Paragon Android

Yes, it’s a boneheaded thing to do: I once dipped my cell phone into a cup of steaming hot coffee. You should’ve heard that thing make a mysterious hissing sound — all the contact numbers, messages, photos, music and memories evaporating into the ether. Like cartoon ghosts floating away from a cutesy ACME accident. That phone became an expensive paperweight after that.

Not going to happen with the Sony Xperia Z, which the brand dubs as its “superphone” or premium smartphone that can certainly survive my idiotic coffee-dipping incident in 2009. You see, the smartphone, which was launched in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas early January, is waterproof — with a durable glass display that can’t be penetrated by H2O and all the ports ingeniously covered. There are even online demos that prove the mobile can be submerged in a basin of water (while the unit is turned on, mind you), fished out afterwards (like what I did with my electronic coffee-swimmer) and shown that it is still in good working order as the day it was bought at the phone store. The mobile phone has tempered glass and anti-shatter film on the front and back.

“The Sony Xperia Z has the highest level of dust- and water-resistance — so you can Tweet in the shower, if that’s you’re kind of thing (laughs),” says Jason Smith, Sony Mobile Communications director of marketing for Southeast Asia & Oceania. Sony Philippines has invited The STAR to cover the launch of its flagship Android Smartphone at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.

The event host agrees with Smith. What about posting photos while swimming in a pool, she adds. Or even floating in the Dead Sea.

Fitting venue. On view at Red Dot (in Germany and in the Lion City) are objects with some of the most enthralling contemporary designs. Ever. The Xperia Z belongs to that class. 

Tale of the tape: the smartphone boasts a unique, ergonomic OmniBalance design with subtly rounded edges, smooth reflective surfaces on all sides, and slim, slim 7.9mm body.

The device (along with the Xperia ZL) will make use of Android 4.1 (Jellybean) and will be upgraded to 4.2.

It has a full HD 5’’ Reality Display with Mobile Bravia Engine 2 for super brightness and clarity, with Sony’s media applications delivering rich user-experience and instant access to entertainment services. During a demo, we watched scenes from Hotel Transylvania and those vacationing monsters including Chef Quasimodo never looked as crisp and brilliant. You can carry this baby on a long-haul flight and go from Frankenstein to Frankenweenie to chip away the hours. 

It has easy and fast one-touch functions to wirelessly share media across devices. In a demo, the Sony techs bounced MP3 tracks from the smartphone to speakers, as well as MP4 videos to huge Sony Bravia TV sets. One-touch functions enable users to easily share music, photos and videos from their units to an army of Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled devices including speakers, headphones and the new Bravia TV. Just tap the smartphone with the TV remote and — abracadabra — the video you took of your officemate horribly murdering a Survivor song (Eye of the Tiger) with all the veins on the neck fit to burst, or the other one gyrating to the A-Teens’ Bouncing of the Ceiling will be flashed onscreen.

In full HD.  

And I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that.

His favorite feature in the smartphone is the Bravia Engine 2, says Smith. In the first engine, the mobile enhances color saturation and sharpness. “What it does now is bring real-time contrast — so, on-the-go it syncs the contrast to any picture you have from almost any source you have. So it adds all of Sony’s heritage into possibly giving consumers the best possible videos or photos.”

Ola Lilja Molén, Sony Mobile Communications head of SEA markets, goes for the camera functionality.

“The HDR (High Dynamic Range) features for taking pictures in any lighting conditions — this really makes a lot of difference,” he says. “Using the whole interface is like using a whole Sony Cybershot camera. It has a lot of Smart functions. I was taking a picture of my little son yesterday and the camera automatically tracked his face, keeping focus on him running around as well. Those smart functions you used to have only in Cybershot cameras.”

Smith adds, “It has the Superior Auto icon, which we have in our SLR and compact cameras — using the same technology to really enhance the camera experience.”

Matthew Lang, head of Southeast Asia & Oceania customer unit, is a music-lover.

“I love way the new Walkman application is integrated into the phone,” he points out. Lang is a 20-year Sony veteran, so he understands very well the audio technology developed by the brand in all those decades. “When you’re in the Walkman application, you can go to Settings and see ClearAudio+, which has taken 50 years of Sony’s audio heritage. With one tick of a box you can get all the equalization, the amplifier settings, the crisp audio — all the innovations that Sony has brought to music in the last 50 years.”

Yes, with just one tick of a box, the user can find out what equalization works best for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which was a bitch for the almost-totally-deaf German composer to create, a tragically lovelorn man’s ode to joy. 

“With one button, you can get the best music quality available in any device,” Lang emphasizes.

So can Schroeder listen to all of Ludwig’s sonatas (everything from the Appassionata to the sublime Moonlight), without the phone conking out battery-drained?  

Xperia Z has the Battery Stamina Mode that can improve the standby times by four time or even more by automatically shutting down battery-draining apps whenever the screen is off and starting them up again when the screen is back on. Smith explains, “It disconnects the data in the background when your phone is on Sleep Mode.” Conserving battery life in the process.

Smith opines that this smartphone puts Sony into the premium segment. “What makes it special is that it brings the best that Sony can offer into one device.”

Lang agrees. “In Sony the ante is always being upped. We were very grateful at CES for coming up with a lot of great product awards. It was clearly a great space for us to make a statement. At the Mobile World Congress (to be held in Barcelona), there will be new announcements (by our competitors), but we are confident with the specifications and technology that is in the phone.”   

We are told that the device (along with the Xperia ZL) will make use of Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean) and will be upgraded to 4.1.2 In terms of upgrades the Sony executives say that paramount is the user-experience.

Lang explains, “it’s not just a case of getting the latest Android release from Google and then slapping it to the phone. So, we spend a lot of time to investigate how the new version fits in with the phone and come up with the best possible user-experience.”

Does it really provide a superphone experience?

“Why do we call it the ‘superphone’?” asks Smith. “The Xperia Z is a high-specification phone, and there are a lot of high-specification phones. But what differentiates us is Sony’s heritage in audio technology. We have half a century of TV technology. And we are the leaders in imaging, producing images for other companies. We bring all of this technology into this one superphone.”

And, besides, the Sony Xperia Z can swim in coffee.   

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The Sony Xperia Z — available in black, white and purple — will be available in March at Xperia concept stores: Metro Manila — Glorietta, Robinsons Galleria, Robinsons Midtown, SM Fairview, SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia, and SM North EDSA; Luzon — SM Bacoor, SM Baguio, and SM San Fernando; Visayas – Ayala Center Cebu, and SM Cebu; and Mindanao — Abreeza Davao, and Gaisano Mall Davao.