soney xperiaz

soney hopes to tempt potential phone shoppers with the Xperia Z's unique mix of durability, sexy design, and a powerful camera. Now available for preorder at T-Mobile for $99.99 down (and 24 payments of $20 per month) and hitting stores on July 17, it's billed as the company's top mobile device and has a lot to prove. Sadly, the Xperia Z's pokey imaging system and short battery life can't stand up to the likes of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, both sold by T-Mobile for the same up-front price. Those competing gadgets add up to better buys, that is unless you absolutely must have a water- and dust-resistant smartphone.

Design
Looking more like a mysterious monolith than your average smartphone, the Sony Xperia Z's almost featureless rectangular shape doesn't give up its secrets easily. Its glossy black, all-glass chassis has a smooth surface that's practically blank and a front face devoid of any physical buttons

A 3-megapixel front-facing camera, tiny notification light, and earpiece above and a minute speaker below are the only distractions from the Xperia Z's huge 5-inch screen. As a matter of fact, the phone's sole tangible controls sit on the Xperia's right edge -- a large circular power key placed next to a trim volume bar.

That doesn't mean the handset lacks the typical allotment of ports and connections. On the contrary, the Xperia Z hides them under protective flaps to guard against rude intrusion from dirt and liquids. Indeed, Sony claims that the Z meets the IP55 and IP57 international protocols for durability. That means you can immerse the phone in up to 3 feet of water for 30 minutes without any issues. The same goes for exposure to dust and other fine particles, which will have a hard time slipping through the Xperia Z's defenses to its sensitive electronics.

Sony's special sauce
The Xperia Z doesn't run vanilla Android. Rather, Sony has grafted its own UI on top of Google's operating system. Thankfully it's a light alteration consisting mainly of a tweaked lock screen and notification shade. For example, the Xperia lets you jump straight to the camera or music player from the lock screen. The phone also offers six home screens instead of plain Android Jelly Bean's five.

Of course this wouldn't be a real Sony smartphone if it didn't hawk content from the company's library of digital entertainment, called the Sony Entertainment Network. A Video Unlimited app serves up movies and TV shows for download, either to rent or purchase. Be warned, though, that once you rent video and begin playing it, you have up 24 hours to enjoy it. After this time period expires, it vanishes in a virtual puff of smoke. Additionally you're locked into viewing video content on the specific phone you downloaded it to.

The Music Unlimited application lets subscribers listen to streamed or cached songs in addition to a range of genre-based music stations, provided you pay a $9.99 monthly fee. The only way to download music to the phone for listening offline, however, is to add tracks to a playlist, then set that playlist for offline access. You also must kick the Music Unlimited app into offline mode. Needless to say I found all the steps required to watch and listen to Sony's digital content on the Xperia Z add up to a confusing and often frustrating procedure.