Living with the Sony Xperia Z1 pt 2

As part of our ongoing two weekly road test of the Z1 in the real world (and not in a lab or showing how many polygons the handset can throw round) we thought we would give you a quick update.

Battery is always a fun topic of ours and the Z1 after 2/4 charges is starting to find its legs now battery wise. During the first discharge we were very shocked on the piss poor performance of the web browsing, we managed to munch through 60% of battery in around 3 hours.

However we have taken the handset off charge this AM and given it the real work abuse I would any other phone. 

1) Check the traffic on the school run on Google Maps.

2) Used NFC to attach to the cars Blue & Me Bluetooth system

3) Emails, two voice calls and 10 mins of browsing

Total screen time was 36mins, and the Z1 is telling me I would get 9hrs which kinda adds up if you think an hour for 10% of battery, if we round it up rather than down.

Having moved from a handset which had a removable and OEM replaceable battery, Im not sure how long I could live with this kind of battery performance. We will have to see how it stands up to a day commuting on the trains away from power and with a full hour each way to and from London, away from any power supply, my guess is this handset will be dead inside 6-7hrs. Which is outside of the average 9-10hrs London workers are outside the home.


The other issue we have is the reflection on the screen, blimey is very very reflective. From the title shot at the top of the page you can see how much light is bouncing off the bathroom mirror the Xperias screen, its crazy. We have the supplied screen protector on it too, so when in the car using the handset as a Sat Nav / GPS it can cause some issues if the screen isnt on full brightness.

Talking of using GPS, the fast charge in my car (which is the same rating as the power supply unit that came with the handset), this still isnt enough juice for GPS and Bluetooth and screen on. The Z1 seems to hardly charge at all or in some instances it still loses charge.

Anyway. we will carry on, more soon !!


Part 3 this way >>>

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