and it can take 1080p HDR video so the capabilities are really high and the very intelligent and fast autofocus is really pleasing but it's it's pretty versatile yet the images it produces especially for Landscapes tend to be pretty soft with below average LED flash performance and overall not the best image quality something comparable with the Galaxy Nexus so on the software side of things this guy is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean so that's not bad no word on the 4.2 update but that is pretty pretty recent and the positive side is that this is one of the less obtrusive skins on any Android 4.1 device out there so that's a good start that's a good sign there's also not a whole lot of Sony bloatware not a whole lot of bad pre-installed apps like we see on Verizon phones so that's pretty good and the value adding features are definitely welcome however I am not a fan of the light gray software buttons at the bottom and in the notification bar I would have preferred these to be I guess darker to match the black bezel or lighter to be like more transparent but that gray is just really awful in between and that theme kind of permeates throughout so you might not think it's ugly but there's definitely room for improvement with design here and then there's performance this thing in terms of performance flies I actually can't take anything away from the performance frame rates are constantly High the thing just powers through the most intensive apps and games without a problem and that's thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chip and 2 GB of RAM so it's a quadcore thing and this just just flies and of course kills benchmarks and you can check out how it crushes through data when browsing more image heavy sites like The Verge it's very well done but basically overall performance is Stellar on par with the Galaxy Note 2 and it's just about as good if you don't count the huge battery in the Note 2 but then you have to look at that display now the Sony sparia Z has a 1080p display yes it does 440 PPI but that is kind of becoming the megapixel count number and it's extremely sharp and beautiful when you view it headon and if you're going to be spending a lot of time on a high-end smartphone like this you do want it to have a sharp big beautiful display because you're doing all the looking on the display unfortunately the good ends there it's kind of like having a 37 megapixel camera that doesn't take great photos when you look at this display from even a few degrees off axis the viewing angles the color reproduction the contrast just goes straight downhill you don't even have to have it side by side with an Oppo Fine 5 or a Droid DNA to notice that this display is subpar I mean it's definitely not that good I haven't personally looked at the HTC 1's display but from the specs that I've seen I'm expecting it to be really good so it's going to be hard to compete and this thing just it lets me down I'm really disappointed the viewing angles are the most disappointing I couldn't have asked for anything worse than this literally just a few degrees off axis and it's noticeably worse and then there is the speaker this is this is a terrible speaker in fact I'll let you have a listen for yourself so this Spar Z has its ups and its Downs like it has its really really high ups and it's really really far Downs I know it's going to be hard to compare this to the HTC1 and the Droid DNA but it's going to be compared with those 1080p phones it's going to be compared with the Galaxy S4 and anything else high-end that comes out this year but the comparison is really crazy when you try to put a semi-rugged waterresistant but also thin and elegantly designed phone up against something that's just going all out in one Department you may love the sparia Z and I wouldn't blame you this thing is sexy but a lot of people are going to pick it up just for the design which itself is okay but definitely think twice about what you want in a phone and what you don't want in a phone before throwing down the cash so in the end what is the deal with the Sony sparia Z it is the biggest mixed bag ever this phone has so many things that are good about it and so many things that are bad about it now if it was all bad or all good it would be easy to not recommend this phone or to recommend this phone but you really have to pay attention to the goods and the bads and pick what you like about it and what you don't like about it and if they match up with your values you might still go for the spario Z but for me they don't align perfectly with the things that I've gotten used to enjoying about a phone that being said I still love the pixel dency of a 1080p display and I'm excited for the wars of the 5in 1080p smartphones this year or even the HTC1 which is a slightly smaller than 5in screen and it's 1080p so I like the fact that we're seeing more 1080p phones now but honestly it's just getting to that point where you got to make it good if you're going to have a 1080p display on a phone it has to be a great display and for the price point this is just such a hard recommend you really have to look at your values also another interesting fact and I guess a bit of a disclaimer is this phone comes out of the box with a screen protector in the box but it also comes with a very subtle screen protector already applied on the phone it takes up the entire slab of glass and the Sony branding on the front of the spario Z is actually attached to the screen protector so if you take it off it'll just be a perfectly blank black slab which is kind of cool but that screen protector is probably the cause of some of the issues I have with the display but honestly it's a little bit weird that you can't even really tell that the screen protector is applied but I wouldn't take it off of the display because taking it off would mean pretty much exposing uh that less than upt par display uh to the elements and if you're going to have a rized phone you're probably going to want to leave that on which of course brings up the question is this a slick beautiful designed well phone designer phone or is this a really tough rugged water resistant phone because it's really hard to be both and I guess Sony tried to be both and that's where they ended up having some contradictions in this phone either way the choice is yours do you like the SP Z I think it's sexy but again it's all up to you leave a comment down below the like button on this video and uh the comment section is open so you probably see me replying to comments down there either way thank you for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next video peace n\n"