(+) The device is apart from a narrow metal frame made of plastic, but looks completely not cheap because of the very good processing, the extremely flat design and the feel of the roughened, grippy back. It fits comfortably in your hand and you can hold it upside down to get tired long without even lying on his back, thanks to the very low weight (270g). The form factor of the Sony is 16:10. Actually, I find the form factor of 4: 3 as the iPad Mini better on the other side is Sony so shallow (6.4 mm) and narrow (12.4 cm), it still fits into many ordinary jacket or coat pockets. For me, even with the original Sony-shell (SCR28 StyleCover state). Furthermore, it has only very narrow black bars while watching videos or movies (16: 9 or 21: 9) at 16:10, which is a tablet with me one of the main purposes.
(+) That the Z3 tablet has a certain water resistance, I do not feel as a gimmick. It does for me a role insofar that it is my first tablet, where I dare really to use it in the bathtub. Threw it but that's why I have not intentionally.
(+) The display has 1920x1200 pixels and is therefore very sharp with a diagonal of 8 inches. In the higher resolutions that have some tablets, I see so far with 8 inch no benefits. ME, they contribute to the jerkiness, which I had with some previous tablets. Does not this is the case with Sony. The color representation and contrast like me subjectively very good and the display is very bright. The brightness is controlled automatically, but can be switched off also. In the dark, the maximum brightness with manual control is so bright that the tablet can be used as a flashlight. I have not used the device in direct sunlight outdoors, but I think therefore that it should be possible.
(+) As for the performance, everything feels on the Sony very fluid at. I have so far found no stuttering in the menus, as they are known by various other androids often.
(+) The WLAN range and the Bluetooth range make a good impression. I have an older Sony MW-1 Smart Wireless Headset Pro (Bluetooth), and never lose the connection to the tablet in my apartment at this.
(-) Only drawback is that when the tablet in standby enter, after the re-awakening, the Bluetooth headset is not automatically reconnected / joins. What with some other equipment was indeed the case, but at two Sony devices should go that, even if the MW-1 is older. I'm going to try and see if the problem still occurs with newer headsets.
(+) With regard to the mobile, I have so far only able to test HSPA + because I have no LTE reception here. Unfortunately, the Sony also uses a nano-SIM, which I find far too tiny and the insert is very fiddly. Often you want to change not. I use O2 and after I had to manually access point (APN) "Internet" set (which has not been set up automatically), the data connection with HSPA + then functioned normally. Making calls is also possible with the Tablet. It can even be held to the ear, you can see this from perhaps just a bit strange.
(-) Unfortunately, no HDMI, but a USB / MHL 3.0 combo port. To connect to HDMI, you therefore need an extra one MHL / HDMI adapter. What I find very annoying, especially for travel.
(+) The volume and sound are measured by the flatness of the device in order.
(-) The camera is in my opinion rather below average. But is not important for me at Tablets, therefore I will hardly deal with this also.
(O) The battery has 4500 mAh and unfortunately is not changeable. So relatively common for flat 8 inch tablets. For battery life I can not say much yet, but after about 8 hours to play around with the device still 65% battery, which is very good. Certainly, but this will be less if I only watch movies with it, longer Surf etc .. The battery charge lasts a relatively long time. In other reviews will be written that would be because of the included AC adapter. However, this is specified with 1.5A. So really not quite as weak. My strongest power supply for 5 V DC via USB connector provides only 2.1 A.
(+) As for the software, I'm generally not a big fan of the software pre-installed by the major manufacturers and have the Sony own apps that have been updated instantly during the initial installation, has not really used. Interesting but sounds the possible connection to the Playstation 4. You can use the tablet as a remote display Z3 for the PS4, ie PS4 games on the tablet.
*** UPDATE *** 1:
Since Android 4.4 Google has known extremely difficult to write to memory cards for Apps. Normal Apps can by default only in its own folder write (Rooting times left out). What causes File Explorer apps that you yourself installed later, no longer able to write freely on SD cards. On the Z3 Tablet Sony has pre-installed the File Commander and given this innately system rights, which only the manufacturer can. We can therefore write freely any files with it on an SD card.
(+) I use my tablet beside Surfing the web, e-mail and e-books, mainly for watching movies and videos. So to consume media content. On the sofa, but the move mainly in railway and remote bus. What I like about the Sony that it clearly comes with microSDXC cards that are formatted with the exFAT file system. The do not still all androids. This way you can also have the files larger than 4 GB, playback such as ISO images of DVDs that have been copied to the PC on microSDXC, directly from the card. I use to the VLC player for Android. So without converting previously hours. This saves a lot of time before traveling. I tested only 64GB cards, but according to the technical data, are also 128 GB cards work. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why I do not use iPad.)
(+) Amazon Prime Instant Video also works easily on the Sony. Unfortunately, this is only possible via streaming, which usually do not work as well on the road if you do not have Wi-Fi. Or can be expensive (LTE). But that is because Amazon supports offline mode only in the Kindle tablets and not on Z3 Tablet.
*** UPDATE 2 ***
(+) The Z3 tablet to get next year Sony also updates to Android 5.0. That should solve the write access to SD, according to Google, the situation.
(+) FM radio: Tut as expected. You have to connect a headset that works as an antenna. From the pre-installed app can be started directly TrackID. That's a Sony app recognizes what music you currently listening to the radio. Worked for me but to 50% the music not recognized.
(+) USB OTG: Today I have a USB OTG cable connected and then a USB flash drive and later also a USB SD card reader with SD card. Were both recognized. You can then play back directly as videos and music from USB memory. In preloaded FileCommander you see the infected USB memory as "External USB Storage" and will toggle herkopieren also files on the inserted MicroSD or internal memory as long as the USB storage with exFAT or FAT32 formatted. You can freely write to the USB storage with other file explorers as File Commander - see above comment in UPDATE 1. (Where Google sees the difference between microSD in MicroSD slot and eg a MicroSD in infected microSD USB card reader, remains to me enigmatic ...)
(O) I also tried an external drive Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB join. The led on the board went to, whether it is really up and running, I do not sure. But it was the error that the file system (NTFS disk has) was not recognized. An elderly plate on which I have an exFAT partition was not running on. Maybe I format the Seagate later time trial basis in order.
*** UPDATE 3 ***
(+) GPS I have now tested with Google Maps. Fix coming very quickly. Everything normal.
(O) NFC I have not tested. Will I top up if necessary.
Conclusion: This is so far by far my best tablet for my purposes.