The Sony Xperia Z: the mobile camera, reloaded? A brief shootout, Xperia Z Vs Galaxy Note 2 Vs the Nokia Pureview 808

This piece is a heads-up of sorts to let you know that thanks to the good folk at Mobicity, we're fortunate enough to have an Xperia Z in our hot little hands already.

As you might guess a (rapid-) review will be forthcoming, but this time around I'm going to start with something a little different. You see I had some fun yesterday on Twitter trying out the Xperia Z camera, pitting it against the Note 2 camera and the undisputed king of mobile imaging, the Nokia Pureview 808. After looking at the results I thought it was too worthwhile an exercise to leave just to Twitter, and so here it is on the blog too.

Although it's a little bit of a departure, the camera of the Xperia Z is too fundamental a part of its marketing drive to leave to a couple of paragraphs in a rapid-review; it demands more. If you believe Sony's hype surrounding the purported imaging advances offered by its latest and greatest, you'll be expecting a solid improvement over last years shooters, and maybe even a substantial improvement. Sony is betting the bank on the camera being a strong differentiator to favour their 2013 flagship against incumbents like the incoming HTC One and Galaxy S4, so the question of whether its camera can indeed carry the day looms large over the Xperia Zs fate.

New instalment of the HTC One X "real-user" review up, 4-way camera shootout ensues!

Hi all, quick note to let you all know that the next instalment for my One X review has gone up at the Telecom Tech Blog. Catch the camera review here, and don't forget to cast your votes on the camera shootout at the bottom of the page - HTS One X Vs Samsung Galaxy Note Vs iPhone 4S Vs a standalone digital camera!

The Galaxy Note "Real-user" Review: Part 4 - the "ABCs of smartphone review" - Addendums, bugs, battery, camera, conclusion... and S-Pen!

It's a little bit late, but then the end is a little bit
early - forgive me?

OK, so the title for this piece is a little long-winded. I can't argue with that. I kinda assume that if you're still with me after the nearly 10,000 words I've already expended in this review, you'll probably forgive me the title.

You see, I was starting to ready my piece on the S-Pen when the thought occurred to me that I'd had enough time with the Note to cover things like battery life and bugs too. At that point the best way forward seemed to be just including the S-Pen material in the wrap-up (not to mention it fit my ABC acronym, and really, who can resist an ABC acronym right?). I should point out that although I've used the term 'wrap-up' just now, which implies some kind of to-the-point brevity, this piece will in fact live up to the epic length of the preceding parts, as befits a review of the behemoth that is the Galaxy Note.

So, what am I covering after the break? Obviously the S-Pen is a major focus of discussion, but that is far from everything that needs attention before we lay this review to rest. I'm also going to cover the Note's camera, it's stability in day-to-day use and any Note-worthy bugs (ba-dum-cha!), provide some updates/corrections/ addenda about various things that have come to light with more time with the device, and then (finally!) conclude the review.

Oh, and disregard all the mentions of the video in the review - that's actually going to follow shortly afterward.

All this awaits after one final jump...