Sony Xperia Z2 launches on May 1

So here I am, it's a little over 12 months since the Xperia Z hit selves and I'm checking out the third iteration of the Japanese firm's flagship series, the Sony Xperia Z2.

While the timing may be a little odd, you've almost got to look past the Xperia Z1 completely, the Xperia Z2 is a flagship smartphone in its own right and it heralds the next generation for Sony.

It builds on its predecessors with an improved screen, increased power under the hood and a slightly more compact chassis.

There's no question that the Xperia Z2 will be going head to head with the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and Nokia Lumia 930 this year - and with that in mind it's got its work cut out.

Sony's had some trouble getting the Xperia Z2 into stores, missing its original early April release and thus giving an upper hand to the HTC and Samsung, although units are trickling through.

It carries the lofty price tag you'd expect from a flagship handset, with the SIM free Xperia Z2 setting you back at least £545 (around $600, AU$900).

That puts the Sony Xperia Z2 pretty much on par with its direct rivals, so if you're looking for a way to choose between them pricing isn't a factor that'll help you make up your mind.

You'd be hard pushed to tell the Z1 and the Z2 apart, as they look almost identical with the same metal and glass design providing a sturdy and premium, if not a little industrial, finish.

The slabs of glass on the front and rear of the Xperia Z2 may add a level of class to the handset, but they're also a magnet for fingerprints and dust.

I was constantly wiping the Sony Xperia Z2 to clear the smudges off the screen, but within minutes they built up again. This got rather frustrating after a while, and with exactly the same thing happening round the back I felt like I was fighting a losing battle.

On a positive note the Xperia Z2's body appears to be far more robust than that of the Z1 and Z1 Compact, which were found to scratch and scuff remarkably easily making the handsets look bruised and battered.

Round the front Sony continues its trend of sizable bezels above and below the display, extending the length of the Xperia Z2 making it taller than its predecessor as well as the One M8 and Galaxy S5.

These extra large bezels do detract slightly from the overall finish of the handset, but I suspect in a similar fashion to the black bar below the screen on the One M8, they're all about squeezing in the latest tech under the hood.

Sony has narrowed the width and shaved off some of the depth in an attempt to make the Xperia Z2 usable in one hand, and for the most part it is.

It's by no way a small device, but I was able to hold the Xperia Z2 in my hand and access pretty much the whole expanse for the 5.2-inch display without calling in my second paw.

The metal and glass body doesn't give a huge amount of grip, and the flat angular design means it's not the comfiest handset to hold for extended period of times.

I came straight from the HTC One M8 to the Xperia Z2 and the curved rear on the HTC made it far more palm friendly than Sony's offering.

Perhaps a nod towards HTC is the arrival of dual front facing speakers on the Xperia Z2, although at first glance you may not notice they're there.

Sony has been far more subtle with their placement compared to HTC, with small deviations in design at the top and bottom of the Xperia Z2's frame revealing slender speaker grills.

Flip the Xperia Z2 to landscape for a movie marathon or gaming session and you'll immediately benefit from the new speaker location. The Xperia Z1 had its speaker location on its base which was easily covered when held in landscape.

Back to portrait and the centralised power/lock key down the right side of the Xperia Z2 nestles under your thumb or finger, making it extremely easy to access.

The volume rocker sits just below, again in an easy to reach position, while towards the base of the handset you'll find the dedicated shutter key which provides a shortcut to the camera app as well as a way to snap pictures underwater.

Sony has kept up its dust- and waterproofing tradition with the Xperia Z2 and thus you find the first of two flappy bits on the right of the handset.

It's tasked with covering the microSD slot, allowing you to build on the mediocre 16GB of internal storage with support of cards up to 128GB in size.

I found this flap, and the one of the left side covered the microSIM and microUSB ports, easy to remove and replace - although I fear for their durability. All it takes is for one of those flaps to fail and next time you take your Xperia Z2 into the bath it's game over.

There have already been reports of the Xperia Z2 failing to keep the water out, but during my dunking time with the handset I didn't experience any leakage. Just remember to close those flaps firmly!

It is frustrating to have to open a flap to access the charging port, and with it being located on the side of the device rather than the base like the Galaxy S5, it makes the Z2 harder to handle when plugged in.

Anyone looking to upgrade from the original Xperia Z though will be pleased to see an uncovered headphone jack up top, continuing the tradition from the Z1.

Round the back the Xperia Z2 doesn't look that much different than the front, with the understated 20.7MP camera lens and single LED flash the only blemishes on the glass covered surface.

The Sony Xperia Z2 doesn't do anything outlandish in terms of style, and it's yet another black slab of glass - but it is a well built, premium, functional and waterproof device which certainly trumps the design of the Galaxy S5.

If you're looking for something seriously stylish though you're probably better off with the iPhone 5S or HTC One M8.

Key Feature

4K video

The biggest feature Sony is pushing is 4K video capture on the Xperia Z2, and with a decent 20.7MP Exmor RS camera sensor bolted on the rear you can expect some pretty decent footage.

4K offers up images four times the resolution of traditional full HD, but the Z2 isn't the only handset capable of such great feats. The Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 3 are two notable offerings which deliver the same functionality.

Sony's argument however is that the Xperia Z2 does 4K better, and I'm inclined to agree.

I sadly didn't have a 4K monitor or TV to play the footage back on, but on the screen of the Xperia Z2 and my laptop display footage was smooth, well defined and well lit.

It's not all good news in the 4K video recording camp. A three minute video shot at 4K resolution takes up a whopping 1GB of storage, and considering you only have just over 11GB of the 16GB internal space to play with you may find it filling up fast.

Sure there's a microSD card slot, but if you fancy shooting a lot in 4K you'll be eating up space in double quick time.

Another issue, and one which has been reported by many Xperia Z2 owners already, is the fact the handset does heat up to quite a temperature during longer 4K recordings.

Even after three minutes of filming I found the top half of the Xperia Z2 became rather toasty, and as I continued the heat increased.

When it got to around 11 minutes of 4K filming the Xperia Z2 crashed, with a pop up of "Unknown error" greeting me on screen.

Rather more frustratingly the huge video file (4.25GB) was saved to the device, but it was corrupt so I couldn't play it. The Xperia Z2 also promptly told me that I'd filled 75% of the internal storage and it was time to stick a memory card in. Or I could just delete that massive corrupt file, hey Z2?

Hopefully these issues can be fixed with a software update, and I hope Sony gets on the case soon.

A camera grade camera

Sony knows a thing or two about cameras and the Xperia Z2 benefits from the firm's history in photography with an impressively speced camera.

I'll go into more detail in the dedicated camera section, but like the Samsung and HTC, Sony has added in a variety of toys for you to play with.

The big camera buzzword in 2014 seems to be background defocus. We saw it first on the LG G Pro 2, then the Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5 and since then the HTC One M8 has also turned up with a the same functionality.

While a quick comparison between the S5, M8 and Z2 showed me that the Sony produced the best background defocus result, its implementation isn't as good as HTC's.

The M8 benefits from the Duo Camera setup on the rear allowing for depth information to be automatically captured with every image you take.

Meanwhile on the Xperia Z2 you have to hit the modes icon in the bottom corner of the app and then select Background Defocus. This meant that a lot of the time I forgot the option was there, and unlike on the M8, you can't revisit a picture and apply the effect at a later date.

Images are also capped at 8MP when in Background Defocus, but I didn't find that to be a huge problem. Plus it's still higher than the 4MP snapper on the One M8.

The Sony Xperia Z2 isn't the quickest at capturing an image in this mode though. I had to wait almost five seconds from pressing the shutter for the Z2 to process the image.

Once processed the interface for adjusting the focus is impressively intuitive, with a slider allowing you to adjust the level of defocus.

You can also choose to blur your background either horizontally or vertically, providing a different effect on the finished article.

Once you're happy with the finished article hit the big tick to save, but we warned, there's more waiting involved. I found that the save time usually took seven to 10 seconds.

That's just long enough to cast doubt in your mind that perhaps the Xperia Z2 has frozen or given up. It hasn't, it's just taking its sweet time.

Something for your eyes

An area where Sony has done some real work on the Xperia Z2 is in the screen department. Not only has it bumped the size from 5 inches on the Xperia Z1 to 5.2 inches, it's also implemented IPS LCD technology.

The lack of IPS on the orginal Z and Z1 meant the screens looked washed out, and their viewing angles were far from inspiring.

Thankfully the inclusion of IPS on the Xperia Z2 makes this one of the best smartphone screens around, and with Sony's Live Colour LED technology colours pop on the screen.

They don't pop as much as the Samsung Galaxy S5's Super AMOLED offering, but the Xperia Z2 provides more natural colours unlike its rival's over-saturated display.

Text is pin sharp, app icons are well defined and to be fair you're spoilt for choice at the top end of the mobile market when it comes to the display.

The Sony Xperia Z2 has an excellent screen, as do the One M8 and Galaxy S5. Whichever you choose, you won't be disappointed here.

Performance

The Sony Xperia Z2 mirrors the current crop of high-end Android flagship handsets with the inclusion of Google's latest version of its mobile operating system.
Sony Xperia Z2 review

That translates to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, although it's not the stock version you'll find on the Nexus 5. Sony has stuck its own user interface over the top, but it doesn't have a catchy name like Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense.
Sony's overlay is no where near as dominating as Sense, offering up a lighter skin which adds a few additional touches here and there to an already solid Android platform.
With a powerful 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM running the show behind the scenes you'll find general navigation around the Xperia Z2 fluid and lag free.
I was able to skip between homescreens, launch an app laden multi-tasking menu and fire up the camera app from the lockscreen using the physical key on the side, without any hint of slow down.
Head into the app tray, slide from left to right and a sidebar menu appears with a variety of ways to order your applications, from alphabetical or most used to installed or your own order.
There is, sadly, no way to hide any unwanted pre-installed applications which Sony has blocked from being deleted on the Xperia Z2.
Sony Xperia Z2 review

That's a bit frustrating as the Xperia Z2 does have a number of pre-installed applications and I found that the majority were regularly overlooked in my day to day usage.
Dive into the display settings and you'll find the increasingly familiar "tap to wake" feature. Enable it and you'll be able to wake the screen of the Xperia Z2 with a simple double tap of your finger on it.
It only works to turn the screen on, double tap again and it won't switch your Xperia Z2 back to standby. Overall then the feature is a little half baked, failing to make the same impression as the LG G2 did with KnockOn.
That said, it's still a handy little feature as it makes it easy to check if you have any notifications, or just to see the time and date.
Drag down the notifications bar and you'll find a very uncluttered offering, with just the date and time above any notifications you may have. It's a lot cleaner than LG's and Samsung's implementation which shove a load of setting options at the top.
I prefer Sony's minimalist implementation as it meant I could see my notifications more easily, while quick settings were easily accessible in a second tab.
Sony Xperia Z2 review

By sliding two fingers down from the notification bar you'll be thrown straight into the quick settings tab, while the single finger slide will take you to the more traditional notification view.
Sony is also keen of automating a lot of your everyday processes. Plug in a set of headphones or the USB charger and a pop up will appear on screen prompting you to take action.
In the case of detecting headphones, you can set the Xperia Z2 to automatically start playing music as soon as you stick them into the handset.
The music doesn't have to come from the dedicated Walkman app either, with the Z2 allowing you to select whatever app you want - Spotify in my case. You can also have the Xperia Z2 pause your music when you remove the headphones.
Once you've set this up you won't see the pop up again, or if you don't want to bother you can check the "don't show me this again" box so you're not constantly bombarded.
Turn Wi-Fi on and you'll spy another message, this time the Xperia Z2 wants to help you optimise battery performance.
Sony Xperia Z2 review

It's asking you to activate location-base Wi-Fi, where the Xperia Z2 will automatically turn Wi-Fi on when you're near a saved network.
Leave home, for example, and the Xperia Z2 will detect you've left the reaches of your router and switch Wi-Fi off until you get to the office, where it'll come back on (if you've saved your work's network).
It's not clear how much power this saves, but every little helps - although in general the Sony Xperia Z2 is pretty efficient. More on that in the battery section of this review.
While I found general performance to be on par with the other top mobiles on the market, there were times where the Xperia Z2 appeared to lack the zip of its rivals.
I've already raised the speed issues surrounding the Background Defocus effect in the camera app, and other features in here can also be a little tardy.
I ran the Geekbench 3 benchmark test on the Sony Xperia Z2 and it averaged 2765. That's a decent score, but it was bettered by both the Samsung Galaxy S5 (2905) and HTC One M8 (2857) in their TechRadar reviews.
As I've already said, the Xperia Z2 is certainly no slouch, and if you're upgrading from the Xperia Z you'll see a big difference in performance.
However if you're considering throwing in your Xperia Z1 for the Z2 the difference in terms of performance is minimal.

Battery Life

What's the battery life like on the Sony Xperia Z2? One word: impressive.

Is it the clear market leader in terms of battery life? No, but the Xperia Z2 is on par with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 while also comfortably beating the iPhone 5S.

It has a 3200mAh power pack onboard, which is bigger than the Samsung and HTC, although it doesn't provide superior performance.

With moderate usage (email, messaging, calls, web browsing, social networking and some camera action) I was easily able to eek out a day and a half of battery life on the Xperia Z2.

If you're slightly more careful the Z2 will go pretty much two full days on a single charge, and that's partly thanks to the Snapdragon 801 processor under the hood which delivers superior power efficiency over the 800 which featured in the Xperia Z1 and LG G2.

Running the TechRadar battery test of a 90 minute video at full brightness (230 lux in the Xperia Z2's case) with various accounts syncing in the background saw a drop on 20% on the Z2.

That's a slightly poorer performance than the Galaxy S5 which lost 16%, but better than the One M8 which saw a 23% drop in the same test.

It's not a disastrous result, but if you have a serious mobile movie or gaming addiction you'll want to keep a charger close by as chances are the Xperia Z2 won't make it to the end of the day.

Sony does provide a range of power management options, the main one being Stamina mode which disables mobile data and Wi-Fi connectivity when not in use in a bid to save as much juice as possible.

Stamina mode can also restrict hardware performance (if you chose it to), and while you'll still be able to do everything on the Xperia Z2, load times are noticabely slower and I'd advise against loading up the likes of Real Racing 3.

To be fair though, if you're running that low on battery, gaming should be out of the question anyway.

If you're not desperately trying to eek out every last drop of juice there are some less aggressive power saving modes available. One of which is low-battery mode where you can hand pick functions to disable if the battery drops below a certain percentage.

Another is location based Wi-Fi which I've briefly touched on already in this review. This switches off Wi-Fi when you leave the location of a saved network, and turns it back on when you re enter the area.

Image Gallery