Sony Xperia Z3+ first impressions: A beautiful beast, priced too high!

Sony Xperia Z3+ is the company's new flagship that has been launched as the successor of the Xperia Z3. The newbie is essentially an upgraded, more premium addition to Sony's Z3 series, which is why the company this time chose to stick with the name of the Xperia Z3, to call the new phone as the Xperia Z3+ globally, except in Japan where it is launched as the Z4. Sony already has the Xperia Z3 and the Z3 Compact in the series.

The Xperia Z3+ however, has better innards, features and built quality, the company claims, which is why it gets a fat price tag of Rs. 55,990 in India. At this price, which is quite a lot, the phone will be up against other flagships like Samsung Galaxy S6, which was launched at a higher price however is now available at lower price, and the LG G4, which hit the shelves just a week back.

PROS

• water & dust proof
• superior built

CONS

• similar design
• slippery
• priced too high

With such a gruesome competition in the market, it will be interesting to see if the Xperia Z3+ would be able to make a mark and beat others. Meanwhile, here we have our first impressions of the phone.

Sony has maintained its iconic Omnibalance design throughout its Xperia Z series, and the Xperia Z3+ is no different! The phone brings the similar rectangular design with a mix of glass and shiny aluminum chassis, which has been seen on its predecessors as well.

However, this time it looks more premium, and sleek. It however is too smooth for a strong grip in hand, and you might end up dropping the phone quite often.

The company however claims to have added shock absorber bumpers on the slightly rounded edges which will protect the phone from damages that could be caused when it hit against a hard surface. Also, the company has removed the micro USB port cap which gives it a cleaner look, despite being waterproof and dust proof. It can be submerged in water (at a depth of 1.5m) for up to 30 minutes. The phone is thinner at 6.9mm and weighs light at 144gm.

The Xperia Z3+ flaunts a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display accommodating 1920x1080 pixels resolution, offering a pixel density of 424ppi. The company has used Corning Gorilla Glass protection on both front as well as rear panels. The display quality is great, as it reproduces colors well, is crisp and bright, and offers good viewing angles.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 64-bit octa-core chipset ticking at 2GHz, coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.

In the camera department, the phone boasts a 20.7MP primary camera with Exmor RS backside illuminated sensor and 25mm wide-angle lens. Up front, there is a 5MP snapper. There are numerous camera modes, and tools, including a 'Gourmet mode' that can be used to tweak food shots. The camera is impressive however we reserve our final take for the detailed review.

The phone runs Android Lollipop wrapped under native Xperia UI. Sony has launched the single-SIM variant in India. Other connectivity options include of 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, and NFC.

Overall, the phone looks quite impressive in terms of features and design, and seems like one of the best in Sony's Kitty. However, we found its price to be a notch higher at Rs 55,990, considering that others in the competition are equally powerful and have their own USP, and are available at comparatively a lower price point.