Sony Xperia Z Unboxing: We get intimate with Sony’s Masterpiece!

Sony Xperia Z Unboxed! Woohooo!

As you guys probably can surmise from our initial hands-on, we’re pretty psyched up about the Sony Xperia Z. The razor-thin form factor, top-of-the-line specifications, and the water-resistant body makes for a pretty compelling product offering. Unfortunately we were only able to play with the smartphone at the MWC exhibition floor for a few minutes. The good news though is that we finally have a unit with us. Expect a full review soon but for now we’d like to share with you guys our unboxing.

Sony Xperia Z Spec Sheet

1.5GHz Krait Quad-core Processor Qualcomm MDM9215M
Adreno 320 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB Internal Storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
5.0-inches shatter proof and scratch resistant glass capacitive screen
1080 x 1920 pixels, ~441 ppi, Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2
13.1-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, LED flash, image stabilization, HDR
Record video 1080p@30fps, continuous autofocus and video stabilizer
2.2-megapixel front-facing camera, 1080p@30fps
WiFi b/g/n, WiFi Hotspot, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, A-GPS, GLONASS
FM Radio, 3G Connectivity, HSPA+, LTE
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
2330mAh Battery
Comes in Black, White, and Purple

What’s in the box?

The Sony Xperia Z comes in a printed squarish carton box that we opened by removing the tape on the sides and pulling up the lid. It’s a breath of fresh air in packaging considering most smartphones these days come in rectangular thick boxes (to save on space for transport and shelf space).

Opening the box reveals the Sony Xperia Z in plastic and front/back adhesive protectors

Once opened we immediately saw the Sony Xperia Z. The unit was inside a form-fitting plastic sac. When we took it out we saw that it had some sort of printed screen protector at the front and back which is standard for most branded smartphones. We set aside the phone and took out the separator which housed the device to check out what else was inside.

Charger, earphones, extra earbuds, USB to microUSB cable, and manuals

We got the usual suspects when it came to the accessories. Nothing extraordinary. It’s notable though that the earphones actually sounded quite good (we tested it) compared to other bundled earphones from other brands. We actually preferred it over Apple’s Earbuds which came with the iPhone 5.

Anyway, that’s pretty much everything inside the box. Let’s quickly go over the phone!

Sony Xperia Z: High Level Industrial Craftsmanship

We gushed over the Sony Xperia Z at the MWC exhibition floor and we thought we’ve seen everything there was to see already. However inspecting it up close without the pesky security cables and the buzzing atmosphere was a far better experience. A more intimate encounter with the Sony Xperia Z during our unboxing led us to appreciate the craftsmanship even more!

As we’ve already mentioned, the Xperia Z is covered in glass front and back. The front has Gorilla Glass while the back is supposed to be Asahi Dragontail (another brand of resistant screens) as pointed out by Yuga in his blog. The dual-glass set-up truly gives the Xperia Z a classic, timeless, and elegant look. Couple that with the ridiculously thin body and you have a true tech beauty.

How does the Xperia Z pull off the water resistant claim when the device has ports and buttons? The solved that by putting in covers for all of the ports: audio, microSIM, microSD, and microUSB. That’s why you’ll barely see anything on the sides and the back save for the silver power/lock button and the volume rocker. Everything else is “hidden”.

If we have one initial criticism though it’s probably the display. When we turned on the phone we were initially wowed when it came to life (cool animation from Sony). However we immediately noticed that the colors were a bit washed out. Upon investigation we found out that this is mainly due to the TFT screen which is not at the same level as Super AMOLED or Super LCD 3. It’s not really a big deal and we’re kinda nitpicking here but it would have been absolutely perfect if Sony was able to go with either screens and not TFT.

Anyway, here are a few more photos of the phone running different stuff.

Unbox website on the Sony Xperia Z browser

Screen unlock animation is similar to window panes going up or down. Pretty cool

Full Review Coming Soon

We’re going to use the Sony Xperia Z for a few more days and give you guys the full review after. We’re optimistic that this is a great phone, mainly based from our initial impressions. Kudos to Sony and we hope that the Xperia Z will usher in a new era for them in the mobile space. 🙂

If you don’t want to wait for our review though and you already want to buy one just head on over to Widget City. It’s being sold for Php29,990.