phone 35 – sony xperia z

this is the 6th phone i acquired in 2021, also a loan collateral. this was released in 2013, 8 years before 2021. this phone started the simple design cues on xperia flagships, yes, up to now, 2021. you get a monolithic phone that might not catch any attention, unless you see simple things as pleasing to the eye like me. though this phone has some share of criticisms from those who think their opinions are valuable. ha!  for one, the glass sandwich design was criticized (but look at em phones in 2021). ip certification, which is still quite low on this phone was claimed to be useless (and flagships and even midrangers in 2021 boast such feature in 2021). then, there is that poor viewing angles that i will tell more later on this post.

being older than xperia z2, it is understandable that the battery charging and life is worse than the latter. however, it managed to charged faster than the z2, at 3 hours and 55 minutes. but the battery life is a couple of hours shorter than the z2. it lasts for a day and 32 minutes. more than 5 hours of which is its screen on time. can we still find new phones with such screen on time in 2021?

battery score card

this first generation of the z series is still lacking design cues that can benefit to immersive audio. i am talking about stereo front firing speakers. instead this phone has single loudspeaker placed on the lower right corner. but the quality is quite decent. it is just too quiet in 2021, that i usually bump the volume to max to get a similar volume as the half of the xperia 1 ii. put on a wireless audio, experience becomes better. 3.5mm wired audio is also present, since it was released when smartphones consider it as a nobrainer to include. however, the port is covered by flaps which quite minimize convenience. besides, i doubt that the water resistance is still intact since this device is too old and it is refurbished, too.

web browsing is just okay. poor viewing angles is noticeable here. i think, color shift starts at about 10-15 degrees from the middle. line of sight should be perpendicular to the display to properly see good color rendering. the sharpness is there even at some angle. so black text on white background does not really post issue on viewing angles. but for images and texts with colors that are not in contrast is an issue. but again, you can always shift how you look at the display.

gaming is quite decent. it is more powerful than xperia miro and xperia sp, but this first generation z phone has no sd800 series. so look elsewhere when you are thinking of games in 2021.

the camera on this phone was enough for photo shoots and video recording, but not in 2021. even entry level smartphones of 2021 can have way better outputs. the improvement on z2 over this phone is noticeable. as for the camera user experience, the z series is quite consistent. you get scene recognition in auto mode and manual setting is not flexible. there are also apps within the camera app. if you are familiar with lenses on windows phone, it is similar to that.

video playback is decent. but, it also suffers on two of the major criticisms on this phone – the poor viewing angles and the non immersive placement of the single loudspeaker. it makes the xperia z not ideal for sharing a movie session, even just for another person, aside from you. benefits of being single, eh?

drawbacks on this phone makes it undesirable in 2021. the loudspeaker might pass, since not all phones in 2021 has stereo front firing loudspeaker. but the volume fall too short. the display will also look washed out compared to the growing smartphones using oled panels, or better versions of ips panels. but, like every xperia i have, it is a joy to look at. it resembles a slab of tinted glass. this phone is also light and fits good on the hand. sharp corners was one of the criticisms also, but i do not find it as an issue. i never had a cut using it all day. ha!

phone 34 – sony xperia z2

yet, another phone i acquired in 2021 that was released in 2014. this phone is the best partner for the sony xperia z2 tablet, which i reviewed most recently. it was released when sony xperia z1 compact (a) [sony xperia z1 compact (b)] was still available, which i preferred as a personal phone. sony xperia z3 was also available afterwards, which i picked as my first dedicated work phone. though z3 has minimal improvements over z2, which is obvious after having some time with the z2. but, btw, this phone was also a loan collateral, and a refurbished one.

the refurbished part makes me prefer the xperias i acquired in the past. for one, flaps are not of good fit. back cover has no enough adhesives as i can easily lift a corner. aside from those physical indicators, generally it is fine, including the performance. at some point, the performance is almost like my z5 premium. almost.

how did the battery performed? it was able to fully charged for 4 hours and 16 minutes, which is on the lower spectrum of the phones in my arsenal. and for 2021, that is way too undesirable. perhaps, the counterfeit charging brick and cable has something to do with it, or the battery, since i am not sure about its quality. though the battery life comes around average, again, among my collections. it almost had 8 hours sot, or in total, along with inactive period, results to a day, 4 hours and 49 minutes.

battery score card

music play is similar to all my xperia z series in the collection – z1 compact (a) [z1 compact (b)], z3, z5 premium (whether bluetooth wireless or 3.5mm wired audio). that means, audio upscaling results to lower volume, unlike the ones with dsee ultimate. front firing stereo loudspeaker is as immersive to that of z3 and z5 premium.

web browsing is just fine. gaming. photo shoots and video recording. video playback. these things are really similar to that of my sony xperia z3, so you might want to jump to that review. what is quite not right on this part, though, is the flash. it seldom fires.

being too similar to my z3, i can easily mirror the apps and tasks on this device, except for the mentioned inconveniences. so, as a device for 2021, this is still a viable option when you are looking for a back up phone for calls and sms. also, still good for media consumption, just short of hdr display. also, the display might be too dim on brighter environment and is too bright on a dark environment. it does not have an amber effect for night viewing, but you can manually tweak the display for less blue and more red for comfortable reading before sleeping.

phone 33 – sony xperia z2 tablet

another unique device i got as a loan collateral is this phone, sony xperia z2 tablet. ye, i mean tablet. a tablet that can take calls and sms. this device was released in 2014. that was about 7 years ago. this is so hard to find, nowadays, so i consider myself lucky that the debtor did not pay his loan. ha! this is also hard to fix. so?

battery test! charging is more than a nap. it almost cover my usual sleep period. that is, 5 hours and 55 minutes. so, just like the usual solution for such, overnight charging! but, in fairness, battery life is superb. it is on my preferred battery life, that is near 2 day. this phone lasts for 2 days and 20 minutes. so a daily charge to top up the power is better, i guess, than the overnight charging.

battery score card

music play is great! the loudspeaker set up is what i wanted to see on xperia z ultra. xperia z2 tablet has front firing stereo speakers. being set apart significantly, audio coming out is immersive. play a music that has obvious left and right sound separation, then you will enjoy it more. the bluetooth wireless and 3.5mm wired audio is the usual experience for an xperia device. there are some changes on walkman user interface to maximize the screen size.

one of the best uses of this phone… uhmm, tablet… is web browsing. the page rendering is fast enough and you get a lot of information at once because of the large display. the fine display shows texts and images, nicely. not as sharp as the xperia z5 premium nor the 2021 tablets with 2k displays, but sharp enough for usual web browsing. you just need to zoom in if you need to inspect an image – pixel peep, which i sometimes do on my laptop.

game play is immersive on this phone, like how immersive music play is. stereo audio and large display helped each other for immersive game play. it might not run most games in 2021, but when your games are not power hungry, but needs a good view, then phones… tablets… such as xperia z2 tablet is a good choice, if not the best. me? i am fine with it playing subway surfer with no annoying lags (some lags, but not annoying). i guess, racing games are good as well since this phone… tablet… is not heavy.

photo shoots and video recording are already quite boring to discuss here. so you can check xperia z1 compact (a) [xperia z1 compact (b)] and xperia z3 dual as the camera experience is very similar to those. also, consider xperia z ultra as this phone… tablet… has no flash and nightmode is not that good back then.

video playback is another ideal thing to do on this tablet. it is the best thing to do. stuff movies here, then you are good to go. perhaps, at most 5 people can enjoy movie sessions with this. viewing angles is already good on this tablet, just like the sony xperia z ultra. audio is also good enough for such number of viewers.

there are many tasks you can still do on this tablet. include the tasks that are usual these days. during zoom meetings, you can fit in more participants in one screen as this tablet has 10 inches display which satisfies such platform for such capability. it would also be useful to students for their online class. remote control for television is here, too. digital drawing is also ideal on large display such as this. sure, tablets released on 2021 is better in some ways. but if you can still find a sony xperia z2 tablet in working condition, or at least similar to what i have – include the value i exchanged with it, then it is still a capable and worthy tablet in 2021.

phone 32 – sony xperia xz premium

one of the loan collaterals i liked the most, is this phone. and as of this writing, i officially own it. being released in 2017, got it about 4 years later, 2021. this phone is actually part of my upgrade story i mentioned on sony xperia 1 ii post. the main reason i skipped it before was that it is too early for me to upgrade. now that i have this phone, that is history.

battery test is mixed. for the charging part, i find it slow, even after comparing it to older sony xperia z5 premium. charging duration consumes 2 hours and 56 minutes. but the battery life impresses. it lasts for 5 hours and 14 minutes more than 2 days. since i am okay with 2 days or a little less than that, i was really surprised.

battery score card

music play is nothing different to xperias i bought in 2020, sony xperia xz2 compact and sony xperia 1 ii and i find the audio better than the previous ones, up to z5 premium. quite loud and immersive due to stereo front firing loudspeakers. same experience is also present on wireless audio and 3.5mm wired audio. nothing to complain about.

web browsing is also great, better than z5 premium; brighter. it also compensates well in dark rooms. it does not strain the eye even for longer use, despite of it being an ips display. texts and images are crisps. i also get higher resolution screenshots. so, i do not have to zoom in on web pages when i take screenshots.

gaming is also a joy on this phone. no stutters on subway surfer, even on the most recent. unlike my experience on z5 premium where some hiccups are quite obvious. not just on the raw performance, but the ips hdr display and stereo front firing speakers make it so immersive in game play.

photo shoots and video recording are great as well. the experience is similar to that of sony xperia xz2 compact. you might want to check that post.

video play is also similar to sony xperia xz2 compact. the only difference is that, this phone can play 4k videos, natively. in 2017, users enjoyed 4k hdr videos that are recorded using this phone. but, there are already a lot of contents in 2021 to maximize the use of the display, whether just the 4k contents or those that are in high dynamic range. even youtube is pushing 4k contents to phones not having a display to show it natively, making the users short changed, except for the higher bit rate that 4k contents on youtube has. for this phone, you will experience not only the higher bit rate but also of the real 4k goodness.

overall, this is still a good phone in 2021. i believe it can still do what most phones in 2021 do. whether it be media consumption, even creation and gaming. might be off for those requiring software and security updates. but if you are okay with that and just use this phone for media consumption without putting in sensitive information, this is still a capable phone. i even find the display and audio quality better than some phones released in 2021.

phone 31 – sony xperia z ultra

another phone as a loan collateral. most phones i acquired (yes, considered all loan collateral as such) in 2021 are, anyway. this was released in 2013, like the sony xperia sp, nokia lumia 1020, asus fonepad note fhd6, and htc desire 200. so, it took me about 8 years before having it.

i was informed that it is refurbished, too. quite obvious on the body. the back glass panel seemed to be some millimeter short to fit on the frame and dried adhesives are visible. flaps do not fit well. did it change the experience? i am not sure since i have no xperia z ultra way back when it was released. but, read on as i mention some things that affected the experience on the use cases under my battery testing.

speaking of battery testing, the phone was fully charged for a little over 4 hours. it managed to last for a day and 40 minutes. 5 hours and 40 minutes of which is screen on time.

battery score card

music play is fine. the placement of the loudspeaker just missed the opportunity of making this phone immersive, at least on the audio side. the mono down firing loudspeaker is loud enough but i wish they went for a stereo front firing speaker. quality is good as well. and as for all xperia handsets with flagship specifications, bluetooth wireless and 3.5mm wired audio is impressive.

web browsing is also a nice experience on this phone with its large 6.4 inches display at 16:9 aspect ratio. it would be a nice alternative as an ereader, if you are okay with it not being on 4:3 aspect ratio. texts and images are crisp. even sharper than 14 inches laptop with 1080p resolution. loading of pages is fast enough including the navigation.

casual games are handled nicely as well. lags are not obvious when playing subway surfer. it might handle some modern games in 2021, as long as those are not needing much raw power and graphics. game play is also immersive with such display size, but you have to settle with wired audio, since the loudspeaker is, again, not that immersive being single downfiring.

photo shoots and video recording are not the strength of this phone. especially on dark scenes, since it does not even have an led flash. low light performance is also weak. on daylight, at least i can say that the resulting shots and videos are usable. include here, a selfie camera that also performs okayish.

for video play, that loudspeaker placement, again decreases the immersive experience the phone should have. the display is excellent. you can bump the contrast and saturation if you want to. but colors are already good by default. it really resembles sony tv when placed on table. viewing angles are also good for sharing movie time to about 2-3 people.

there are a lot of things to love about this phone, even considering that this phone is a refurbished one. if only it has a stereo front firing loudspeaker, it would be an equal alternative to my asus fonepad note fhd6 for some small group movie time. there are some issues i found on it though. one is on the display. when unlocking the phone, it is either images will not emerge, just the backlight, or it flickers for some time. second, the touchscreen is quite inconsistent. it is not as bad as the xperia sp. include to that the capability to use a pencil. while using a pencil on the sketch app, there are times when the input on a certain part of the touchscreen is not processed. at times, when writing, using a pencil, lines are cut on some places.

in 2021, this phone might still be of good use. with online classes and work from home setup, this is good enough. it can also be nice as an extra device to handle music play and movie time on the side.

phone 30 – sony ericsson w980

this is just another loan collateral, which i will eventually own. but, got this in 2021 – the first phone i acquired in 2021. sort of. this was released in 2008. that is about 13 years, this 2021.

the previous owner (soon to be) admitted that the phone is a refurbished one. needless to say, the phone really looks refurbished and that the parts were not meticulously made. for instance, the paint job at the back missed some spots.

charging is quite average with almost 3 hours. what is underwhelming is the battery life. it only manages to have 17 hours in total. only 4 hours screen on time. this phone is a feature phone and has low resolution display, so i doubt the display drains much power. likewise, during inactive testing, the battery still drains. it made me believe that most smartphones, especially lately, are already good at optimizing battery life. low battery capacity might also be responsible for the noticeable battery drain during inactive testing of this phone.

battery score card

choosing this phone over millions of other collectible phones, means you are looking for a music centric phone. not that, this is the only one or the best of yesteryears. but the phone screams – walkman! but not today. music experience is just okay. the loudspeaker is not that loud, nor it has excellent quality. since i did not have the phone years ago and this one is a refurbished one, i am not sure if the original w980 really sounds like what this phone sounds. put on a wireless earphones, then music will sound better. that is how good wireless audio nowadays, earphones can make it up for the phone. however, wired audio on the phone is noticeably better than the wireless audio. bluetooth version of the phone might not be enough to support upscaling. the bad thing is, w980 has no 3.5mm audio port. sony ericsson uses proprietary port on this phone, like most of their phones during those times. in a way, usb type c to 3.5mm audio port dongle is better than the connector needed by this phone, as you need to align the pins on the proprietary port. the previous owner included an adaptor, so i was able to test the wired audio. if you get pass that inconvenience, you will enjoy music better. i even tried a bluetooth speaker which has also a 3.5mm audio port. and it really does have noticeable difference. wireless audio seem to mute other frequencies (again, this might be because of early versions of bluetooth audio on this phone), while the wired audio produces better volume of different frequencies. this phone also has some gimmick on music play, on the visual side. it has a set of led like that of xperia sp. but this w980 only has two colors – orange and white, unlike the rgb on xperia sp. while testing, music player uses the orange, white for everything else.

i failed to test web browsing since i cannot figure out which is the problem. i was not able to successfully connect, despite having a working network. sms and calls worked though. i guess the connection instructions on the phone is already outdated that the network cannot understand. so for the entire timeslot of testing web browsing, i spend it for trying to connect. unlike the sony ericsson satio which still lets me do a google search.

games. you got some mix – soduko, racing and blocks (sort of tetris). among these, racing is the only game that uses a sensor that is not quite popular those days, i think – gyroscope. there is the traditional way of playing it – pressing the buttons. but the use of gyroscope does improved the experience on it. not as enjoyable as the modern smartphones since the display is small, the graphics are old (obviously), and the form factor is not “race friendly”, but it is fun.

photo shoots and video recording are also possible on the phone. the camera placement is just quite off. usually my finger covers it. it is a perfect spot for my finger when handling the phone. as for the resulting photos and videos, i am not disappointed. there is even a nightmode. of course it is not as good as the nightmode in 2021, but it is good enough for a scene with some lightings. same with videos, but is too slow to be saved.

video play is not ideal too. it can play videos, but the small display affects the experience. it is good enough to review the videos taken with the phone, which is i guess same with most phones during its time, where media consumption is not yet widespread on a phone – or at least phones just satisfy the “it can do” level of experience. but the colors are good.

this is another phone that can still be used as back up in 2021. a nice phone when you want to go off the world wide web, too.

phone 29 – sony xperia sp

this is a loan collateral as i am writing this. and since i am allowed to test it, i did this review. also putting this on review of my collections, means i have a feeling that i will own this eventually. this is one of the phones i wanted to have. so considering i owned it since 2020 that was released on 2013 means it is 7 years since the release.

and here is the battery test for 2021. i have not tested it in 2020, so i cannot compare it to its previous charging duration and battery life. charging is too slow for 2021. for almost 5 hours, some people’s sleep duration is not enough for this phone to fully charge. but i tested worse than this before – asus fonepad note fhd6 for over 7 hours and htc windows phone 8x for over 11 hours. but xperia sp managed to last for a day, 2 hours and 22 minutes. what is interesting is, the battery percentage climbs up when the phone is inactive, at least on the first two sessions of inactive use. perhaps, the battery software recalibrates the capacity during those times. can somebody explain this?

battery score card

one thing that made me want this phone since years ago, is the led strip on its bottom part. unlike my xperia miro, xperia sp only has this led strip. no other led light for notifications. it means, the large led strip on this phone handles the notification, unlike xperia miro that needs an app to fully customize a small led strip on its bottom part, since the led light on the top part handles the notifications by default (and will still light up even with the led strip customized). and where did i enjoy watching the large led strip? the walkman app. the large led strip does not only use the dominant color of the album art of the song being played. it also blinks along with the beats. it resembles sony speakers with led strips on them. as for the sound, the back firing loudspeaker is decently loud. wireless audio and 3.5mm wired audio experience is on par with xperia miro, quite near xperia z1 compact (a) [xperia z1 compact (b)] and xperia z3 dual.

web browsing on the phone is not advisable though. the display size is just okay, since i managed to browse the web using xperia z1compact (a) [xperia compact (b)] with ease. what makes the experience not ideal, is the inconsistent touchscreen. i am not sure if xperia sp works like this since the release or because the phone is old, or refurbished. zooming and scrolling on the pages are quite frustrating. though, images and texts look good on the display, except when you used to view it at an extreme angle, which is less likely.

gaming on this phone is better than on xperia miro. but not in comparison to xperia z1 compact (a) [xperia z1 compact (b)]. occasional stutters happen on my test game – subway surfer. the problem on touchscreen also affects the game play.

photo shoots and video recording, is quite a downside. at times, i even see xperia miro having better resulting images and videos. it just surpasses xperia miro on the selfie camera, but not by much and is obviously quite far to that of xperia z1 compact (a) [xperia z1 compact (b)].

for video play, the display has good colors. in 2021, it looks washed out compared to other phones, not only of those having oled panel but also those having ips hdr, like the xz2 compact. but there is an option to make the videos have a little punch – more contrast and saturation. it comes in handy for those who wants it that way.

overall, for 2021, it is a good phone. a back up phone. if you want a phone for usual sms and calling, and music play that turns beats into lights, then this phone can cover those wants.