Sony Xperia Z3 (T-Mobile) Review

The Xperia Z3v ($99.99 at Amazon)  is an excellent smartphone, but Sony had to ditch an already-refreshed design to deliver a unique device on Verizon. The resulting phone looks more like the older Z2, while adding features like Qi wireless charging and unfortunate bloatware to curry favor with Verizon. The Z3 proper now makes its unadulterated U.S. debut on T-Mobile, one of the few carriers that stayed the Sony course over the past few years. The Z3 is slightly more expensive than competing flagships at $630 (or 24 monthly payments of $26.25), but it's better built than the Galaxy S5 , takes better pictures than the One (M8), and has longer battery life than the LG G3. Like its Verizon counterpart, the Z3's well-rounded feature set and polished experience make it one of the best flagship smartphones on T-Mobile.

Design, Features, and Call Quality
We liked the Z3v, even with its more dated design language, but the Z3 proper looks better still. It's noticeably slimmer and lighter at 5.75 by 2.83 by 0.29 inches (HWD) and 5.36 ounces. The rounded edges are made from single pieces of aluminum, instead of nylon with aluminum panels. It feels both more comfortable to hold and a bit more premium. The curvature of the sides also makes it easier to open the flaps covering the micro USB port and microSD card slot. Small details make the difference here. The Z3 rivals the M8  on fit and finish, and blows away the Galaxy S5 in terms of build quality.

The 5.2-inch, 1,920-by-1,080-pixel IPS LCD looks identical to the display used in the Z3v. It's not quite as bright or vivid as the Galaxy S5's full HD AMOLED display, but colors and white balance are more accurately rendered. Stereo front-facing speakers get pretty loud without sounding overly harsh—think YouTube video sharing, not room-filling music.

With IP65 and IP68 water- and dust-proof ratings, the Z3 can withstand being submerged in 4.9 feet of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, provided the port covers are securely closed. It worked as advertised in our tests, shaking off a session at the bottom of a vase of water. You won't be able to use the touch screen, but the physical camera shutter allows you to take pics underwater. The Z3 loses the Qi wireless charging compatibility of its Verizon counterpart, instead sticking with Sony's proprietary docking contacts on the left side of the phone.

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The Z3 connects to T-Mobile's GSM/UMTS (850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz) and LTE (Bands 2 and 4) networks, which means fast HSPA+ 42 and AWS LTE where available. T-Mobile had a strong showing in our latest Fastest Mobile Networks tests, but it still can't match Verizon's nationwide coverage. Call quality was solid in our tests, with strong volume in the earpiece and natural sounding transmissions through the mic. We found it easy to understand voices on either end of the line, but voices weren't as crisp as we've heard on the GS5. Noise cancellation couldn't match the GS5 or Moto X, struggling with wind buffeting and letting more noise through in general than either of those phones.

Rounding out the connectivity options are dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS. The Z3 had no issue connecting to our 5GHz access point from 50 feet away in the crowded airwaves of our lab, something the Droid Turbo recently struggled to consistently nail down. Wi-Fi speeds hovered between 5-8Mbps down and 2-5Mbps up, which was on par with a Moto X ($249.00 at Amazon) , but well short of the Note 4's routine 20Mbps down and 10Mbps up in side-by-side tests. Right now only the GS5 and Note 4 feature 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi, which makes a dramatic difference in speeds compared with the 1x1 setups found in every other smartphone, including the iPhone 6.

In a battery rundown test, where we stream a YouTube video over LTE with screen brightness set to max, the Z3 lasted for 6 hours, 5 minutes before the test cut off with 30 percent battery remaining. That's a very strong result, besting devices like the iPhone 6, which turned in 4 hours, 33 minutes in the same test.

Performance, Android, and PlayStation
With the same internal foundation and software setup, we didn't notice any appreciable difference in performance or overall experience between the Z3v and Z3. To recap: The quad-core, 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and Adreno 330 GPU make for potent, if not class-leading, performance. Phones like the Note 4 ($307.97 at Amazon)  and Droid Turbo have moved onto the newer Snapdragon 805 platform, but increases in screen resolution for those two phones balance out some of the gains. Any way you cut it, though, the Z3 is an incredibly speedy phone that tears through most tasks, including graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8.

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Performance, Android, and Camera

We won't go into too much detail about the software build, since it's essentially identical between the Z3v and Z3. Sony's skin, here running atop Android 4.4, is far less offensive than, say, Samsung's bloated TouchWiz launcher, but it's not as close to stock as Motorola's. We like thoughtful features like global notification management, easy customization, and granular power saving control. We can live without useless or redundant services like the ever-annoying What's New app and Sony's separate app updater for its first-party apps. Sony has also promised an update to Android 5.0 for the Z3 and we don't expect T-Mobile to delay that process at all.

Of the 32GB of storage, 25.52GB is available to users out of the box. You get your usual helping of T-Mobile apps that are slightly less offensive and redundant than AT&T or Verizon's preloads. Sony also adds its own apps like the aforementioned What's New and Xperia Lounge, neither of which can be deleted.

If you have a Sony PlayStation 4, the Xperia Z3 offers a unique bonus: remote gameplay. Sony's Android smartphone can connect to the game system through a local network over the Internet to let you play PS4 games through the phone. It's the same Remote Play feature offered in the PlayStation Vita and PS Vita Slim (PCH-2000), and if you don't already have a Vita, it's a nice option.

The setup process is simple, but can be finicky depending on your network. Join the same network as the PS4, open the PS4 app, and select the system. Enter an eight-digit code displayed on the PS4's screen to link the phone to the console. After that, tap the Remote Play button (or load the Remote Play app separately), and enter another eight-digit code to register the phone as a Remote Play device. Once that's done, you can access your PS4 through the Xperia Z3 anywhere, as long as it's on and connected to the Internet. We experienced a few hiccups getting it to work; the corporate network in our lab threw up some hurdles in linking the PS4 to the phone, so we tried the process on a home network where it worked with little problem.

Remote Play puts the PS4's screen on the Xperia Z3's screen and overlays a touch screen gamepad for control. The face buttons and direction pad are fixed on the screen, and the analog sticks float wherever you press your thumb where there isn't already a control, letting you easily make precision movements. This still requires putting your thumbs all over the screen, and it's not the most comfortable way to play, but fortunately there's an alternative. You can pair the Xperia Z3 with a DualShock 2 controller to effectively give you the exact same user experience as if you were sitting in front of your PS4 itself.

We used the Xperia Z3 to access the PS Store through Remote Play and download The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth to my PS4. The download disrupted the connection a bit, and the app warned me that the network environment wasn't suitable for Remote Play while downloading. When we paused the download and pulled up Spelunky through the phone, though, the game was smooth and responsive. Obviously, this depends on the network connection of both your phone and PS4, but the feature certainly works as advertised. Gaming purists who want to enjoy Remote Play would be better off seeking the dedicated physical controls of a PS Vita, but the phone provides a compelling experience especially with its DualShock 2 support.

Camera and Conclusions
The 20.7-megapixel, rear-facing camera hasn't undergone any major changes since the Z2. The lens has a slightly wider field of view, but we didn't notice any appreciable difference in sharpness. Maximum sensor sensitivity jumps to ISO 12800, which you'll almost never need or want to use, really—you can get brighter shots, but at the cost of excessive image noise and skewed colors. That sensitivity is also only available in auto mode. Images look largely indistinguishable whether they're taken with the Z2, Z3, or Z3v. Shots look full of detail with reliably accurate exposure and focus. Dynamic range is excellent, as the Z3 preserved dark foreground details and bright highlights, even in severely backlit scenes. The camera defaults to 8-megapixel shots, but if you're shooting wide and planning on cropping, you can take full resolution shots in manual mode. Video quality is excellent here, as well, and the Z3 shoots good 4K footage if you have the TV to appreciate it on.

Sony has a winner on its hands, but the real challenge will be getting it into hands of U.S. consumers. At $630, it's one of the more expensive smartphones on T-Mobile—the Galaxy S5 lists for $609.60, while the G3 ($119.00 at Amazon)  and M8 are cheaper still at $598.80 and $585.60, respectively. $30-$50 isn't hugely significant, though, especially in the context of unsubsidized prices. Those extra dollars will net you the most roundly excellent smartphone available on T-Mobile, one that has marked advantages over the competition with few weaknesses. It's an easy pick for an Editors' Choice award.