High possible and I believe Sony will did it right.


Exactly agree on what you said.

You have a point there. I seriously wouldn't bother with handwriting recognition now. Swiftkey always does it for me.

However, the ability to draw / sketch over photos is quite useful in certain business line, and even leisure projects involving groups. Sony's tech that allows pencil or large-tipped ordinary pen usage makes convenient and negates the need to keep a stylus always with you.

If its similar to Samsung S4, then a bump from RM2299 to RM2499 is fair because the capacity is doubled 16MB > 32MB as well.

If XZU is still keeping with 16MB for its LTE, then hmmm.....

But for those already got their XZU 3G, nonid to worry, even 3G version can have data speeds go up to over 10Mbps. I have frequently recorded speed tests of such speeds in 3G areas, I m using Maxis. Putting latency aside, such speed is more than enough for a handheld device such as XZU. Don't tell me u guys are torrenting with ur XZU

hi, anyone know if Penang has stock already?

Thanks so much for the pictures and review Benny888

I really want the XZU but am finding it hard to justify at the moment with your pictures showing marginal difference of the XZU 6.44" vs. Galaxy Mega 6.3 in the screen quality and reading. In theory 1080p sounds much better than 720p, but functionally for reading text, the pics don't show it.

For me at the moment-
- Galaxy Mega 6.3 8GB 4G LTE - AU$449 (1340RM)
- Huawei Ascend Mate - AU$375 (1120RM) - but this is only the 1GB Ram version which has been reported by many users to have lots of lag when multi tasking.
- Xperia ZU 4G LTE in September - AU$845 (2520RM)

As you can see there is a big difference on price, which is very hard to justify.

Pros of XZU over GM 6.3:
- Faster processor, more RAM which provides some degree of future proofing - although many reviews have praised the speed and responsiveness of the Mega 6.3, comparing it to the Note 2 which I have currently and am satisfied with
- Waterproof and slim - Don't personally think I will use the waterproof feature much at all. Slim - GM6.3 is very thin too, only 1.5mm difference vs. XZU. Also glass back is prob easier to break than plastic (as much as we deride plastic for being non-premium).
- In theory a sharper screen - but from the pics for text, there isn't much difference in terms of readability.
- Stylus writing - for what its worth even though its pretty poor.

Cons of XZU vs. GM 6.3
- Price - the XZU is almost the double the price of GM 6.3
- Lower screen to body surface area ratio - thicker bezels and onscreen buttons take up more of the phone.
- Camera +LED flash - arguably better photography on the GM 6.3 from what we've seen so far.

Arrrrhhh I really want the XZU...but lol so hard

Well, the issue is not really handwriting recognition, that still sucks (badly or not so badly) whatever the platform. The issue is actually to do with the sales proposition that you can use anything as a stylus, and the message that it's supposed to improve your productivity.

See, I believe I was the first to raise the point of proper stylus use where you use the screen like a piece of paper. I remarked that every video FROM SONY ever shown that shows the handwriting, you can observe that the model always holds the hand ABOVE the screen. You can verify this by checking every video of the XZU out there.

And from all the current reviews and unboxing etc, they all test the stylus function as an afterthough like "gee, I can use a normal pencil to write!!!" and then they too write holding the hand ABOVE the screen. Whether it's a directive from Sony or because they never used a stylus with their other phones I don't know, but I'm only saying that the stylus functionality is badly borked and it should not be advertised as a prominent feature, since this does not really distinguish it from other capacitive screens.

Note series advertised the stylus functionality as a major feature and as gogo2 said, it works out of the box properly.

My 2 sen is that no firmware update will solve the palm rejection on the XZU.

I believe one of the forummer here already got it from Gurney Sony Ctr

I can assure you that you will have no problems using the mega for reading n browsing. The difference in quality is negligible vs the Xzu.

I'm actually planning to replace both my iPhone 5 and iPad Mini with the XZU. Mainly will use it as my daily driver and for PDF / Ebook reading. Seems that the XZU fits my needs just right due to screen quality, resolution, thinness, weight and good screen size for reading documents (6.44").

This post has been edited by shockk: Jul 29 2013, 05:04 PM

I see what is going to be on Garage Sales soon

He already sold his One. If not you can buy that

Yea i did pm him but i have to sold my z10 first

Hopefully that's possible to deliver via fw updates. Otherwise...a lot of people will be fooled and enraged by the "anything-as-your-stylus" feature. Tbh though, most people I know don't use it. Very rarely do I find someone with a Note or other similar phablet, or even tablet for that matter, that utilise a stylus.

Still, for Sony to use it as a selling point, they should at least make sure it delivers. On a similar note, I tried using a pen borrowed from the the Sony Centre and the phone did not recognise it

Really? No hope at all? That really sucks then It's like you have a pretty brilliant feature, you could use it every once in a while to show off, but back in the confines and privacy of your room, your cry yourself to sleep because it was all just a party trick

Ah well. Was never personally, a selling point to me anyways :/

Actually I know myself won't ever use that stylus thing, but ... Sony still need to sort it out as better as it can since this is one of the main attraction part being advertise.

This post has been edited by Andrewtst: Jul 29 2013, 05:43 PM

Moral of the story, don't read too much into a marketing proposition.

My car has a feature where I can write on a console pad with my fingers to either search a destination on the GPS or a contact on the directory. It works as advertised but is also so clunky that I'd preferred to just search a contact on the phone itself then hold the conservation over Bluetooth.

Similarly here, the stock keyboard and swiftkey seriously negates the need for a handwriting app, maybe except for scribbles which that by itself is already rare.

Bottom line, these buggers will cram half baked ideas as their own and make it a marketing proposition, take it as a nice to have but stick to the proven methods

lol. only time will tell. HTC One and Note II failed to do that.

I find the One quite thick, and if I'm using it heavily (like 3-4 hour SOT), it can't get me through a full day.

Yes, to be frank, Sony video commercial is very attractive and this pencil input thingy actually made me consider the XZU in the first place. Else, it would just be 'just another phablet' to me besides having SD800, Triluminos and super-slim size.

Yes, the world loves good marketing, that's why Apple and Samsung can do so well. But then again, we as consumers have to be smart not to fall for their trickery.

This post has been edited by shockk: Jul 29 2013, 06:13 PM

Someone ask me to post how this phone look holding it to the ears. This is a picture of me

That was my request and thanks for fulfilling it.

I must say you have more dark hair at 58 than me at 42. What's your secret? Hehe

Ok, I must say, it doesn't look socially acceptable to hold that mammoth to your ear. Dunno if its just me, but it looks kinda outrageous. Looks like have to get the SBH 52 headset along with it

looks big but not as absurb as holding 7inch galaxy tab and 8inch note at ears. i think it's great to have the headset.

Looking good there uncle Benny!

I'm still thinking which colour looks best when held to the ear. Black may be understated but white looks quite stylish especially the silver sides. Still can't decide!