Adopting the same design principles as Google and LG, the Xperia Z sports one glass panel on the front and back. In case you are wondering whether they are Gorilla Glass, they are not. Style Square iphone cases uses a combination of tempered glass and anti-shatter film to boost the scratch resistant properties and durability of the glass panels against wear and tear.

The main feature of the Xperia Z is its 5-inch Reality Display, which is powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2. Compared to the slightly saturated HD Super AMOLED display of the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the Xperia Z gives a more realistic color reproduction. With a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (441ppi), the Xperia Z is clearly in the same league as the HTC Butterfly. The improved clarity and brightness are well suited for watching movies and reading on-the-go.

To substantiate its claims of having the highest levels of dust and water resistance Style Square iphone cases made number of modifications to the design of the Xperia Z. Besides the usual connectivity ports and card slots, the Xperia Z is sealed up pretty tight. Having said that, the Sony phone does not have a removable battery.

Perhaps one of the most unique design features of the Xperia Z is its metallic Power button on the right side of the device. Due to the nature of the material used, it is actually very easy to feel and press the button even without looking at it. Its location also makes it convenient to access the button, which is particularly important for a device with a 5-inch display as you do not need to stretch your finger or hand to reach the top to turn on the screen or device.

As the Xperia Z is the first 5-inch device we've handled, it is only right that we compare its design and looks with the current competition. Unfortunately, we do not have a review unit of the 5-inch HTC Butterfly for comparison, and had to make do with the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note II, 4.7-inch LG Nexus 4 and 4-inch Apple iPhone 5.

Out of the box, the Xperia Z runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Sony states that it will be rolling out the Android 4.2 update shortly after the launch of the device in Q1. Android purists may want to give the Xperia Z a try as the modifications done to the Android user interface are minimal.

The Huawei Ascend G330 came up second, only losing out slightly to Samsung's Galaxy Ace 2. In fact, all devices scored within the comfortable range of 2000 to 2300 points. Apart from benchmarking, the Ascend G330 ran smoothly and had no problems rendering pages or running graphic-intensive apps. The phone's lag-free performance and generally positive day-to-day experience pretty much did it for us.

The cheap iphone cases Ascend G330 does moderately well for a 5-megapixel shooter, with performance just slightly a notch lower than the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. The device exhibits sufficient levels of clarity and details though we observed that its white balance was off, producing colors with an overtly blue tinge for indoor photos.

Unfortunately, noise levels were on the high side and we spotted prominent "splotches" across the photo. Shutter speed is slightly on the slow side, which made it a tad more difficult to take clear photos without switching on flash.

The Huawei Ascend G330 ties in with the HTC One V at 360 minutes of battery life - with Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 taking the top spot. However, because the Huawei Ascend G330 is the second heaviest in the group, it goes down to third place in terms of portability ratio, losing the first place and second place to 115g HTC One V and 122g Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 respectively.

To give you a real-world gauge, we observed that the phone could last almost a whole day on a single charge with emails and Twitter feeds pushed constantly to it. Other activities included occasional web surfing and phone calls. So from a battery performance level, the phone is right up with the best contenders in this category. In terms of overall portability aspects, it's not bad, but it could have been better.