Sony Xperia Z1 Compact or Apple iPhone 5s: Which is best?

Japanese Phone Maker Sony's Xperia Z1 Compact smartphone might be a miniature alternative to the flagship Xperia Z1, but it features the same top-end specifications as its larger sibling. With a 4.3in display and top-end features, this handset sees Sony challenging Apple's iPhone 5S in the smartphone market.

Design

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and iPhone 5S are worlds apart in design, but both devices have a premium look.

Sony's Xperia Z1 Compact measures 127x65x9.5mm and is crafted predominantly from plastic. But much like the flagship Xperia Z1, this is coated in glass and edged with aluminium, giving the handset an all around high-end feel.

The iPhone 5S measures 124x59x7.6mm and features the same boxy, angular design as the Xperia Z1 Compact. But Apple's handset differs from Sony's plastic and glass casing with a fully aluminium chassis, which both looks and feels premium. However, we have found the handset's metal casing is prone to picking up scuffs and scratches, much like the Xperia Z1 Compact is prone to picking up fingerprints.

Display

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has a 4.3 inch 1280 x 720 display with a pixel density of 342 pixels per inch. It’s a high quality, high definition screen and it uses Triluminos technology which does a good job of replicating natural colour shades.

The Apple iPhone 5S has a 4 inch 640 x 1136 display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. It’s both smaller and marginally lower resolution than the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact’s screen, but not enough to be an issue. The overall quality of images on the iPhone 5S’s display is every bit as good in fact and the only major difference between the two is that the iPhone 5S is true widescreen 16:9, which is great for watching videos on but takes a little getting used to for everything else.

Power

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 32 bit processor and 2GB of RAM. It’s an enormously powerful phone, right up there with the likes of the LG G2 and the Sony Xperia Z1.

The Apple iPhone 5S uses a 1.3 GHz dual-core Apple A7 64 bit processor and 1GB of RAM. While that may sound worse it’s actually one of the most powerful handsets on the planet and should easily be able to match the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact for performance.

Operating system

Despite their similar performance, the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and iPhone 5S mobile operating systems couldn't be more different, with the handsets running Google's Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Apple's iOS 7, respectively.

It's always hard to compare Android with iOS, because most smartphone users already have their favourite, with some favouring Android's openness and ability to customise, and others preferring the simplicity of Apple's iOS.

On the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is coated with Sony's custom skin that overlays the stock user interface with the firm's custom apps and widgets. Saying that, Sony's custom user interface is much less obtrusive than Samsung's and HTC's skins, but it still has more of a learning curve than Apple's iOS 7 mobile operating system.

Camera

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has a 20.7 megapixel main camera, complete with a number of shooting options, such as HDR and burst mode. The combination of an Exmor RS sensor and wide angle G lens ensure that it lets in more light than most other phones and at the same time reduces noise, allowing it to capture sharp, detailed images.

The Xperia Z1 Compact also has a 2 megapixel front facing camera and can shoot 1080p video.

The Apple iPhone 5S only has an 8 megapixel camera. However it has a large active sensor area and uses a ‘True Tone’ flash, which ensures that pictures have natural colours. It also has a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and can shoot video in 1080p.

Both phones are great for photo fanatics, but the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is the better of the two.

Battery life and storage

Sony claims that the 2,300mAh battery battery on the Xperia Z1 Compact will last for 18 hours of constant talk-time, while Apple claims up to 10 hours.

We found that the battery on Sony's pint-sized smartphone way outlasted that of the iPhone 5S. We used both smartphones over the weekend, with both seeing average to heavy use, and while the iPhone 5S needed to be recharged towards the evening, the Xperia Z1 Compact easily breezed through into a second day.

The Xperia Z1 Compact storage trumps that of the iPhone 5S too. While it's only available with 16GB of internal storage, it boasts a microSD card slot, which means users can expand this by an additional 64GB. The iPhone 5S, on the other hand, is available with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of internal storage, but has no way to expand this further.

Price

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is available in the UK SIM free from £449, while the cheapest iPhone 5S is priced at £529. It's pretty clear which one is the winner in this category.

iPhone 4 available in India again!

iPhone 4 is available in India again, but Apple won't call it a 'relaunch'. There has been much excitement in the Indian press about Apple supposedly relaunching the iPhone 4 in India. Several media outlets have expressed dismay and derision at news of the company supposedly trying to push the four-year-old model because sales of the high-priced iPhone 5s and 5c aren't meeting expectations.

The current official MRP is Rs 22,900, although stores are offering it for around Rs. 21,999. Apple itself refuses to comment on speculated launches, but other well-placed sources in the industry confirm that the iPhone 4 is no longer being manufactured. Sales have continued only because stocks still exist, and there are no plans to push the iPhone 4 as a budget-friendly model.

In the same price band, buyers can opt for the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, the HTC Desire 601, the Nokia Lumia 720, or Sony Xperia SP. The Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 1320 are available for just under Rs 24,000 each.

It seems that the pricey iPhone 5s and uninspiring iPhone 5c aren't doing it for Apple in India where users aren't thrilled by the company removing the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4S looks a more reasonable smartphone at that price, even though it's over two-years old itself.

Google Nexus 5 vs. Apple iPhone 5S

The Nexus 5 has finally arrived and it has already got plenty of smartphones to compete with. One of the major rival for Nexus 5 is none other than the iPhone 5S. In 2012, both the phones had arrived in the fourth quarter of the year but went to be the best smartphones of the year. Again, both iPhone 5S and Nexus 5 have arrived in the fourth quarter and come plenty of new features that will make the best smartphones of 2013. Google's Nexus 5 is the perfect blend of functionality and affordability but can it take on the powerful and fast iPhone 5S? 

Display and Dimensions

The Nexus 5 comes with a 5inch display screen that offers a display resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with a pixel density of 445ppi. The handset is quite thin as its thickness is only 0.34 inches. The phone weighs only 130g. On the other side, Apple has continued to offer the same sized display that came with the older iPhone 5. It has got a 5inch display screen that offers a display resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels. It brings to you amazing clarity through the Retina Display technology. In comparison with Nexus 5, the pixel density of iPhone 5S is lower with 326ppi. However, compared to the Nexus 5, the iPhone 5S is thinner as it only 7.6mm thick and even weighs less with a weight of 112g.

Form

iPhone 5s - 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm, 112g

Google Nexus 5 - 137.9 x 69.2 x 8.6mm, 130g

Neither Google nor Apple has gone for anything wildly different from their current ranges, with the iPhone 5S looking almost exactly like its predecessor, with the slight exception of it now being available in gold, as well as the standard Apple black and white. The device remains minimal and has the usual thin side-to-side bevel, with the larger bevel above and below the screen. As with previous models, the device is made of glass and metal, giving it a heavy, premium feel, if a little slippery in the hand.

Google’s Nexus 5 is possibly even more minimal than the iPhone, with no buttons on the fascia of the device and a minimal side bevel. The device is made of edge-to-edge toughened glass, giving it a high-quality feel and the updated Gorilla Glass 3 is especially thin, making the device tough without being bulky. Buttons are hewn from a ceramic material, which is a vast improvement on plastic from the previous Nexus smartphone, and they lend a real feeling of quality to the device.

Hardware

The Nexus 5 is powered with a Snapdragon 800 chipset with Krait CPU cores that delivers a clocking speed of 2.3GHz. It has got 2GB RAM board. The phone is available in two storage variants, namely 16GB and 32GB. It comes with 2300mAh capacity battery. As mentioned before, there is 64bit A7 processor that offers a clocking speed of 1.3GHz. It is coupled with PowerVR G6430 graphics and M7 coprocessor. It comes with 1GB RAM. The handset is available in storage variants of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. It has got a battery of 1570mAh capacity.

Software

A much more important question than which hardware to go for is the ecosystem to pick – Android or iOS. Both phones run the very latest version of their respective systems – iOS 7 and Android 4.4 KitKat. 

These days, both are very fast and look good – before iOS 7 the Apple mobile OS was starting to look a little musty. The main benefit of iOS is that it offers the best apps and games selection. You just can’t beat the App Store. 

With Android, you get much more control. You can change keyboards, tweak the look of the system a whole lot more and can generally connect to other devices much more easily – whether a TV or just your computer.We could go on, but the debate around iOS vs Android is long enough, complicated enough and emotive enough to fill several volumes.

Camera

Both these phones have 8-megapixel cameras, a megapixel count that sounds a little low when the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 13-megapixel camera and the Xperia Z1 a 20.7-megapixel camera. However, each has a few minor tricks up its sleeve. 

The iPhone 5S has a slightly larger-than-average sensor. It is 1/3 of an inch rather than 1/3.2 inches – the standard size, and that of the Nexus 5. Larger sensors result in less noisy pictures, given the same level of processing. 

The Nexus 5 also has a slower lens than the iPhone 5S – f/2.4 to the iPhone’s f/2.2. A faster lens again results in less noisy pictures, and better low-light performance. 

However, the Nexus 5 has one thing the iPhone 5S does not – optical image stabilisation. This buffers the lens to compensate for any movement made while you’re taking photos, and will reduce the number of blurry photos you take.

Connectivity

The Nexus 5 and the iPhone 5S both come with support for 4G LTE connectivity. The Nexus 5 will be available through AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint but there is no info on whether the Nexus 5 will be made available by Verizon. The iPhone 5S is being offered by all the leading carriers in US.

When it comes to Wi-Fi, the iPhone 5S only offers 802.11n speeds whereas the Nexus 5 offers much faster internet connectivity through 802.11ac. Both the handsets come with Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. Google Nexus 5 comes with NFC connectivity but Apple is yet to offer this feature on its iPhone.

When we compare the hardware specs of both the smartphones, the Nexus 5 seems to be a superior. However, it all boils down to how the hardware interacts with the operating system on the handset.

Battery Life

Battery life is one of those things that no one is ever happy with. With that said, you might be pleased to know that the battery life on both the Nexus 5 and the iPhone 5s are pretty decent. According to Apple, you’ll be able to get 10 hours worth of LTE surfing time, while Google says that the Nexus 5 will last seven hours on LTE. Of course, your mileage will vary, and each user will have their own experiences as far battery life goes, but it’s usually a safe bet to knock a couple hours off of what companies give you as far as battery life numbers.

Price

Nexus 5’s 16 and 32 GB variants are priced at Rs.28,999 and Rs. 32,999. On the other hand 5s 16GB, 32 and 64 GB variants are priced at Rs.53,500, Rs 62,500 and 71,500.

Apple's iOS 7.0.3 update

iOS 7.0.3, which went out as a free update on 22nd October, brings back iCloud Keychain - a feature which Apple had initially announced when it first showcased the OS at the WWDC event in June, but did not make it into the final release. As mentioned, the iOS 7.0.3 update adds iCloud Keychain that allows users to save and sync account user names, passwords, and credit card numbers across all their approved iOS and Mac (the ones that run OS X Mavericks) devices in the Safari web browser.

It also brings the Password Generator through which Safari suggests unique, hard-to-guess passwords for users' online accounts. The update also brings back the ability to search the web and Wikipedia through Spotlight search, allowing users to search for keywords directly via iOS' universal search feature.

Credit : Apple

A number of users complained about iOS 7's motion graphics and animations and to address these issues, Apple has fixed calibration issues with the iPhone's sensor, which means your phone will no longer be a couple of degrees off. It also updates the Bold Text setting to change dial pad text.

The 7.0.3 update also delays the display of "slide to unlock" when Touch ID is in use, for iPhone 5s users.

Interestingly, there's also a security fix as Apple mentions that the update fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode.

Apple announces iPad Mini with Retina Display

Credit : TheVerge

Apple has debuted a new iPad Mini, called iPad Mini with Retina Display. The new tablet will obviously feature a much-requested 2,048x1,536-pixel Retina Display, comes in space gray and silver, and houses Apple's A7 chip, last seen in the iPhone 5S. On the software front, the Apple iPad mini 2 runs iOS 7 out of the box.

Credit : The Verge

 It ships in late November, starting at $399 for 16GB of storage for the Wi-Fi version, continuing to $499 for 32GB, $599 for 64GB, and $699 for the brand-new 128GB configuration. Cellular Minis start at $529 for 16GB and from there it's $629 for 32GB, $729 for 64GB, and finally a whopping $829 for 128GB.
Apple says the new iPad Mini is four times faster than last year's model and has eight times the graphics performance, while still providing a purported 10 hours of battery life.

Credit : The Verge

Camera specs are identical to last year's, but Apple has added an extra microphone. It features a 5 megapxel rear snapper, while there's a 1.2 MP front-facing camera for video calls (using Skype, Fring, etc).

Credit : The Verge

The 7.9-incher now crams in 1536x2048 pixels, which brings its pixel density to approx 325 ppi. Processing muscle is another aspect where the mini gets a serious upgrade. Apple has bumped up the innards from the humble dual-core Cortex-A9 processor to the spanking-new A7 chipset.

Credit : The Verge

A new version of the iPad Smart Case - think of it as a smart cover that surrounds the entire tablet - now for the Mini, will be released at $69.

Apple's new iPad Air: thin, light & ultra-powerful tablet

Credit : The Verge

Apple announced the iPad Air, its fifth-generation iPad, October 22 in San Francisco at the company's annual unveiling event. Thinner, lighter, and with a more powerful processor, The 9.7-inch, one-pound, 7.5mm-thick device feels much better in one hand than it used to, though it's certainly not as portable as the iPad mini — which now has a 2048 x 1536 screen to match the Air's as well. Along with the new A7 processor and a handful of under-the-hood improvements, this is just about the upgrade we expected, It's really beautiful, with cleaner bezels, a much thinner profile, and sharper, boxier edges. That's probably a good thing.

Credit : Cnet

A new A7 chip inside makes the Air eight times faster than the iPad 4, according to Apple. For reference, this is the same 64-bit chip populating the iPhone 5S. Like Apple's latest smartphone, the Air's A7 also comes with the M7 motion coprocessor, which promises graphics that render at twice the rate of the previous iPad.

Credit : The Verge

In terms of graphics, that means that this iPad Air is 72 times faster than the original iPad in GPU performance, but who's counting? All that really matters is how it stacks up against today's top tablet performers.

Credit : The Verge

In terms of Wi-Fi, there's MIMO wireless technology onboard, but the Air is using the 802.11n standard, not the the more current "ac" Wi-Fi designation.

Credit : The Verge

The iPad Air has a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the rear that Apple says takes improved low-light shots. On the front, video-chatters will find the refreshed FaceTime HD camera, which gives you larger pixels to make images look clearer, according to the claim. Dual microphones will help capture even sound. It has  a 32.4-watt-hour rechargeable lithium battery, and promises to keep up its 10-hour battery life rate on the Air.

How to block a number on an iPhone in iOS 7

We would all like the ability not to be contacted from certain numbers. Perhaps you are receiving nuisance calls from PPI firms, or these telecom companies just won't leave you alone.You can ignore each call as it comes in, of course, but how can you block that number forever?

The following ways to block callers work on the iPhone running iOS 7

1. Block a number that has called you in iOS 7

Open up the Phone app at the bottom of every home screen. At the bottom of the window you should see 'Recents'. Click this. You will see a list of recent callers.
Click the (i) next to the number you wish to block. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see the option to 'Block this Caller'. Click it and confirm your choice. That's it!

2. Another way to block a contact in iOS 7

You can also block contacts that are already in your phone. This works via the Settings app. Go to Settings - it is a grey app on your home screen. Then scroll down to Phone.
Scroll down again and you will see an entry for 'Blocked'. This shows you a list of blocked contacts. Click Add New... and you will be taken to your Contacts. Select the Contact you wish to block, and confirm your choice.

How to close running apps in iOS 7

In iOS 6 and previous versions you have to double tap the home button twice to show the tray containing all the currently running apps in the background, then you have to tap and hold any one of the app until they start to toggle with a little red cross on them. Then you have to press that red cross to close that app which are using your iPhone’s resources (RAM, CPU etc.).

In iOS 7 you still have to double tap the home button to bring the list of currently running apps, but now you can see the screenshot of the last used the apps that are running in the background as well the icon of that app under the screenshot. You can Swipe left and right to scroll through the list of apps.

To close an app you have to swipe the screenshot upwards to close it. It is much easier and more feasible than the previous versions of iOS as you can swipe with two fingers and close two apps simultaneously.

It feels quite similar to Android where you have to swipe towards left to close any running app, but it feels good to have best of both worlds ;-)