Sony's in the midst of a mobile revival, but for all of the positive critical response, the Japanese monolith seems to have fallen out of favor with major U.S. carriers as of late. The Xperia Z3v ($199.99 with contract) is the first Sony cell phone to land on Verizon Wireless since the ill-fated Xperia Play in 2011. Fortunately for Sony, and Sony diehards tied to Verizon, it's a good one. The Z3v is better built than the Samsung Galaxy S5 ($49.98 at Amazon) and shoots better pictures than the HTC One (M8) ($450.00 at Amazon) . Waterproofing and exclusive PS4 remote play add to the flagship bona fides. Choosing between the current crop of high-end Android smartphones will largely come down to personal taste, but the Z3v joins the upper echelon of phones on Verizon, earning our Editors' Choice award along the way.
Design, Features, and Call Quality
A variant of the Z3 proper we first saw at IFA, the Z3v looks nearly unchanged from the Z2—which itself looked a lot like the Z1s we reviewed on T-Mobile last year. Rounded, rubbery nylon with flat aluminum inserts surrounds the Z3v's perimeter, sandwiched between two panes of scratchproof glass. Call it subtle or conservative, but Sony's nailed down the art of industrial design.
At 5.85 by 2.89 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and 6.02 ounces, the Z3v is noticeably larger and heavier than the Z3; it's actually closer in size to the Z2. It's also on the thick and heavy side for flagship phones these days, though I wouldn't personally consider that a huge detriment—it feels substantial, like a high-end piece of kit should. That extra volume might be thanks to the slightly larger battery and inclusion of Qi wireless charging support. Power, Volume, and Camera buttons line the right edge, below a flap covering the microSD card slot. On the opposite edge are two more flaps that cover the SIM card tray and micro USB port.
Similar Products
Samsung Galaxy S5 (Verizon Wireless)
HTC One (M8) (Verizon Wireless)
LG G3 (Verizon Wireless)
The 5.2-inch, 1080p LCD hasn't undergone any appreciable change in quality over the Z2. It's sharp (424ppi), bright, and has a wide viewing angle, but those are table stakes for high-end displays. It doesn't match the GS5's maximum brightness or contrast, but its whites look cleaner and there's never any color shift when viewing off angle. I'd put this display in line with the One M8's LCD. Above and below the display are two speaker slits, which pump out loud audio that rivals the front-facing speakers on the Moto X and aforementioned M8.
Like the regular Z3, the Z3v features IP65 and IP68 water- and dust-proof ratings. That means you can dunk it into 4.9 feet of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. The tradeoff here is the need for port covers, but if you have a Qi charging pad, you won't have to fuss with cables or uncovering ports too often. It worked with a Nexus Wireless Charger, but finding the right position takes some practice. I dunked the Z3v in a container filled with water for over 30 minutes with no ill effects. You can't use the display while it's submerged, but thanks to the physical camera shutter, you can open the camera and snap some pics. Water sets off the touch screen, causing errant snapshots and erratic behavior, but Sony adds a clever setting in the camera app that lets you disable touch input.
The Z3v supports Verizon's 3G CMDA (850/1900MHz) and LTE (Bands 4 and 13) networks, and features global support for GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and UMTS (850/900/1900/2100MHz) networks. As we found in our latest Fastest Mobile Networks tests, Verizon has the best LTE network overall nationwide and the Z3v seamlessly taps into these blazing fast speeds. Call quality, though, is only average, falling short of the GS5 and M8. The earpiece gets very loud, but tends to sound harsh at upper volume levels. Transmissions through the mic were muffled in my tests, and in louder environments the noise cancellation gave my voice a robotic quality.
In my tests, the 3,200mAh battery was good for 4 hours, 10 minutes of video streaming over LTE with screen brightness set to max. That's comparable to the 4 hours, 33 minutes turned in by the iPhone 6, but short of the 7 hours of the GS5.
Performance and Conclusions
Performance and Android
The Z3v uses a quad-core, 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC with 3GB RAM. Though that may be somewhat disappointing with the newly available Snapdragon 805 finding its way into phones like the Galaxy Note 4, the 801 is still a more-than-capable chip. The biggest difference comes down to the GPU, but the Adreno 330 in the 801 has plenty of juice for the Z3v's 1080p display—the Note 4 ($307.97 at Amazon) has a more demanding Quad HD panel, which makes the new Adreno 420 GPU more necessary. The Z3v felt zippy and responsive, cruising through any task we threw its way. I'd even give an edge to the Z3v over the GS5, as its software load is less bloated.
Samsung and LG have reined in their Android skins this year, but Sony's had a minimal skin for some time now. The Z3v runs Android 4.4 with some light aesthetic changes and thoughtful add-ons that most should find useful. Digging into the Settings menu reveals a ton of personalization options. You can download compatible themes from the Google Play store if you prefer something more unique, but the most useful features are the customization options for the status bar and notification panel. Android's oft-overloaded status bar has long been a pet peeve of mine, but Sony lets you check or uncheck which icons show in the bar, which goes a long way towards cleaning things up. You can change the quick settings options and easily manage individual app notifications from a single page.
Audio and display settings can be tuned to your liking, including equalizer settings for the former and white balance for the latter. These are more targeted at nitpicky users, but they're thoughtful additions nonetheless. Sony includes three battery saving modes: Stamina, Ultra Stamina, and Low Battery. Stamina mode dials back background data, but also lets you whitelist apps that can keep an active connection. Ultra Stamina mode pairs down the Z3v to basic phone functions, which is similar to power saving modes found on both the GS5 and M8. Low Battery mode is essentially a shortcut to enable your preferred battery saving settings, like turning off Wi-Fi and GPS or lowering screen brightness.
Sony's small app multitasking feature is here, but it's starting to lag behind what's on offer from Samsung and LG. It uses floating, resizable windows like LG's QSlide, but it's more limited out of the box. The small browser is easily the most useful, but there's no small messaging or dialer app available by default. Sony has a fairly extensive selection of third-party apps on Google Play and you can turn widgets into small apps, but those options aren't guaranteed to be reliable. The Gmail small app is pretty limited, showing only a list of emails in your inbox—clicking one opens up the actual Gmail app, which seems a bit redundant.
The Z3v will support PlayStation 4 game streaming and controllers, but that feature was unavailable during testing. Still, the mere inclusion could be a selling point for PS4 fans.
Of the 32GB of built-in storage, 24.71GB is available out of the box. Sony adds a few useless apps of its own, like the annoying Xperia Lounge and What's New apps, which are not only permanent, but also pop up unwanted notifications for Sony deals and news. Verizon adds far more apps of its own, including redundant apps like VZ Navigator. None of them are removable and Verizon goes so far as making its own messaging app the default over Sony's or Google Hangouts.
Camera and Conclusions
Sony's been using the same 20.7-megapixel sensor since the Z1s. It's larger than your standard smartphone sensor at 1/2.3 inches, which is closer in size to what you'd find in a point-and-shoot camera. Curiously, Sony touts a new maximum ISO 12800 for the Z3, but our Z3v could only go up to ISO 6400. That's not a huge issue, though, as pushing the ISO past that point results in really grainy images.
As it is, the Z3v takes tack sharp pictures in bright light—it defaults to 8 megapixels in auto mode, but going into manual opens up the full resolution option. The latter option is useful for cropping and reframing shots, maintaining a lot of detail even when zoomed in, but the 8-megapixel shots looks equally nice if you don't plan on cropping. Contrast still isn't great, and I found focus to be a bit slow in low light. Image quality is comparable with the iPhone 6 in good light, but nearly every high-end camera can take great images in good light these days. In less than ideal light, image noise becomes an issue, robbing shots of detail. The Z3v is towards the top of the pack for Android camera quality, but I wish focus was a bit quicker.
Video tops out at 4K resolution with a steady 30 frames per second, even under indoor light. Video quality is strong, capturing tons of detail without a ton of the smudging compression artifacts that are typical for low-light video. I prefer the quality of the 4K video here to the 4K video shot with a Note 4, so if you happen to have a need for high-res video, the Z3v is a good performer in that respect.
The Xperia Z3v on Verizon Wireless marks Sony's long-awaited return to a major U.S. carrier not named T-Mobile. It's big, beautiful, and packed with thoughtful features without going overboard. There are three major Android handsets to contend with: the GS5, M8, and LG G3 . All four phones share similar guts and features, but each comes with its own set of compromises. The GS5's build quality is lamentable and its software load can be offensive to discerning Android fans. The M8 is beautifully crafted, but has the worst rear camera of the bunch. The G3 is a technical marvel, but its GPU can struggle to keep up with the Quad HD display, and its design doesn't exactly scream high-end. Though it's not quite the class leader in any single respect, the Z3v avoids any glaring deficiency. That might not sound exciting, but in a market with so much parity between devices, a lack of weaknesses can be a great strength. As such, the Z3v is worthy of an Editors' Choice distinction.
The Xperia Z3v marks Sony's triumphant return to Verizon, offering high-end specs and features without some of the compromises of its smartphone peers.
Like What You're Reading?
Sign up for Fully Mobilized newsletter to get our top mobile tech stories delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
