Let me say this: I have never been a fan of Samsung phones. Anyone who knows me and anyone who follows For the Love of Tech knows it. Last year, I reviewed the Galaxy Note 4 and it was titled A Perversion of Innovation. A few weeks later, I reviewed the Galaxy Note Edge, which was called Samsung Makes the Note 4 Worse.
Imagine my shock when I was absolutely delighted by the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Now, let me explain why I went with the S6 Edge. I had to choose one. I absolutely hated the Note Edge and found it uncomfortable to hold and I thought I should be able to speak on some authority about the Galaxy S6 Edge. At the same time, I’ll know what the experience from the regular Galaxy S6 is like because it’s a regular phone.
I’m almost done putting the HTC Desire 820 through the rounds for the camera comparisons. You may have noticed that I’ve been focusing more on the HTC Desire 820 instead of the Microsoft Lumia 535 and the Amazon Fire Phone. That’s because I have to give this one back.
HTC and Sony both make great smart phone cameras; however, they do it in different ways. HTC saturates the image, using their ultrapixel technology. This is why the HTC One M8 gets by with a 4 MP rear camera. Sony uses a 20.7 MP camera; however, in most situations, it only uses 8 MP.
It is the smallest flagship on the market against the largest. Why not? The truth is that I don’t have my Sony Xperia Z3 review unit anymore so we’re going to have to use the Xperia Z3 Compact. For camera comparison purposes, it won’t make a difference.
I have been living with the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 for a little over a week now. It is the first time that I have used both an Android phone and an Android tablet as my daily drivers. Personally, I can’t wait to go back to my iPad Air 2. I could take it or leave it with the Nexus 6 and the iPhone 6.
For all of the flaws that come with the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, there are two things that it’s great at: the display and the camera. This is true of all Samsung devices. Sony is not too shabby on the camera front either with their 20.7 MP camera that they ship in their flagships.
I had wanted to do this comparison with the Sony Xperia Z3, as I’m sure there will be people to poke fun at my because I picked such a small phone to compare with such a large phone; however, this small phone packs a powerful camera.
When Microsoft sent me the Nokia Lumia 830 to review, I also requested a Nokia Lumia 930 so I could compare the camera to a couple other phones, including the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, considering that they both have 20 MP cameras. They didn’t have any Lumia 930s, but they has a Lumia Icon, the 930’s CDMA sister phone.
The Nokia Lumia Icon still has not received the Lumia Cyan update, so it hasn’t received the camera improvements that come along with it. The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact was shown to outperform the Nokia Lumia 1020 in low light, so it seemed fair to compare the Nokia Lumia Icon and the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact.
When Microsoft first announced Nokia’s first ever affordable flagship, I was skeptical. After all, it uses the same Snapdragon 400 processor as the Nokia Lumia 635. In case you don’t know much about smart phone processors, Snapdragon 400 is the low end of the mid-range; however, the more I use the Nokia Lumia 830, the more impressed I am with it.
As with all new review units that come in, I’ve been doing lots of camera comparisons. The first camera I compared the Nokia Lumia 830 to was the Nokia Lumia 635. When the Lumia 830 did so well., I compared it to the Lumia 1020. Being as impressed as I was with the camera on the Nokia Lumia 830, I then compared it to the OnePlus One and the iPhone 6. The 10 MP Pureview camera more than gets the job done. Possibly the best smart phone camera on the market comes from the Sony Xperia Z3, so this will be something of a gold standard test.
Over the last week and a half, I have been spending a lot of time with the Sony Xperia Z3 and the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. One thing that has blown me away with both of these phones is the amazing 20.7 MP camera. In fact, the Sony Xperia Z3 even outperformed the Nokia Lumia 1020 in low light comparisons.
The scope of this review will be to compare the camera of the Sony Xperia Z3 to the camera of the LG G3. While the camera on the Sony Xperia Z3 is fantastic, the 13 MP camera on the LG G3 is pretty amazing as well with the laser focusing. I’m pretty excited to look at these side by side.
The Sony Xperia Z3v is has come to Verizon this week and the Sony Xperia Z3 is coming to T-Mobile on October 29, so as always, we compare the camera to all of its competing cameras.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is the gold standard of smart phone cameras. It has a 41 MP Pureview camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, a real xenon flash, and support for taking RAW photos. While the Nokia Lumia 1020 was released almost a year and a half ago in July, 2013, it is one of few smart phones released that long ago that remain relevant.
Yesterday, the Sony Xperia Z3v was made available on Verizon. On October 29, the Sony Xperia Z3 will be made available on T-Mobile. Somehow, in all that, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is lost. Although there is an unlocked version available from Sony’s web site, it won’t be available from any carriers and that’s the reason why Sony has never really taken off in the United States.
After spending the last week with both the Sony Xperia Z3 and Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, I have fell in love with both of these phones. They are both super fast, beautifully designed, and they take fantastic photos; however, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact lacks a couple of the specs of the Sony Xperia Z3.
It has been a week of camera comparisons. Since the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 came out last week, the Sony Xperia Z3v came out this week, and the Sony Xperia Z3 come out next week, I have been spending a lot of time working with the Sony Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, and Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
I thought that comparing the Sony Xperia Z3 to the OnePlus One would be enough; however, when I compared the camera of the Sony Xperia Z3 and the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, there were some differences, and if we are nothing else here, we are thorough with camera comparisons. So here is goes. The camera comparison of the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact and the OnePlus One.
