LG Optimus G Pro is LG’s first Full HD smartphone and it comes with a 5.5inch display making it more phablet than phone. Sony’s first Full HD smartphone, Xperia Z comes with a 5inch display giving it a more compact body. Powerful quad-core Snapdragon processors power both the phones although the Optimus G Pro has newer generation processor.
Lets check out how the phones fare against each other.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bWbIihqzLM
Design, Build Quality
The LG Optimus G Pro has a solid glass front and back supported by a solid and heavy metal rim at the centre. The Sony Xperia Z too has a glass front and back, but has a solid rectangular build and sharp edges.
The Optimus G Pro is taller, wider and thicker than the Xperia Z because of the bigger 5.5inch display. It also weighs considerably more than the Xperia Z.
On the front of the phones, we have the display, above which we have the earpiece and front cameras along with ambient and proximity sensors on the right side on the G Pro while the front camera is on the left side of the earpiece on Xperia Z. The earpiece on both the phones is along the top edge.
On the Optimus G Pro, below the display, we have a physical home button surrounded by LED light with capacitive touch keys on either side, but on Xperia Z, there are no navigation buttons and everything is restricted to on-screen keys. The microphone on the Xperia Z is along the bottom edge.
The positioning of keys is different with only the power lock key on the right side in the G Pro while the Xperia Z has the covered microSIM card slot, power lock key and volume rocker along with the speaker near the bottom.
The bottom of Optimus G Pro has the microUSB port and the microphone while the Xperia Z is barren.
On the left side, we have the volume rocker and the customizable Q-slide key on the G Pro while we have the covered micro USB and microSD card slot.
The top of Optimus G Pro has the 3.5mm audio jack, IR blaster and secondary microphone while the Xperia Z has just the covered 3.5mm audio jack.
Moving to the back side, we find glossy glass on both the phones with the 13MP camera along with LED flash. The back of the Xperia Z is more prone to fingerprints than G Pro. The secondary microphone is right next to the camera on the Xperia Z.
The Optimus G Pro has a removable battery cover and beneath the cover, we find a hot-swappable microSD card slot and microSIM slot.
Overall, both the LG Optimus G Pro and the Xperia Z have a very premium finish and solid build quality, but the Optimus G Pro feels slightly slippery, while the Xperia Z feels quite solid because of the rectangular build.
Display
Both the phones have Full HD displays but the G Pro has a bigger 5.5inch Tru HD IPS+ display with a pixel density of 401ppi while the Sony Xperia Z has 5inch Mobile Bravia Engine 2 display with a pixel density of 441ppi. Both the displays are sharp, but the display on the Xperia Z has very poor viewing angles and poor contrast, everything seems to appear unnaturally whitish on the Xperia Z, but the G Pro had excellent colors. The viewing angles were quite impressive as well.
Overall, the G Pro has a much better display than the Xperia Z.
Hardware and Performance
The LG Optimus G Pro is powered by a 1.7 GHz QuadCore Snapdragon 600 SoC, has 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 GPU while the Xperia Z is powered by a 1.5 GHz QuadCore Snapdragon S4 Pro, has 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 GPU.
The Optimus G Pro has 16/32GB variants (we have the 16GB variant) while the Xperia Z has 16GB internal storage. Out of the 16GB, Optimus G Pro has 10.11 GB available while the Xperia Z has 11.7 GB and both the phones have a microSD card slot for expansion.
Out of 2GB in both the phones, the G Pro has around 1781MB usable RAM while the Xperia Z has 1837MB usable and G Pro has 1.2GB RAM free when the device is idle while the Xperia Z has 1.3GB free RAM.
The faster processor and more RAM give the LG Optimus G Pro a big upper hand in terms of performance. Both the phones are super fast and you would hardly notice the difference in day to day usage.
In benchmarks, the newer LG Optimus G Pro easily beats the Xperia Z.
Camera
Both the phones have a 13MP camera at the back and Optimus G Pro has a 2.1MP camera at the front while Xperia Z has a 2.2MP camera at the front. Both the phones can record 1080p videos at 30fps with stereo sound from both the cameras.
The camera UI is different on both the phones with some skinning from the manufacturers. There are various shooting modes on both the phones like Panorama, HDR.
In terms of image clarity, the Optimus G Pro was better with less noise, more details, better contrast and true colors. Do check out our camera samples comparison video below to get a clear understanding of the image clarity.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRH-AcX7V0
Software features
Both the phones run on Android 4.1.2 Jellybean with a custom UI skin on top of it. LG packs its phone with Q-apps that can be placed anywhere on the screen which is very similar to the small-apps on the Xperia Z. Only one small app can be run which is not the case with Qapps. There is no landscape mode in Xperia Z while it is present in G Pro. The Q button can be assigned to any app. IR blaster is present in G Pro which is missing in Xperia Z.
Gaming
Gaming on both the phones is quite good. The powerful processor makes the gaming experience quite smooth without any lags. But the poor display on the Xperia Z and the bigger and better display on G Pro make it a winner here.
Battery and Connectivity
The Optimus G Pro has a 3140mAh battery while the Xperia Z has 2330mAh battery. In terms of battery life, the bigger battery in the G Pro is definitely better.
In terms of connectivity, both the devices are equipped with features like WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G, A-GPS, NFC, WiFi Direct and DLNA. Wi-Fi ac band support is present only in G Pro.
Conclusion
The LG Optimus G Pro Retails at Rs. 36,000 while Sony Xperia Z retails at Rs. 33,000. Xperia Z offers a better design, premium build and dust/water resistance while the extra 3k fetches a better display, camera, gaming performance and better battery life in the Optimus G Pro.
Contributed by Monish Kumar.