When it comes to smartphone choices, there are options for just about everyone under the sun. You can get them from almost ever major electronics brand and even within the last few years smaller, lesser known brands have popped up offering better and better specs with each device release, but without raising the cost too much. Yes, there is no shortage of smartphones out there to choose from these days. Even with such a vast catalog of devices though people tend to stick to the same brands, either unwilling to branch out and look at another OEM or simply because they truly believe no one can offer them anything better. For Android devices, Samsung is easily the most popular and they’re the most well known. They sell millions more devices than other brands and they market their products much more than other brands do. Considering this, it’s easy to understand why people think that Samsung offers the best choices for most.
Samsung isn’t the only popular brand now of course, as just this past year LG has been gaining plenty of marketshare and even Motorola has been putting out amazing devices. One brand we don’t talk about enough though is Sony. Perhaps that’s because they aren’t available in nearly the amount of markets that Samsung and LG are, but having spent the past few days with a Sony device for the first time, I can easily say that Sony smartphones, especially their high end models, are severely underrated. I’m not talking about in the sales figures or marketshare, because we know that Sony can’t match top brands like Samsung and LG in this particular area, not now anyways.(however they have the capability if they put their mind to it)I’m talking about in device quality. User experience delivery. The over all feeling of holding something like a finely crafted Sony device in your hand.
I had played with an Xperia Z2 before, albeit for a short time,(minutes)but it felt nice and I could tell that I would have been pleased to use it as a daily driver. I hadn’t spent nearly enough time with it though and I knew I wanted more. All the while I was still using a Nexus 4(my current device and manufactured by LG)and the Galaxy Nexus before that, and the LG G2x(p999)prior to that. The list goes, on, having tried brands like HTC too. While I have loved every single device I have owned that has ran the Android operating system, none has ever felt so clean and so crisp in the experience as the Sony Xperia Z3. Sony may be available less places, but they know how to make a quality smartphone. They know the details that matter to give an all around exemplary user experience, and they execute it. Forget the strikingly similar device design from the past couple models, the internals are top tier, and it shows. The UI is lightweight enough that it still feels like Android without having been hacked up too much and masked by a brands UI skin. Things run smoothly too, and yet most people would and may not ever know. We can probably thank Sony’s lackluster marketing and initiative to instill brand presence for that, but in the end, Should Sony be forgotten because they simply need to reach out to more consumers? I think not.
Is everything perfect with something like Sony’s latest and greatest high end flagship model? No. There are a couple minor things I would change. Despite these little details though the Xperia Z3 has plenty of potential to entice any consumer. Even the most hard headed of people that refuse to recognize any other brands. All it would take is placing the phone in their hands and telling them to use it for a week or two. Whether you care for the design or not, the build quality is solid, nearly unmatched. It just feels like something that was hand crafted with a lot of effort. The hardware delivers too. The rear facing camera is the best I have seen of any smartphone, and while the audio may not be Boom Sound from HTC, the front facing speakers deliver rich, full audio that honestly sounded better than those on the HTC One M8. The point is, Sony has some amazing devices on their lineup, and as a brand they’re discounted because they’re not readily available in large markets like the U.S. until only recently. Now that isn’t necessarily the consumers fault either, because you can’t buy something if it isn’t made available to you. Perhaps though with Sony having their newest flagship on at least two major U.S. carriers, they can begin to show consumers just how good their devices really are.