Sony Xperia Z3 is Awesome

[Sakeopete]

I don't often post about products but I a super impressed with the Xperia Z3 Compact I bought my wife. I'm traditionally a Samsung guy but my wife's biggest complaint about her S2 was battery and slow camera.

We have school age children and enjoy recording their lives via photos. I read reviews about the Sony and decided to buy one for my wife. Well I'm happy to say that is the best phone I have ever used. I'm not going to go into the features that is easy to Google. I just want to share that the battery and camera are amazing.

It has a dedicated shutter button that will activate the camera without having to unlock the phone. Within a couple seconds from pushing it you can snap happily as fast as a real camera.

With my wife on facebook etc and listening to Thai music the phone easily goes 2 days before needing a charge.

I will be buying the full size Z3.

[dddave]

Nice, but B19,900 on Lazada...Ouch!!!

[whitemouse]

All Sony Z stuff is awsome!

Understated design, simple black and thin. The Z and Z1 were great phones, but Sony screens were not as good as Amoled used by Samsung, and not as good as LG dispeys, just 1 year ago.

With Z2 that changed.

I bought a Sony Z3 Tablet Compact just before new year, it is 8 inch tablet, similar in design to Z3 phone, but even thinner.

[Cheesekraft]

I am as we speak getting ready to take my 5 month old sony xperia Z3 into the shop for a 7,000 baht repair bill. Wife bumped it while reaching for me and it fell about a meter and the screen was totally destroyed. No shops in town can fix it, warranty obviously won't help. I am a bit dissapointed that it broke so easily, as a big selling point to me was the gorilla glass and its durability. I did enjoy the phone while it was working, although the plastic covers fell off within a few days.

[Denim]

Nice, but B19,900 on Lazada...Ouch!!!

Just bought a Nokia 1320 with 6 inch screen for 7800 at the Nokia shop on the Mall because I prefer the windows platform.

Absolutely brilliant. Great screen green pictures etc and will go 2-3 days between charges. Very pleased. Best value Phablet out there right now.

[casualbiker]

I am as we speak getting ready to take my 5 month old sony xperia Z3 into the shop for a 7,000 baht repair bill. Wife bumped it while reaching for me and it fell about a meter and the screen was totally destroyed. No shops in town can fix it, warranty obviously won't help. I am a bit dissapointed that it broke so easily, as a big selling point to me was the gorilla glass and its durability. I did enjoy the phone while it was working, although the plastic covers fell off within a few days.

Gorilla glass is anti scratch rather than anti drop a metre onto concrete. A bumper case is ideal for more shock resistance!

7,000b sounds quite high for a screen replacement!

[casualbiker]

Nice, but B19,900 on Lazada...Ouch!!!

Just bought a Nokia 1320 with 6 inch screen for 7800 at the Nokia shop on the Mall because I prefer the windows platform.

Absolutely brilliant. Great screen green pictures etc and will go 2-3 days between charges. Very pleased. Best value Phablet out there right now.

Ummm from the specs it's a bit weighty! And the screen pixel numbers a bit low.. but as long as your happy!

[Cheesekraft]

I am as we speak getting ready to take my 5 month old sony xperia Z3 into the shop for a 7,000 baht repair bill. Wife bumped it while reaching for me and it fell about a meter and the screen was totally destroyed. No shops in town can fix it, warranty obviously won't help. I am a bit dissapointed that it broke so easily, as a big selling point to me was the gorilla glass and its durability. I did enjoy the phone while it was working, although the plastic covers fell off within a few days.

Gorilla glass is anti scratch rather than anti drop a metre onto concrete. A bumper case is ideal for more shock resistance!

7,000b sounds quite high for a screen replacement!

agreed. they have to replace the entire front of the phone, apparently. At least it will fix the other shoddy parts.

[Sakeopete]

Nice, but B19,900 on Lazada...Ouch!!!

Just bought a Nokia 1320 with 6 inch screen for 7800 at the Nokia shop on the Mall because I prefer the windows platform.

Absolutely brilliant. Great screen green pictures etc and will go 2-3 days between charges. Very pleased. Best value Phablet out there right now.

Ummm from the specs it's a bit weighty! And the screen pixel numbers a bit low.. but as long as your happy!

Maybe my eyes are not that good but almost everyone my wife shows the phone to remark about the beautiful screen, LOL even one of my wife's friends who likes to show off her i-phone 6 commented on it. Like I said for my wife and I the two winning features are the camera and long battery life both are awesome.

[wpcoe]

I have a Z3 Compact, and am still getting acquainted with Android, but agree the phone is quite nice. It will be even nicer when Android 5.0 is available from Sony next month and will support saving of photo's in raw (.PNG) format. Might have to use a 3rd party photo app to save to .PNG, but that's okay with me.

There are LOTS of reports online about the screens (front and back are glass) spontaneously cracking. e.g. Set the phone on the nightstand at night to charge and wake up with a cracked screen. Whether Sony repairs it under warranty seems hit or miss, but at least some of the time they do, so guess that's an admission that some screens are fragile. The screens are NOT guaranteed to be Gorilla glass -- Sony uses more than one vendor for the glass and there is no way to determine which phone has which glass.

My own phone died without notice just over a week of buying it (from "Sony store" -- actually Numchai operating on a franchise? -- at Central Festival mall in Pattaya.) They wouldn't exchange the phone since I was just out of the seven day period. Took it to the Sony Service Center on 31 October and the phone still wasn't ready by the time I left on a trip on 02 December. "Parts in Singapore." Supposedly shipped to Thailand on 18 November, but never got here in time to repair it before the end of the month. Oh, well. Hopefully mine was an isolated incident?

Also, as I posted in another thread:

For Sony phone/tablet owners, I found a competent online vendor: SE-Update (SonyExtra-Update) for accessories.

The site is entirely in Thai. I used Google Translate to facilitate completing the shipping information. I also sent an e-mail starting with "Sorry, I don't speak Thai, but..." and got a prompt, polite reply in basic English.

Shipment is via EMS and they send an e-mail and SMS with the tracking number and a link to the EMS tracking web site. My item was delivered to Pattaya area the day after they dropped it at the post office in Bangkok.

Payment can be made via ATM or credit card. (Possibly PayPal, too. I can't remember right now.) I have an account at SCB and paid using an SCB ATM.

[rijb]

Maybe the North Korean version will be cheaper. After their hackers steal the blueprints.

[Sakeopete]

Update:

As you can read from my OP I was very impressed with my wife's Xperia Z3 compact. A couple of weeks ago I bought myself the larger Xperia Z3 at MBK the Thai version was available for Baht 18300. The import cheaper at Baht 16500 but comes with no local warranty. I put a 0.33 mm tempered glass protectors front and back. They work great near impossible to scratch and crystal clear.

So far I haven't been using a case, having travelled to Europe and spent the last week offshore in Africa it has held up well being in my pocket. I have dropped it a couple of times so far no visible damage.

My coworkers are certainly impressed by it even the Iphone people. The battery is amazing when I wake up in the mornings I still have 45 - 55% battery with only wifi on (we have no cellular signal offshore) Very impressive compared to my previous smart phones.

Anyways I thought I would share first hand experience should anyone be interested in a Sony it has lived up to the performance I read about on reviews. To date it is by far the best phone I have owned (sorry Samsung I have strayed).

[casualbiker]

Just don't drop it and expect a reasonable service on screen replacement. Sony Thailand service is not impressive seemingly!

[Shurup]

Been using Z1 for about a year now, happy with it and its functions.

It's my work phone in addition to my Note 3.

Both phones are great.

[SheungWan]

I got quite excited until I started reading about the cracked screen reports. The glass back and front susceptibility has just warned me away for good. You would think Sony had their act together over something as basic as this.

[kbelyeu]

Pickup a devil case.. aka bumper guard.

Kurt