Introduction

Ease of Use

The Sony Xperia Z3 is very similar in appearance to its predecessor, albeit with slightly more rounded edges to give it an overall slightly slicker and more stylish look. Although it’s a large phone, with so many other large devices on the market, it no longer seems out of the ordinary. The 5.2 inch touchscreen takes up the majority of the front of the phone. While the device is quite large, it’s also fairly slim so it’s not as weighty as it might seem to look at it.

As with the other phones in this series, the Z3 is waterproof, making it something you can use in all weathers, as well as in the swimming pool, sea or bath for a good amount of creativity. It’s also dustproof.

There are only three physical buttons on the Sony Xperia Z3, all of which are found on the side on the right of the phone. There’s the power on/off button, a volume rocker switch can also be used to zoom the digital zoom in and out and a camera button which can be used to both activate the camera from the lock screen (or any other screen) by holding it down for a couple of seconds, or as a shutter release button if you push it when in the camera  app.

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3

As the Sony Xperia Z3 is fairly large, it’s reasonably unwieldy to use when shooting one handed, or when photographing one-handed. The lens is very close to the edge of the camera, so it’s pretty easy to accidentally obscure the lens with your finger - holding the phone in the best way to avoid such a problem is something you get used to relatively quickly though.

From the lock screen, the best way to get to the camera app is to hold down the camera button on the side of the camera. Alternatively, you can slide up from the bottom of the touchscreen, but this seems slightly less responsive.

Unlike several other smartphone cameras, there are lots of different shooting options available on the Sony Xperia Z3. By default, the phone will shoot in Intelligent Auto, but you can also change to Manual Mode, 4K video, AR effect and so on - to switch between the different modes available, tap the icon on the bottom right hand side of the screen and choose the mode you want to use.

Rear of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Image Displayed

Once in Manual Mode, you’ll find you’ll be able to make changes to certain settings, but not all, making it perhaps closer to something like a Program Auto mode than a true manual mode - for instance you can’t change aperture or shutter speed. You’ll also find different scene modes, such as Landscape or Low Light when shooting in Manual Modes.

It’s worth noting that some of the modes can only be used when shooting in the camera’s default setting of 8 megapixels, rather than the 20.7 it is actually capable of recording. Some settings, such as the highest ISOs, can also only be activated when shooting at lower resolutions, too.

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Camera App

As with the Sony Xperia Z3, there’s a Background Defocus mode, which aims to recreate the look of DSLR or large sensor cameras by producing images with a shallow depth of field. You can control the amount of background blur by moving a slider with your finger up and down the screen. If you’re photographing something with fine detail around the edges, it’s a good idea to minimise the amount of blur to give it a more realistic look.

Sony has included sweep panorama mode, which is also found on several of its compact cameras. To use it, all you need to do is hold down the shutter release button and move the camera across the scene that you want to photograph. The phone will automatically capture the scene and stitch together the required images. Another useful feature is Timeshift Burst, which enables you to choose the best photo from a sequence taken in quick succession, which is particularly useful for shooting action - such as sports.

Rear of the Sony Xperia Z3

As with previous models, face recognition and shutter smile are included.  For face recognition, the phone will give settings bias to any faces the camera detects in the scene, setting the exposure and white balance based on the face for instance. Smile shutter will trigger off the shutter release when it detects a smile - you can set this to recognise weak, average or big smiles - and while it’s not foolproof, it’s reasonably useful for composing selfies and group shots.

In order to set the focus point, you simply tap the area on the screen that you want to focus. Generally speaking, the autofocus is a little snappy, but if you’re trying to take a close-up picture you may find you need force the camera to focus and refocus several times before it will actually focus - sometimes it will even display a false positive, so it’s worth double checking to see that a focus has definitely been achieved. There’s no way to activate macro focusing, but if you are using Intelligent Auto then if you get close to a subject it should activate automatically.

Memory Card Slot

After you’ve pressed either the physical shutter button, or the button on the screen, the processing speeds seem to have improved since the Sony Xperia Z3 - as it almost instantly is ready for the next shot. The image you’ve just taken will appear in a small preview window at the top right of the screen - tap this to see the image larger, and to flick through all the previous shots you’ve taken.

To add different filter style effects to your images, you can find these under the mode menu. There’s quite a few to choose from, and you can also use them in video recording mode. Don’t forget, you can also download hundreds of apps from Google Play store - such as Instagram - to edit your photos in lots of different ways too.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

Sony is responsible for producing some of the best standalone cameras currently on the market, so it’s no surprise to see the company utilising this technology to great effect on its smartphones.

We were impressed by the image output of the Sony Xperia Z3, and here also we’re also pretty impressed by the general overall performance of the camera. Colours are beautifully saturated directly from the camera, being punchy without being unrealistically vibrant.

In good light, detail is resolved well, and if you shoot at the highest resolution setting there’s also decent scope for cropping into an image at a later stage to improve composition if you need to. However, if you shoot at higher ISO sensitivity settings, the amount of image smoothing which appears gives images  a watercolour type appearance - it’s not so bad if you’re viewing at small sizes on your phone though.

There’s an inbuilt LED flash, which has mixed results - for instance if you’re photographing people you might find that you’re left with red eye. On the other hand, the fast lens, capable of stopping down to f/2.0, means that you shouldn’t need to use the flash in all but the very darkest of situations.

Speaking of dark situations, the Sony Xperia Z3 now has the capability of shooting at up to ISO 12800, but you can’t select that speed - it will be reached automatically if you’re shooting in the high sensitivity setting, and only if you’re in extremely dark shooting conditions.

Automatic white balance fares pretty well, producing accurate colours in the majority of conditions - erring ever so slightly towards orange or yellowish tones under artificial lighting conditions. You can change to a more appropriate white balance setting when shooting in manual mode if it’s proving to be particularly problematic though. Overall, the all-purpose metering copes well, producing well balanced exposures in the majority of conditions - if you’re shooting something with high contrast it may under or over expose slightly - again if this is proving to be problematic, you can adjust exposure compensation when shooting in manual mode.

Noise

There are 7 ISO settings available on the Sony Xperia Z3. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 50 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Length

The Sony Xperia Z3's fixed lens offers a wide-angle focal length of 27mm in 35mm camera terms, as illustrated by this example.

27mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are sharp enough and don't really benefit from further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony Xperia Z3 handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with a little purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Sony Xperia Z3 has a close-focus distance of 8cms. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony Xperia Z3 are Auto, Fill Flash, Red-eye Reduction and Off.

Flash Off	Flash On

And here are come portrait shots.

Flash Off	Flash On

Sweep Panorama

The Sony Xperia Z3 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching and even successfully compensates for moving subjects.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Xperia Z3 camera, which were all taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Image Displayed

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Image Displayed

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Turned On

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / Shooting Modes

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3 / White Balance

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3

Rear of the Sony Xperia Z3

Side of the Sony Xperia Z3

Side of the Sony Xperia Z3

Side of the Sony Xperia Z3

Front of the Sony Xperia Z3

Memory Card Slot

Conclusion

Sony has produced a decent camera in the new Z3, with some notable limitations. It’s not the best camera on the smartphone market, but its overall performance is pretty good.

If you don’t want to invest in a second standalone camera, the Sony Xperia Z3 is a good choice to replace lower budget compact cameras - and the battery life is also decent too, something which is isn’t always true of smartphones.

Again, as with a lot of smart phones, if you’re mainly going to be photographing in decent light, then pictures are bright and punchy with a nice amount of detail. If the light drops, you can shoot at higher sensitivities, but just be wary of images looking a little soft, especially when examined closely - if you’re just sharing online or via your phone, then it probably won’t be too noticeable.

Video features include 4K video shooting, which is still exciting to see on a smartphone, but is no longer a new feature as it was also available on the Z2 too.

It still remains true that one of the best features of this phone is its waterproof credentials, This makes it well suited to family life, and things like beach holidays where you might normally be paranoid about keeping your smartphone perfectly dry.

Android makes the Sony Xperia Z3 a fantastically customisable camera, with hundreds of different photography apps available on the store to change the look of photos via editing, or to create various effects direct from the camera itself.

The native camera app has lots of fun features, with plenty of different modes which other smartphones on the market just don’t offer. This means you don’t have to necessarily equip it with lots of extra apps and spend time researching the best ones to download and use if you don’t want to.

Downsides of the Sony Xperia Z3 include not being able to use all the features with the highest resolution setting of 20 million pixels, and the macro focusing not being able to be set manually. There’s also only a digital zoom and an LED flash - which doesn’t compete too well with standalone cameras. It can also be a little unwieldy to use one-handed and not everybody will appreciate the phone’s large size.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3.5
Features	5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Sony Xperia Z3.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Xperia Z3 from around the web.

Specifications

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