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Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet review: A top-tier slate with a familiar face
Oh, Sony. Its earliest Android tablet efforts were a little odd (and that's putting it politely), but the company eventually managed to get its act together. Last year's Xperia Tablet Z? Easily the finest Android slate that Sony's ever made. When it came time to craft an upgrade, though, Sony was faced with a choice: Should it try to push the envelope in a different direction? Or simply stay the course and apply a healthy dose of polish to an already-good device? Needless to say, it chose the latter. The new Xperia Z2 Tablet looks strikingly similar to its predecessor, albeit with a swapped-out set of components under the hood. The strange sense of drama that comes with a new product seems absent here. In a cynical age when new devices can fly or flop based on spectacle alone, Sony played it safe. It iterated. But is that such a bad thing? Is "iterating" really as yucky a word as we've all been led to believe? Let's find out.
The new HTC One vs. the competition: the battle of Android flagships rages on
We all knew it was coming, and after a lengthy list of leaks, the new HTC One is finally official. This time of year is known for its gaggle of new handsets, so we've lined up the latest offerings so you can see for yourself how they stack up. Flagships from Samsung, Sony and LG are all here to see which mobile device will nab an edge on paper. Want to compare these to your current daily driver? Mosey on over to our comparison tool to do just that. Otherwise, head past the break for our neatly compiled list of specs and form your own analysis of the lot.
Sony shows (and tells) us why 4K on a phone isn't crazy
At Sony Mobile's HQ in Tokyo, Kichiro Kurozumi is itching to go into detail about the new flagship Xperia Z2. The VP says it's "all in the details." We really hope so, because it's getting increasingly hard to tell Sony's recent smartphone iterations apart, especially when it comes to the Xperia Z2 and Z1. Kurozumi emphatically states that it's all the work done behind the scenes (reengineered frame, a 20.7-megapixel camera that records in 4K) that makes the Z2 stand out. "2014 is about premium smartphones, tablets and the smartwear experience but we... Sony has to do it differently." Take the Xperia Z2's 4K-recording camera sensor. Sony's certainly not the only smartphone maker with a device capable of recording video in Ultra HD, but Kurozumi reckons the company's software-based "SteadyShot" stabilization keeps the Xperia Z2 ahead of the pack. Because of the relatively large camera sensor, it can compensate for more movement than its rivals -- up to 21 percent. He offers up a professional-level clip and his own real-world sample from a few weeks earlier in Barcelona, and (courtesy of a 4K Sony TV in the room) the level of detail is noticeably beyond that of 1080p video, but won't the lack of 4K screens (UHD TVs are still pretty rare) limit the usefulness? We asked Kurozumi exactly that.
