[Xperia Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] luluchambler:
Hey there fella! :)

I will try to give you a recommendation without bias.

So what are the main critics against the Xperia-Z?

1) Display: I never thought that the Display was bad, even at almost 160° everything is still quite okay to see without extreme blur (JDI-Panel) not sure about the Sharp-Displays.

2) Battery: Its ok. Not more than that but also not less. I get over a working day with it, and have to recharge it at the evening.

3)Overall Buildquality: Overall i think it is a great phone, really the only major misconception was the Headphone-Jack and it's waterproofing-Flap it will definetelly get broken if you dont keep it closed at all times, and use your headset/headphone with it regulary, its the only really bad thing about the "Z"

4) Space and Camera: You can easily extend your 16gb internal with a 64gb sdhc, which i find to be a big PRO compared to the Moto-G, the Camera is also not "bad", it has it's weaknesses in low-light, but in good light conditions it makes great pictures especially when you use the HDR+ Mode.

5) Sound: I don't get it fellas, what is it about that loudspeaker-hype you got running? I mean it's a miniature-speaker do you really except crisp and hifi sound out of it? Get over it, no matter which phone, their internal speakers all sound like a pile of horse-sh.. to me and they always will, you shouldn't decide one over another phone because of it's loudspeakers, not in the age of great in-ears and bluetooth-in-ears/transmitter/loudspeakers you name it...

5) Software: Android L is soon to be rolled out, something you can't say about the S3 (afaik), so yea it should be fine atleast for another year, and a price-drop could be excepted when the Z4 get's presented.

Recommendation: Xperia-Z yes or no? It's a great phone really, the software is not bloated, its easy to root, easy to "un-bloat" as there is almost nothing to remove, has some pretty good feature (automatically deactivate wifi when not in reach of a known route), and will get another Update soon and CM12 is out.

So what are the flaws? For me really the design of the Flap on the headphone-Jack is a mayor turn-off if you rely on waterproofness, it's something that got fixed in the Z1,Z2,Z3 so if you can get your hand's on the Z1 or Z2 get one... or (if you choose the XZ) use Bluetooth-Headsets or one of those cheap Bluetooth-Transmitters where you plug your regular In-Ears/Headphones in, than the Problem with the loose-Flaps is resolved, same for charging, use the Dock, and if you got to transmit files to your Computer use something like "Airdroid or FTP Server" instead of the USB-Connection and everything will stay ok and waterproof, no defect sealings.

I had some of your alternatives/phones too, to be precisely -> S3 and MotoG and here are some things i've noticed.

S3: Bloated, no really really Bloated rooting is necessary, Display-> Terrible this blueish Display drove me nuts so that i've sold it a month after Audio -> no real difference Camera-> better in low-light compared to Z, and worse in good-light conditions. Cheap plastic feeling

Moto-G: Good Display, very good battery-performance, partially buggy software although fixed since 4.4.4, Camera is really bad in low-light and at best okayish under good conditions, No SDHC-Card extention therefore limited to 16gb, almost no bloat except for some Motorola-Services, Sound is normal over the loudspeaker, and okayish over the Headphone-Jack clearly worse than XZ, Tricky to root.

It's made of plastic but it doesn't feel cheap like the S3 the softtouch is great and even after a year of usage without a protective cover in great shape.

So yea decide for yourself, but don't listen to this guy clearly hating on Sony-Devices for no real reason.

Hope this will help you decide.