Xperia Z review: The 2013 phone that launched Sony’s waterproof glass-slab era.
The start of Sony’s glass-slab Xperia era.
The Xperia Z introduced waterproofing and the OmniBalance design Sony used for years. A weak LCD aside, it was a notable 2013 flagship — now history.
01Display
52/10052/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2013 — 16 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
42/10042/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2013 — 19 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
18/10018/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2013 — 38 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
38/10038/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2013 — 24 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
62/10062/100 trails the 64-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2013.
06Value
36/10036/100 is one of the weaker value results among flagship phones of 2013 — 15 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
- Launched Sony’s OmniBalance glass-slab design language.
- IP57 water and dust resistance — early for a flagship.
- Sharp FHD display for 2013.
- microSD support.
- TFT LCD had poor viewing angles.
- Small 2,330 mAh battery.
- Software ended at Android 5.1.
- Discontinued — a vintage device.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 87-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .