Sony Experia Z3: An ‘Upgrade’ without Upgrades But Gamers May Kill for It Real Reviews September 26, 2014 News & Updates views: 815 By Saurabh Mazumdar I’m sure many Xperia Z2 owners are scratching their heads wondering how can a successor hit markets in just 6 months? But if they look back, they’d see a pattern emerging. It was only in February this year that Sony announced the Xperia Z2, which succeeded the Z1, again, within 6 months. The Xperia Z1 was acclaimed for its features, which compelled Sony to release an upgrade close on it heels for an additional Rs.11,000. That made some sense. The Z2 had upgraded battery, RAM, camera and processor, which attracted a lot of new consumers who were looking further than Samsung and Apple. With the Z3, however, I was amazed (not in good way) – there were no major improvements over the Z2 to justify an additional price of almost Rs.10,000. The screen size, the camera, the RAM remain the same, so nothing to disappoint or tempt Z2 owners. Then, either it’s a complete ‘crash-grab’ or Sony’s way of staying relevant among a string of new launches. Comparing the specifications of the Z2 and Z3, both come with the same internal memory of 16 GB expandable to 128GB, both devices run on 3GB RAM and Android Kitkat, both sport 20.7MP rear cams with auto focus and a LED flash and 2.2MP front cameras. In terms of battery life, the Z3 is in fact a downgrade; the Z3 has a non-removable Li-Ion 3100 mAh battery with a talktime up to 16 hours on 3G, while the Z2 has a Li-Ion 3200 mAh battery with a talktime up to 19 hours on 3G. For gamers, however, the Z3 definitely has one standout feature – the PS4 Remote Play that allows users to stream PS4 games on the Xperia Z3’s screen. This means the Z3’s screen will work as a remote screen to connect to the PS4 and control games on it. It will, however, work best when both the console and the Xperia Z3 are on the same Wi-Fi network. But, if gaming is not your top priority, would you go for the Z3 when you can have the Z2 for much less or even the Z1 that’ll give you pretty much the same user experience? I doubt it.