1020 vs Z1
I have the Nokia 1020 at the moment and the camera is every bit as good as advertised. However the limits of the Windows Phone platform are bothering me. I think it's going to get much better for Windows Phone in the near future with the Microsoft acquisition, a major OS update and better app development but having come from iOS which has the most impressive app selection, it's been hard to adjust. Facebook hasn't even developed their own app for WP8 yet, and Google wont even allow Micosoft to release their youtube app that they had to develop since Google wouldn't
Anyways, I've been waiting and waiting for there to be an awesome camera on an Android phone (other than the brick of a phone the Zoom) with great low light abilities and optical image stabilization. This Xperia Z1 is not exactly that but it seems pretty darn close and is making me consider it. The video samples I've seen have awesome stabilization for being digital stabilization. So the only part where I'd miss optical is for low light photos, but from some of the samples and some questionable comparison shots, it seems to do quite well in low light, comparable to the 1020. Also the sound capture in videos seems really good, again comparable to the 1020. There's no Xenon flash, but I can probably live without that. The biggest draw back for me with the Z1 is how fat it is compared to other 5" screen devices. The bezels are gigantic especially on the ends. I'm sure some of that has to do with it being waterproof though. The other dissapointing thing is the on screen soft keys. They take up almost a half inch of the screen so most of the time you're only experiencing a 4.5" screen when doing things like web browsing. So it's pretty bad that a 4'5" screen phone takes up almost as much space as the Galaxy Note 3, plus it actually weights more than the Note 3 which has a .7" larger screen and no on screen buttons so in some cases it will feel like a 1.2" bigger screen. So I'm either going to try to hold out until next year with the 1020 when there's bound to be a plethora of awesome android camera phones or I can sell the 1020 and go for the z1 now, although I'd have to pay out of pocket since I already used my upgrade :/. Decisions decisions. Having options is a good thing though and the Z1 seems to be a pretty good one.