[Xperia Z General] :
A quick hands-on in the Sony centre

I asked about that and it's only if bought from Sony online or retail. I had another play with it today in the Sony Store with a working sim card

To be honest I'm not sure. I don't think I would have gone for it without the promotional headphones offer. I tried it out for about 10 minutes. I love the screen but for £529 I expected a little better, to be more refined. The smudges on the black version were awful. I was the first one to use it too and within a few minutes it started to look not so good and tiny specs of dust managed to get in too. It was much less on the white version so I personally would purchase the white version of this phone.

The speaker annoyed me to be frank. It was poor quality and needed more volume just to be adequate! I tried making a couple of calls and the people on the other end heard me perfectly but I found their voices slightly muffled; well enough to notice. Also you had to hold it in a certain way to get the ear piece right..what I mean is if you don't hold it exactly right (earpiece to ear) the sound is mostly lost. There was no lag in the OS but the chrome browser struggled a bit on heavy sites.

Also I was shocked to see that none of the staff at the Sony centre had a Sony phone (except the manager, i think it was the S)! The guy showing me the phone had an Iphone 5 and giggled a bit when I pointed it out. He was friendly enough to allow me to compare them when no one was around. In all honesty and off course in my opinion, the only advantage of this phone is the Screen, water resistance and connectivity (NFC) etc.. In every other aspect the Iphone 5 was much easier and better in use. Even the maps loaded much quicker on the Iphone and the speakers were much much better. A quick play with the camera's and again Iphone 5 had better IS in video. Colours seem a bit more natural on the Sony but didn't view on PC for proper analysis. As it is Sony, I was expecting better from the camera performance (although the Sony camera menu was excellent with more options etc).

I was bit disappointed with the experience. I was looking forward to placing my pre-order. Perhaps my needs are simpler then what I though (or my age is showing a bit!) but I just want things to work properly out of the box. I know the Andorid experience can vary depending on the manufacturer but I still believe in some kind of unified (standard) experience. Truth be said though, the Sony phone is my favourite Android experience.

I also noticed from the staff members Iphone the latest iOS feautures like the notifications etc. I know I'm not as technical as some people on this forum. There was a time I enjoyed customizing and tinkering with my Symbians, Windows, Ipaqs etc..but people's requirements change. I'd rather spend less time customizing and make use/enjoy some cool apps.

The irony in all this is I went to a Sony store to try out their flagship phone one last time before placing my order. I saw the salesman Iphone 5 and did a side-by-side comparison. I ended up going to the Apple store and purchasing an Iphone 5. If Sony had the price at £450 I might have gone for it. It's a tough trade off these days.

The competition is fierce among smartphones. We have plenty of choice as consumers and it comes down to personal needs and preferences. I'm not a fan of any company. They sell me things and I purchase them with my money. I put in the time to research and listen to other people's experience and feedback. To me £529 is a premium price to pay and I expect a premium experience. I did not feel this with the Sony phone (and to some extent the staff were hardly passionate for it!). I will miss out on that gorgeous screen, but, I'd rather have the other features which in my opinion Apple better in every way.

Well that's my feedback. No doubt 2013 will see plenty of exciting tech coming our way. Good luck with whatever you purchase :cowboy: