[Xperia Z General] omersak:
I've actually owned both phones, so this isn't the typical 'tried at shop for 30 minutes' BS.

Please note that this is strictly my opinion and it can easily be the opposite for someone else. In my opinion they are both truly amazing devices and we're lucky to be spoiled with choice.

In terms of build quality, The Xperia Z is put together better, and built more reliably. My HTC One has a gap in the on the top of the front plate, and it's sharp edge protrudes a bit. This doesn't bother me, just mentioning it. The HTC One feels more premium in the hand but the Xperia Z feels much slimmer, especially in the center where the HTC One's hump is. A tie, i'd say.

One thing that annoyed the crap out of me with the Xperia Z was it being prone to picking up dust - which I happen to be OCD about. I honestly haven't ever seen something so susceptible to dirt, EVER. I'd be cleaning and washing it 10-20 times a day because it looked so sexy when clean but an eyesore when dirty.

Design - I initially hated the design of the HTC One. It is actually a very sexy device, in person. So is the Xperia Z with it's beautiful monolithic design. I can't choose one over the other. A tie again.

Now here's some controversy - I like the screen of the Xperia Z better *SHOCK/HORROR*! The contrast and brightness of the HTC One screen is far superior and when looked for afar it pops out like a sexy beast - but I look for other things in a screen to win me over.

The main win for the Xperia Z screen is its clearness. This is hard to explain - when you look at whites and grays one the HTC One screen real close, one can see tiny and very fine multi-colored dots. I saw this on the Lumia 920 as well. As a result, grey text on white looks grainy. On the Xperia Z the text looked as clear as glass - or a printed picture. It looks more like a 1080p screen, to me. when I got the HTC One I was extremely depressed. It's not noticeable to the sane person, but given my OCD tendencies it made my eyes bleed. I don't notice it much now.

Also, the Xperia Z screen has better hue and a closer to white colour balance (the htc one is on the cooler side), and is very pleasing on the eye. For me (remember - my opinion), the Xperia Z wins here.

When it comes to the camera - since i'm a hermit who spends his life indoors - the HTC One wins quite easily here. Honestly, the pictures it takes in low-light are absolutely, gobsmackingly amazing. I could just NEVER take a decent picture with the Xperia Z - even with burst mode. When I had the Xperia Z i'd always have to reach over for my iphone to take pics. Well, the HTC One easily bests them both for my use. Big win for the HTC.

The performance of the HTC One is much better than the Xperia Z. While they're both fast and smooth, the HTC One is smoother and lags less and is faster in day to day operation. I'd say noticebly, at that. Gaming performance (Real Racing 3, Modern Combat 4) seems about the same, to me.

I'm having huge problems with the Battery on the HTC One. It's been absolutely horrendous - because I use HSPA 24/7. The RF performance of the HTC One is much worse than the Xperia Z (aluminium?) and it keeps switching between 3G and HSPA, whereas the Xperia Z would always be rock solid on HSPA. This may even be a deal breaker for me as it has annoyed me to no end. I'd say i'm getting around 30% more battery on the Xperia Z with typical use - which wasn't THAT great to begin with.

On the other hand, Wifi performance is absolutely phenomenal on the HTC One. My xperia z had absolutely abysmal Wifi performance and it wouldn't up pick up any signal in my room. My iphone 5 gets 1 bar. The damn HTC One gets full bars of signal.

What else? It goes without saying that the One's speakers are amazing.

To sum up, I feel these are both equally amazing devices. If ever there's a time to own two android at once, these are the ones to do so with. And if someone goes one way and not the other, it's fully justified.