The Sony Xperia Z1 is a powerful smartphone that offers a diverse set of state of the art features designed to enhance user experience. These include a few major accessibility improvements that render it suitable to blind users and people with hearing disabilities.

Like its predecessor, the Xperia Z, this handset is water and dust resistant. It also repeats the slate design that characterizes the Xperia smartphone series. However, its weight (170 grams) and dimensions (144 x 75 x 8,5mm) make it heavier and somewhat larger than most Xperia models.

The Z1 has a sharp and crisp 5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1080x1920 (441 ppi). It comes out of the box with Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) but can be upgraded to v4.4 (KitKat). In addition, the handset includes a 20.7 MP primary camera with autofocus and LED flash, and a 2MP secondary camera for videocalls. Regarding connectivity, it provides WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and NFC support. It is also compatible with 4G data network.

Accessibility review

Vision

The Xperia Z1 offers an improved version of Talkback,-the screen reader for Android, which reads blind users through most of the visual content. This is in fact a significant progress regarding accessibility in these devices. Sony’s other Xperia models, including the Z, include several barriers that render these devices inaccesible to the blind.

However, people with partial vision may not be able to get full access to this smartphone. Although it has an inbuilt screen magnifier and allows enlarging the size of the text, it is not possible to customize the font type. For this reason alone Amóvil is unable to recommend it to these users. Additionally, color blind users will not be able to reverse background and foreground colors to improve visibility.

A feature worth mentioning that can be useful to these users is the Xperia’s compatibility with HDMI, which allows connecting the phone to a bigger screen such as a television set or a computer display.

Hearing

The Xperia Z1 has a hearing aid compatibility rating of M3/T3 which means that hearing aid or cochlear implant users should be able to listen through this phone without experiencing unwanted background noises. This phone also supports instant messaging and videocalls.

Dexterity

The Z1 includes several accessibility features that may allow users with dexterity disabilities use it with comfort. However, Amóvil cannot recommend it to them because the voice recognition system failed to open the email, the settings menu and other features with the voice command. Also because this device is water and dust proof, all slots are secured with flaps that can be hard to manipulate for some of these users.

Comprehension

The Xperia Z1 is unsuitable to users with poor comprehension skills. The display includes icons with a design that is hard to identify and that do not comply with accessibility standards.

However, this device includes an app designed to guide users through the entire configuration process. In addition, the Xperia Z1 menus can be customized to make to improve the experience of these users.

For more information about accessibility in this smartphone, please consult the full accessibility report available in Amóvil.