Promise

True to its promise of renewal every six months, Sony launches the arena its new flagship, the Xperia Z2. Succeeding Z1 and Z1 Compact, this smartphone has revised and improved the best of them and has added some new features. Be enough to renew the genre? A gamble by the Japanese manufacturer because at first glance, Z2 and Z1 are as alike as two drops of water. We could test this new mobile a few days its commercial launch. Is it better than his elders and he has sufficient assets to compete with the M8 One and Galaxy S5? Verdict.

Reality

At first glance, nothing resembles the Z1 Z2. For its new flagship, Sony has done it again with his favorite material: glass, front as the back of the smartphone. For better or for worse ... The choice of material, noble and unusual among manufacturers prefer the plastic or aluminum, provides the latest Xperia real identity and an undeniably sophisticated design (quite masculine, it is good to specify it). Consideration of this choice, the smartphone is quite substantial in hand with a weight of just over 160 grams. That Sony has opted takes a little too much for our taste fingerprints and probably equally scratches the Z1.





Examining in more detail the smartphone, we see that the screen edges have gained finesse. Not enough on the upper and lower portions, according to us, but it is more attractive visually. Blow despite a larger screen (5.2 inches 5 inches against the Z1) Z2 remains at its dimensions, close enough to his elder. With his new piece aluminum frame, it even gained 0.3 mm in thickness and above the bottom of a dozen grams. Always Full HD, the largest slab loses necessarily solving -424 points instead of 441 points but as we have  said, beyond 300 dots per inch, you have to be very careful to note any                                                                                  difference.

Screen not bright enough for outdoor use

Z2 embeds multiple image enhancement technologies, including the latest Led Live Color, which expands the range of colors on the screen. Z2 and offers excellent quality display with more intense colors but quite accurate. By contrast, brightness and contrast, certainly not a bad thing, we were disappointed towards the competition. With a brightness of 406-cd / m² and a contrast of 1353:1, the Z2 is less than its predecessor Z1 and a lot less than the Galaxy S5 or One M8. Outside, the sun, the slab is the least readable of the three. As the viewing angles (despite the IPS panel), they are wide. Perhaps this is due to the glass seems thicker and more reflective than competitors.

Ultra powerful  is providing a beautiful autonomy

Let the good news! Z2 is not a simple aesthetic improvement Z1. With its Snapdragon processor 801 (four cores at 2.3 GHz), shows the smartphone as powerful as its chief rivals and can even boast boarding 3GB of RAM as the Galaxy Note 3 for a very comfortable managing multitasking. However, the best is yet to come. However, the Z1 Compact (mainly thanks to its "small" 4.3-inch screen) had known there six months, seduce us with its proper autonomy as the Z2 is now playing in the yard largely! With a small thirty-hour talk, he beat the record. Surfing on 4G network, it reaches ten hours and 12 hour's video playback, which is very satisfying ... However, unfortunately, fails to compete in the last two steps with the One M8 let the Galaxy S5 alone. The bottom line is that it will pass without too much trouble heading of the day or even two days by providing a little.

Always disappointing picture but excellent video

This is the side of the media to look for the main news on Z2, with mixed results. The 20-megapixel sensor remains; it is identical to that of Z1 with its qualities and defects. Some software improvements have made, but as the Z2 seduced video capture particularly well stabilized, as pictured it still does not show up to the performers. Stereotypes are not inherently wrong and rather natural colors, but they lack precision. As for the automatic mode (limited to 8 megapixels but now available in 4/3), it does not provide added value. Switch to manual gives access to 20 megapixels and many settings or HDR mode (moderately useful), but does not erase inaccuracies or gray areas in the upper part of the image.

Multimedia, news are emerging

With Z2 land 4K video, very well stabilized but, unfortunately, pretty useless if you do not have a compatible TV (Sony did here a bet on the future) and slow motion (Timeshift or idle) at a rate of 120 frames per second in 720p HD. App dedicated to this mode is quite handy because it allows you quickly to manage sequences to slow down. Another new Z2 adopts two speakers for stereo, more powerful and delivering quality sound. Not as stunning as the One M8 but the improvement is significant against the Z1! Finally, the smartphone incorporates technology active noise reduction and comes with compatible headphones (MDR-NC31EM) to fully appreciate his music in noisy environments (plane, train...). Moreover, without additional cost compared to the Z1.

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