Gauntlet: iPhone 6 Plus vs. Sony Xperia Z3

And now we present our last gauntlet that pits the twins, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, against the other smartphones of today. Pretty soon, new smartphones will start popping up which may be more than capable of going against the phones of 2014. But for now, we present the iPhone 6 Plus vs. the Sony Xperia Z3.

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Body

The Sony Xperia Z3’s design features front and back flat glass panels and an aluminum band surrounding the sides. A design that comes out as a bit plain when compared to the iPhone 6 Plus’s full aluminum body. The Z3 is marginally smaller and lighter than the 6 Plus due to its smaller screen and side bezels but the noticeably large and blank top and bottom bezels are some of its biggest design flaws and in spite of being smaller, the Z3 is a bit fatter than the 6 Plus – 7.3mm vs 7.1mm, respectively. The Z3 does have the advantage of being IP certified for dust and water-resistance but otherwise can’t really match up to the design of the 6 Plus.

Screen

The Xperia Z3 is equipped with a slightly smaller screen at 5.2-inches than the iPhone 6 Plus’s 5.5-inch screen. Both feature IPS panels and have the same display full HD display resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. This leads to the Z3’s screen being slightly sharper than the iPhone 6 Plus – 424ppi vs 401ppi, respectively. The Z3’s screen also features Sony’s Triluminos display technology which makes colors look more vibrant. The iPhone 6 Plus does feature dual-domain pixels which make for wider viewing angles but Sony’s expertise and experience in display technology comes out on top in this category.

CPU, GPU, RAM, and Storage

Internally, the Xperia Z3 is also a beast with its Snapdragon 801 CPU and Adreno 330 GPU accompanied with a whopping 3GB of RAM. While Apple’s homegrown A8 SoC is a very powerful chip in its own right capable of surprising performance that matches even the best Snapdragon processors due to better optimization, it’s extremely difficult to match the extra RAM the Z3 has over the 6 Plus. Additionally, the Z3 is also a bit more versatile than the 6 Plus in the storage department due to its expandable memory via a microSD card slot.

Camera

On paper, the Sony Xperia Z3’s rear camera is far superior to the one on the iPhone 6 Plus – it’s equipped with a larger 20.7-megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor and a larger f/2.0 aperture lens – but because of the iPhone 6 Plus’s superior image processing it is, on occasion, able to match or even surpass the Xperia Z3’s photos in overall quality. The Z3’s camera does produce more detailed shots and the camera shoots exceptionally better video so it still ends up, in most cases, as the better camera phone when compared to the 6 Plus.

Battery Life

While the iPhone 6 Plus’s battery life is impressive when compared to its predecessors, Sony has done an excellent job optimizing its device for maximum longevity. Even if the Z3 only has a slightly larger battery than the 6 Plus, it is capable of almost double the latter’s battery life and, in some cases, even more.

Software & Apps

Software and apps are really where the iPhone 6 Plus and its predecessors are king. While Android and its many manufacturing partners with their own built-in UI and apps have made great strides to make the user experience easy and smooth, it’s still very hard to match Apple’s software dominance especially with all the new features of iOS 8 that have come to match many of the features Android previously had over it.

Extra Features

The iPhone 6 Plus is equipped with a slew of impressive extra features including the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, support for Apple Pay, and a new M8 Motion Coprocessor. On the other hand, the Xperia Z3 comes with support for PS4 Remote Play which will allow users to play their PS4 games on their smartphone. While PS4 Remote Play support will be useful for gamers, the 6 Plus’s extra features are more useful to more people.

Cost

The 32GB variant of the Sony Xperia Z3 has an SRP of Php36,999 while the smallest capacity variant – the 16GB – of the iPhone 6 Plus is priced at Php42,000. So the Xperia Z3 ends up quite cheaper than the iPhone 6 Plus even when you consider that the price of purchasing a 128GB microSD card to expand the storage of the Xperia Z3 is still cheaper than purchasing the most expensive 128GB variant of the iPhone 6 Plus.

Verdict

Sony came out with a really premium device in the Xperia Z3. Other than its relatively plain design, the Z3 is an excellent smartphone and one of the best Android devices in the current market. It beats out the iPhone 6 Plus in most categories and, if you like how it looks, is a no-brainer choice in this comparison.