Sony Xperia Z1S Review

Looks can be deceiving. 

Despite Sony's strong reputation in the video game, photography, and television industries, the company's smartphone presence in the United States has generally been looked at as a disappointment. While Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have found steady footing Stateside—the former more so than the latter—Sony has yet to hit the right American market at the right time, and with the right product.

The brand new Xperia Z1S, a T-Mobile exclusive, is Sony's first real attempt at bringing its new flagship phone to America, but is it enough to make us forget about the top-notch smartphones from the rest of its Android competitors? And, more importantly, is it good enough to make Verizon and AT&T customers jump ship? Keep reading to find out.

Building upon the Xperia Z1, Sony's Xperia Z1S is equipped with a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 3,000 mAh battery, and 26GB of available internal storage with microSD card support. Like many of Sony's other mobile products, the Xperia Z1S is waterproof—flaps protect all of the ports and card slots, with the exception of the headphone jack, which is also designed to be safe from water damage—and the handset is covered on both sides by glass.
The glass casing, while high-class and refined, isn't the best thing for a device that will surely be bumped, scratched, and dropped multiple times during its lifetime. I didn't crack the Xperia Z1S while it was in my possession, but I was conscious of the material's fragility at all times—a feeling I never have when using a plastic or aluminum-cased phone. The use of glass along the frontside is reasonable—it's a clean look that blends well with the display—but doing the same for the rear is simply an act of form over function, especially considering how slippery and fingerprint- and dust-friendly the phone's finish is.
Another issue is the phone's bezels, particularly above and below the display. They are noticeably large, making the phone taller than other devices with similarly-sized or even bigger screens. For example, the LG G2 with its 5.2-inch display is 5.45-inches tall, while the Xperia Z1S is 5.74-inches tall, even though it has a smaller 5-inch screen. The bezels on the sides are also somewhat bulky, causing the phone to be wider than Samsung Galaxy S4, which also has a 5-inch screen. The shape makes Sony's device awkward to hold, and shifting the phone in one hand is particularly tricky and hazardous.

The Xperia Z1S is equipped with a Triluminos display which, when viewed at from directly in front of the phone, is beautiful. Colors pop out and the 1,920 x 1,080 (1080p) resolution looks great at this size. Unfortunately, due to the lack of IPS technology on the Z1S's screen, viewing angles are poor when compared to other high-end smartphones, with colors slightly washing out quickly when looking at the screen from just about any other angle than straight on. This is particularly a problem when glancing at the screen while the phone is sitting on a desk or table.
Once you do get past the Xperia Z1S's exterior and into the software, though, it's possible to forget about some of the aforementioned flaws. The Snapdragon 800 chip is incredibly fast, and navigating around Android 4.3 Jelly Bean was completely painless. When benchmarking, the Xperia Z1S was neck and neck with the powerful Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using GeekBench 3, just behind the popular phablet through AnTuTu Benchmark, and surpassed the Snapdragon 800-equipped LG G2 in 3DMark's IceStorm Unlimited tests.
But one of the best features of the Xperia Z1S is its battery life. Equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery, most, if not all, users will likely never have to worry about reaching a charger for a top-up mid-day. Sony also includes a number of power management options, extending battery life even further. Updated displays and processors are welcome additions to new smartphones, but high-capacity and long-lasting batteries are invaluable.

One of the Xperia Z1S's most highly-touted features is it's camera: a 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with Sony's F.20 G Lens and Bionz image processing, coupled with a physical, two-stage dedicated shutter button. While images can be created using the full 20.7-megapixels, the phone does best when using the data to create 8-megapixel pictures. In certain situations, the Xperia Z1S can produce stunning photos with vibrant colors, a great amount of detail, and fantastic contrast levels. Unfortunately, the camera's results were very inconsistent.
Some shots were noticeably overprocessed, with textures—even skin, at times—looking unnaturally smooth, and there were more than a few occasions when colors were drab and washed out. The Xperia Z1S is capable of taking great photos, but, in general, doesn't match the consistent, high-quality shot-taking of other smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Like other smartphone manufacturers, Sony offers a bevvy of shooting options with its camera app, as well as robust manual controls. The ability to defocus the backround is a nice touch, but doesn't always create realistic results, and the option to add augmented reality objects into photos is fun, but is ultimately a gimmick without much value beyond novelty.