Sony Z3 Compact - The best little Android in the universe

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TJ99

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Orange has the Compact for a lot cheaper than the full sized Z3.. About R1200 difference. I'm actually torn between getting this or the Note 4... It's really a great little phone.
 
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kingrob

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TJ99 said:
Orange has the Compact for a lot cheaper than the full sized Z3.. About R1200 difference. I'm actually torn between getting this or the Note 4... It's really a great little phone.
Click to expand...

It is extremely difficult to choose a phone nowadays with the huge choice we have. :)

Piesang even made a poll!

Most important is you must sit down and decide how you use your phone, if there is something that you need to do often, but cant, and then choose the phone that fit your needs the best.
 
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TJ99

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kingrob said:
It is extremely difficult to choose a phone nowadays with the huge choice we have. :)

Piesang even made a poll!

Most important is you must sit down and decide how you use your phone, if there is something that you need to do often, but cant, and then choose the phone that fit your needs the best.
Click to expand...
Yeah the thing is there is no one perfect phone anymore, they all compromise on something. Didn't use to be the case up to the firt Galaxy S.

I used to just want a big-ass screen for watching movies and Youtube and browsing, along with nice multitasking, so the Note was great for that. The only disappointment on the Note 3 was the speaker, although it was a big improvement over the crappy one on tge Note 2. So now with the new 4, they've made it worse again for some insane reason. After using Sony phones I can't deal with terrible speakers anymore. And they've sent me a big **** YOU by not being able to use my old desktop dock anymore.

Then there's the htc One M8. Almost perfect except for that ultra ****ty camera. I've never cared much about the camera on phones as I hardly ever use them, so maybe not such a big issue.

Then there's the Z3c.. Looks great but it's plastic unlike the other Xperias and I might not get used to the small screen again. Although it's still huge compared to my old Xperia X10. No replaceable battery sucks and the pathetic 16GB storage sucks a lot on such a powerful device.

Although I have a ginormous Tablet X2 to watch and browse on, so I'm really thinking of getting this one. That storage is just going to bug me, it already does on the tablet.
 
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TJ99

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Chevron said:
Why is this an issue? The battery life is amazing
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Because all batteries deteriorate with time. After a year the battery has lost a fair amount of its capacity and after 2 years it's like 40 or 50% down. Just buying a cheap battery and banging it in is easy with e.g Samsung phones.

Chevron said:
You know you can pop in a MicroSD card right?
Click to expand...

You know that since Kitkat, SD cards are utterly useless for anything other than media?

And even before that, you had to install apps on your main memory and could only move portions of them. I have about 5 games on my tablet and it's constantly bitching about low space. All pictures, music and videos are on the 64GB microSD which is about 80% full. Your "16" GB of space is like 11 usable on Sony devices.
 
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I34z1k

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TJ99 said:
the pathetic 16GB storage sucks a lot on such a powerful device.
Click to expand...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8zVhl1SS60

TJ99 said:
Because all batteries deteriorate with time. After a year the battery has lost a fair amount of its capacity and after 2 years it's like 40 or 50% down. Just buying a cheap battery and banging it in is easy with e.g Samsung phones.

You know that since Kitkat, SD cards are utterly useless for anything other than media?
Click to expand...

+-500 charge cycles at roughly 1.5 days per cycle, it's gonna be a long time before the battery life is down to 50%.

Also the SD Card issue is a quick and easy fix? Even my girlfriend manage to sort hers out.
 
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JoseQuervo

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TJ99 said:
Yeah the thing is there is no one perfect phone anymore, they all compromise on something. Didn't use to be the case up to the firt Galaxy S.

I used to just want a big-ass screen for watching movies and Youtube and browsing, along with nice multitasking, so the Note was great for that. The only disappointment on the Note 3 was the speaker, although it was a big improvement over the crappy one on tge Note 2. So now with the new 4, they've made it worse again for some insane reason. After using Sony phones I can't deal with terrible speakers anymore. And they've sent me a big **** YOU by not being able to use my old desktop dock anymore.

Then there's the htc One M8. Almost perfect except for that ultra ****ty camera. I've never cared much about the camera on phones as I hardly ever use them, so maybe not such a big issue.

Then there's the Z3c.. Looks great but it's plastic unlike the other Xperias and I might not get used to the small screen again. Although it's still huge compared to my old Xperia X10. No replaceable battery sucks and the pathetic 16GB storage sucks a lot on such a powerful device.

Although I have a ginormous Tablet X2 to watch and browse on, so I'm really thinking of getting this one. That storage is just going to bug me, it already does on the tablet.
Click to expand...

I agree, there is no one perfect phone for the world. However, I do believe that there is a perfect phone for each individual user. I got to mine (Z3C) after an expensive and mentally exhausting process of trial and error with other devices.

Everyone has their own preference on a media viewing mobile device. I went from the small screened phone and tablet combo (iPhone and iPad) to phablet (GNote1) to large screen phone and tablet (S4 and Nexus 7) and now I've finally found my comfort zone with a small screen phone and tablet (Z3c and Nex 7)

For now, I'm done with Samsung until they change a few things on their devices. (touchwiz, overheating while performing trivial tasks, screen burn in on those OLED displays, bloat of gimmicky 'smart' features, lag on 8 core devices, better build quality)

Regarding the plastic around the Z3C, it's not cheapish Samsung quality plastic. It's hard, translucent plastic with nylon corners which actually adds more durability to the device. This is only limited to the phone frame, the back and front is made up of the same glass that's found on the Z3. I do suggest holding both phones in your hand before making your choice.

You will probably forget about replaceable batteries after you've used the phone for a week, this is because the phone probably has the best battery life on the smart device market right now.

As far as the 16GB goes, remember that you do have the option of adding up to 128GB more in the form of a microSD. I've added a 64GB microSD on my device and storage is no longer a concern to me.
 
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TJ99

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JoseQuervo said:
I agree, there is no one perfect phone for the world. However, I do believe that there is a perfect phone for each individual user. I got to mine (Z3C) after an expensive and mentally exhausting process of trial and error with other devices.

Everyone has their own preference on a media viewing mobile device. I went from the small screened phone and tablet combo (iPhone and iPad) to phablet (GNote1) to large screen phone and tablet (S4 and Nexus 7) and now I've finally found my comfort zone with a small screen phone and tablet (Z3c and Nex 7)

For now, I'm done with Samsung until they change a few things on their devices. (touchwiz, overheating while performing trivial tasks, screen burn in on those OLED displays, bloat of gimmicky 'smart' features, lag on 8 core devices, better build quality)

Regarding the plastic around the Z3C, it's not cheapish Samsung quality plastic. It's hard, translucent plastic with nylon corners which actually adds more durability to the device. This is only limited to the phone frame, the back and front is made up of the same glass that's found on the Z3. I do suggest holding both phones in your hand before making your choice.

You will probably forget about replaceable batteries after you've used the phone for a week, this is because the phone probably has the best battery life on the smart device market right now.

As far as the 16GB goes, remember that you do have the option of adding up to 128GB more in the form of a microSD. I've added a 64GB microSD on my device and storage is no longer a concern to me.
Click to expand...

See my reply above. The battery life might be awesome, but it will degrade over time. You will notice it.

And as I said, I have the Xperia Z2 tablet, and I know from experience the storage is useless. Purely for apps and games. Media I always keep on the SD card.
 
Chevron

Chevron

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TJ99 said:
Because all batteries deteriorate with time. After a year the battery has lost a fair amount of its capacity and after 2 years it's like 40 or 50% down. Just buying a cheap battery and banging it in is easy with e.g Samsung phones.
Click to expand...

Doubtful that those "cheap" batteries would provide any improvement. Anyway it'll be time to upgrade again by the time the battery wears out.
 
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TJ99

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Chevron said:
Doubtful that those "cheap" batteries would provide any improvement. Anyway it'll be time top upgrade again by the time the battery wears out.
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A battery starts at 100%. It degrades to 50%. You buy a new one from the Samsung shop for R200 or so. You are instantly back to like-new battery life.

VS a built-in one where you have to pay big buck to let them replace it for you.

Even if I do upgrade, I keep my old phones as backups and want them to work. In the end someone usually ends up buying them because I take care of my stuff.
 
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poffle

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Still cannot complain about my beautiful orange Z3C. I've had it since 30th Septemeber.

Fits perfect in my hand, feels extremely good. single charge lasts me about 1d 15hrs with moderate to heavy use (Cell C freaking out about signal is the main drain anyway).
Underwater photos come out amazing :D.
Speed - non issue.
Space - put a 32gb sd card in and sitting at 8gb free on my phone, so non-issue.
Camera using standard auto does make photos look a bit weird at times, over sharpening on trees for instance but im gonna give google camera a go because this is software issue.
Sound using headphones - cant complain, mess a bit with the EQ and it can sound great.
I really love Sense and also stock Android but Sony have done an amazing job on their UI, really enjoy using it.
 
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Electric

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I was due my upgrade and couldn't wait for the Z3C as Vodacom couldn't give me pricing or availability info.
I went with the Z1C and really have nothing to complain about.
 
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kingrob

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poffle said:
Still cannot complain about my beautiful orange Z3C. I've had it since 30th September.
Click to expand...

Where did you buy it from?

I agree with you, my gold S5 is a 16GB one, and after putting in a 64GB Kingston SD card, storage is not an issue anymore.

Not worried about the fact that the battery is non-removable, as the Z5 Compact with a full HD display will be out when my battery starts degrading. ;)
 
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