Tag Archives: Sony Xperia Z1

Pricing and stock differentials

Android, Tech News

As I get closer to buying my new phone, I have been looking around at the various deals and stock due dates.

The Sony Xperia Z1 is a classic example.

Clove Technology is offering the Z1 for around £565. This includes the Sony Smartwatch 2 and £100 of media content from Sony.

Sonymobile part of Sony UK is offering the Z1 for £599 and throwing in free delivery. But no watch and no media pack.

Sony UK is offering the above too but has a different range of accessories for the Z1.

Amazon UK is just offering the Z1 for £599 with no offers and delivery on the 20th September.

Sony and Sonymobile  has delivery for the end of September.

Clove Technology will be posting the black version out today.

OK, so this is the online options. Let’s have a look at the high street stores. My local Sony Centre in Plymouth offers excellent customer service and knowledgeable staff. They were offering the Z1 with a Sony Smartwatch 2 at half its normal price. They then offered me a deal buying the Z1 sim free with £75 voucher for the watch or the QX10 or off the QX100 lens hub. Only one slight problem, they couldn’t tell me the sim free price of the Z1. Just I could get £75 off one of the accessories if I ordered today. Not only that they had no stock demos of the Z1 or QX10.

In several phone shops the Z1 was available to look at and use. So I got to see the white and black version. The O2 stores had the Z1 and a QX10 lens and I got to see both in action. The staff at the Sony Centre were very disgruntled over not having any demo stock. To add insult to injury the Sony rep had been in Plymouth visiting the phone shops leaving demo stock but not Sony’s own centres.

So the moral of the story. Buy from Clove Technology. Have a free smartwatch and £110 worth of media and get the black Z1 posted from today instead of waiting 2 to 3 weeks longer and paying a lot more.

Crazy state of affairs.

Sony Xperia Z1 – new deal offering from Sony Centres

Uncategorized,

This is hot off the press.

As of today, Sony Centres have a new offer. You may have to get the staff to check their system, as I doubt they will even know about it yet.

Basically, instead of buying the Xperia Z1 and getting the Sony Smartwatch 2 for half price if you preorder, you can decide to receive instead of the smartwatch 2, £75 off any of the lenses, QX10 or QX100.

Quick First Impressions of the Sony Xperia Z1 with camera samples

Android, Tech News,

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Yesterday, I had 10 minutes with the new Sony Xperia Z1. My first impressions were very pleasing. First it was comfortable to hold in my hand. The original Xperia Z was uncomfortable to hold. The Z1 has rounded edges and felt easy to grip. I compared its size to my LG Nexus 4. It was the same width and a cm shorter in height approximately. But with the power button half way down the right hand edge, using the Z1 was a breeze. The phone was super snappy. Everything just opened effortlessly and very quickly. I had a play with the camera and the full resolution shots are attached below. They might take a little while to appear as a result. If you use Superior Auto it shoots in 8mp. Manual allows the full 20.7mp. I also used the AR Camera mode and had fun with the dinosaurs. Strangely, the sweep panorama mode photos ended up being only 400kb in file size.

The next 3 photos are shot in Superior Auto mode at 8mp.

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And now at full 20.7mp resolution. So let me know what you think about the quality of the photos. No flash was used in any of the shots. Personally, I wasn’t convinced by the quality of these photos, despite being taken in tricky lighting conditions.
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Sony Xperia Z1 official launched by Sony at IFA Berlin 2013 – details

Android, Tech News

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The Sony Xperia Z1 has a 5-inch 1080p Triluminos and X-Reality display, a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, up to 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, 20.7-megapixel camera, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system. The press release also states that the Xperia Z1 can be paired with the upcoming Cyber-shot QX10 and QX100 lens cameras. That right, you can bolt on with an attachment these lenses and use the phone as the viewfinder and controller.

The Z1 is water and dust resistant, with an IP55/58 rating, the Z1 can sit in water up to 1.5 metres deep for 30 minutes and work fine during and after its removal. Unlike the Xperia Z, the Z1 has no cover on the headphone jack. Not sure how that works but it is rather clever.

Sony has included new apps –

Social Live – Allows you to share real time live images with friends on Facebook.
Info Eye – Brings information to you based on a picture you take of an object. Think of it as an intelligent web search. It works with landmarks, wine, books, QR & bar codes.
Timeshift Burst – Capture 60 frames in one click in less than 2 seconds, so you can pick the perfect image
AR Effect – Fun animations for your photos. Themes such as dinosaurs and ocean life are installed.

The 61 frames in 2 seconds is incredible, and 30 of those are before you press the camera button. Also the 20.7 mp camera does 3 x lossless zoom and includes an F2.0 aperture, a focal length of 27mm (wide angle), a max ISO of 6400 (in auto mode), SteadyShot, HDR for photo and video.

Whilst not too much was made of the audio, I believe it will feature 192/48 HQ standard. It has a micro SD slot and a 3,000 maH battery. In addition it will have Bluetooth v4, and a dedicated camera button.

If you are still not tempted, Sony is also bundling 60 days of free Music Unlimited access, 10 free PlayStation Mobile games, and 6 “blockbuster” movies.

The Xperia Z1 will launch this September but available from Clove Technology to pre order for £470 plus VAT.
http://www.clove.co.uk/sony-xperia-z1

This looks like a very tempting phone. Just wonder what Samsung, HTC or Apple have up their sleeves to combat this piece of tech.