Some reasonable EOFY deals from Sony, but the Xperia seems like the pick of the bunch. Good luck :)
Just upgraded from the Z to Z3+ myself. Having a new phone (clean, snappy, shiny and bright) is nice, for what that's worth.
z2 owner reporting. Still going strong!
z2 mobile here - no plans to upgrade
z tablet - going strong
Also Z2 here, thing keeps going, still snappy too.
Also a Z2 owner. still as good as new :D
Z2 owner too, upgraded my partners Samsung to the Z5, but no plans to upgrade from the Z2 myself. The Z5 is a nice phone, but not not enough to warrant an upgrade with my current one still going strong.
Z1 still going strong!
Admittedly, I haven't updated since the original android 4.4.4 it came with, since I hear all these conspiracy stories that the latest android versions deliberately run like crap on old phones to make owners upgrade their phones lol
cough Apple cough
Choking on a bit of apple are ya?
Have a free beer https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/254275?utm_source=newslett…
me too Z1 ftw been 2.5years, but i do have to concur that the latest version is laggy might have to go back to older version.
Z2 here running 6.0.1 - thought about upgrade, main advantage with the new mobile for me would be the finger print reader. Performance of my Z2 is still great so I'll probably keep holding out. I suspect if you are asking if it's worth updating then you're probably still happy with the older Z. As I recall the difference between the Z and Z2 wasn't huge… My main recommendation is once a year backup and do a clean install.
Yes, went from a z to z5. At this cheap price it's a winner.
You will notice a big difference in speed, software and camera.
Feels nice in the hand too
I've got the z3 and I think I'll stay put too. No problems yet.
Glad I bought a Z5 compact from Kogan eBay for $480 during the recent 20% sale.
That's not Australian stock though?!
ive learnt any prices ending in 99 etc makes it unlikely to be a sale.
Harvey Normans
You must be a sucker at Bunnings
Not much really apart from the z5
Yea still rockin my z1
Z5 is first of the plastic frame rather than aluminium ?
$699 would be full retail price now,so 60-40% Off that is ?
According to sony site Suggested Retail Price $ 999.00
LOL! even vodafone lists retail price as $640
loll i guess it wouldnt sound as good if they put RRP $640 .. out price $699 :P
40% off $999 is $599. Nice try Sony.
It's still aluminium, you're probably thinking of the Xperia X / X Performance, both of which have plastic frames.
The Z5 Compact has a plastic frame.
Yes it does, but he said the Z5.
I want an A6000 :/
I also want one of these
I hesitate to ask,
but how much is the
'discounted price'?
Far better phones available for the money now.
Huawei P9 is $799RRP
LG G5 can be had for $749 ($1099RRP)
LG G4 is <$400 on a good day
Nextbit Robins is $100 off at the moment with free delivery.
Nexus 5X, Xiaomi etc.
Yeah, I'm replacing my Z1 with a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro Prime (quite a mouthful…). Similar performance to Z5, fraction of the price. I'm tired of paying ~$400 for "last year's flagship" because I can't afford this year's flagship.
Who is selling these in Aus… they look not half bad!
I'm doing the same (but from Z1 compact). I was still happy with my Z1C until I killed it. I saw this deal and thought the timing was great, but started to have a look around and decided I don't want to spend $600+ on this. I'm starting to build quite the collection of Xiaomi products.
Better off getting a Z3 Compact, over the Z5 Compact. Z5C looks ugly and has worse battery life…
I personally like the look of the Z5C, so that's completely subjective. The worse battery life is true though, but the Z5C still has excellent battery life.
Ugly may have been a bit harsh. Z3 series does look sleeker than the Z5 series, though.
Z3 & Z3C has those horrible issues with the screen breaking randomly and when it breaks, the phone is unusable.
Not sure if the Z5/Z5C has resolved that issue yet
The MHCGT5 is a good deal, if you're in the market for a BIG unit.
https://www.sony.com.au/product/mhc-gt5d?cid=LP:DOJUNESOUND_…
Do you own one? I am really thinking about getting one but can't find any reviews anywhere
If only they still sold the Z3. Would love to upgrade from Z1 (which is still going great!) But there are a few good yumcha brand phones which look mighty tempting now, e.g. OnePlus 3, and ZTE Axon 7…
Xperia Z2 here with official SONY 6.0.1 marshmallow. Got it free on 24 month plan at $35/month with 2gb data, $700 calls from Virgin in Jan this year. Still an awesome phone!
"Got it free" love when i hear that on a plan
of course its not free but for $35 a month beats outlaying $500 upfront for phone and then another ~ $20 /month for a sim only plan and taking the time to bugger around comparing plans, going to different places for phone purchase/sim purchase. F*** that. Was in virgin store and out with my new great value phone/ plan in 10 minutes.
But the problem is the branded phones come with bloatware and their OS updates depend on their service provider to put them out. After 24 months, on a plan, you're only saving about $50-100, personally not worth it IMO.
@fezzo: not these xperia's. Z1 was pretty lean and the most stock phone i've ever seen (other than nexus)
yep, this Z2 was very near stock Android to start with and the latest 6.0.1 firmware (which was available via xperifirm within hours of release by Sony) was very slim as well. I have come off nexus 4, 5 and these are very near stock . Show me another major android brand that has updated a 2014 flagship phone to the latest OS in a prompt fashion.
Got a Z1C - was thinking about getting the Z5C but once i've replaced the battery (for $15) there's no compelling reason to get a new phone - it's still good, and the Z5C is only a small incremental update over the Z1C.
Might be worth getting though as this might be the last of the small phones with high-end features (Sony hasn't done a compact for the new X range and Samsung and the rest always skimp on specs when they do a small phone)
But the Sony compact ones skimp on specs too…. 2GB RAM (vs. 3GB for full-size) and a lower screen resolution (though at that size I could live with it). it's why I haven't bought a compact: not about to pay that much for a phone with 2GB RAM. Apart from that I think the size is great.
Sony put the most powerful SoC available for phone at the time, they gave it a fingerprint reader like the z5, still is water and dust resistance, still has stereo front facing speakers and still offers the same camera as z5. It's basically still a small flagships. I'm pretty impressed they still managed to put front facing stereo speakers.
They just cut back in the areas where consumers won't notice a difference, like the 720p screen, which on a 4.6 inch phone is still over 300 ppi and still more than acceptable for the majority of users. And when you have a lower resolution screen the same tasks won't require as much ram or resources as they do on the QHD phones. So despite it having less ram, performance for the most part should be better. Also by using a lower screen resolution it should provide better battery life than similar spec flagships using higher resolution screens. Which according to the GSM arena battery rankings the z5 compact is number one out of the s810 powered devices with an 86 hr rating. I'd personally would be more than happy with a tradeoff of a lower resolution as long as the screen is a 300+ PPI screen, because better performance and better battery life I value more than slightly higher pixel density that is hard to see.
However when I look at the competitions offering for premium compact phones, it looks like they are skimping. Now if you compare the more recent Samsung Galaxy A3. You are being provided a lot slower midrange a53 powered SoC, less storage, no 4k video recording, and no water resistance.
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-A3-2…
I spent $450 at the time (mid 2014) for a grey-market phone (Kogan I think), spec for spec you couldn't get better for cheaper and for a Sony as well, unless you were willing to go to a Chinese brand, something I'm still not going to do - snobbery aside, there's too many stories about your data being sent to a server in China as well as built-in spyware
And 2gb of of RAM is plenty - I don't play games on my phone or use anything graphics-heavy, can't say i've noticed any real lags.
Not trying to start a pro-Xiaomi war, but the "built-in spyware" was an issue on the Note 2's, due to dodgy ROM's being installed by wholesalers. It's not a known issue on the Note 3's, and wasn't Xiaomi's fault - their global ROMs are clean. As for data being sent to China, it was due to a "customer improvement" program that defaulted to "on", see http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141023/technology-mobiles-and… . It was not good, but their was no evil intent.
But to each their own. I would prefer sticking with Sony, if it wasn't so much more expensive. My current Sony is stable now, but required a lot of work to become so (factory reset and flashed two clean Sony ROMs, requiring a bootloader unlock and all - nearly gave up). The OTA updates had killed battery life and stability. Sony support was worthless.
where did you get your battery replaced for $15? my z1c battery after 16 months is fairly poor (I blame minecraft!) so wouldn't mind improving it back to factory again!
eBay and youtube are your friends! The job is not as daunting as you might think
Z2 here, marshmallow runs even better than all previous OSs for me. Staying put!
Is there any advantage buying from Sony?
I can get a Z5 compact delivered from Sydney for $512 from eBay.
Why pay $87 more to get it from Sony?
Normally: warranty and "band 28" (the 700MHz 4G frequency used for the faster 4G connections in Australia). Band 28 is not usually supported by overseas models, though I noticed that the Z5 grey imports do have it. Personally I can manage without it where I live.
Love to get one but my Xperia M and Nexus 5 are both going strong.
New local Z5 Premium is $712 AUD delivered from eBay
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sony-E6883-Z5-Premium-Black-32GB-…
Z5 Premium Dual SIM (warning: missing some AU bands) is $588
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Sony-Xperia-Z5-Premium-E6883-…
Package includes: 1 x Australian adaptor (gift)
Don't think it's local. You must be cautious of these sellers throwing around Australian warranty. That usually means they have a local base you can send back to if you have an issue.
only white and gold are on special for Z5, might just wait a few more days and see what happens (apparently the X will be available by the end of June)
Sony seem to do the compact every second generation. So still chance they will make one in the next generation of phones.
My next phone is likely to be a Sony, but I'm not ready just yet. The Nexus 5X, cheap and nasty though it is, will suffice for now.
Xperia m5, worst phone i've had. Purchased o/s, Sony Australia dont want anything to do with me and claim cant repair even for $$$? Had to replace battery and both camera's myself.
Thanks for posting TA
wanted the black z5 but only white and gold on sale :(
I've got the Z5C. Got it from JB at just a bit under retail when it firs came out. Couldnt be happier. Even at that price. Highly recomended
Anyone buying the Z5C, be aware that they seem to have a pretty high chance of being faulty, overheating and having terrible battery life. I bought one 2 months ago and would struggle to even get 10 hours standby out of it with 2 hours screen-on time. It also got insanely hot after a few mins of light use - G-Sam battery monitor said some of the sensors in it hit 65 degrees c, and it physically hurt to touch. Google shows this is very, very common. I listened to people who said it had been fixed via software, but it clearly hasn't.
I took it back to the store (I bought from a retail store specifically because of reading about this common fault so I could easily get a replacement) and got a replacement and this one has been great - ~40 hours between charges regularly, with ~6 hours of screen-on time.
Word of warning as well - if it comes with Android Lamington (5.x), keep it on that if you want better battery life! Don't upgrade to Marshmallow (6). It removes Sonys brilliant Stamina mode and relies on Android 6s built in Doze mode, which is a very poor replacement. Sonyrecently added Stamina mode, but it is the same in name only - it doesn't do what it does on 5.
If you do get a good unit though, it's a fantastic phone. Small with flagship specs and performance, with the best battery life around.
*Android Lollipop, not Lamington lol.
The DAB+ Radio is at a pretty good price, almost $80 cheaper than anywhere else. The Wireless Multi-room Speaker is tempting.
They are dropping prices cause australian X series is getting announced on the 30th…
I'm on a Z2, going to upgrade to a white X Performance.
Thanks TA, I bought a Gold Z5 for myself and a white one for my wife.
Im still using my original Z. Worth upgrading? Maybe not.