Need to upgrade my HTC Thunderbolt. Sony Xperia Z3v or HTC One (M8)??

Question

I used to be a photographer since the film days but now that everyone in the world thinks they are "photographer," I gave up. But photos as a hobby is still important to me. I love photo options and high pixels. Sony was nice for that but HTC for affects/ options. Verizon reps knew either nothing or what I already knew. I feel I am teaching them about the Turbo and Xperia Z3. So I need help. I've researched and played with these phones (hated Moto camera interface, LG, Samsung, always hated iPhone): HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z3v. Not sure if Sony uploads to my Mac easily from phone either. I would like the best quality in camera, sound, text/calling experience. Who has the best voice recording? Ease of using personal dictionary, select all/copy/paste? Thanks.

Answer 1

I had an m8. The 4mp camera is good, but, when you zoom while recording or with a picture after its taking I noticed extremely soft edges and slight chop in the pixels, the 3d effects are nice although you can only view those from the phone. The sound was amazing and the system ran smooth most of the time. However,  I upgraded to the z3v; I am not disappointed the multiple options inside the camera app are insane and it does take some of the best videos and pics I've ever seen in a phone. But,  it's just that,  a phone,  so the audio isn't great and some other things not worth mentioning. The xperia has 3gb ram which provides a noticeable boost in performance, where the m8 would lag here and there. My last gripe with the xperia is that because of its slight "step-chill" hybrid z2-z3 deal they didn't work out keeping data connection while in a voice call,  not a huge deal for me,  but,  there are those occasions when I'm in a call and need to check to see if an email sent or long into a server for work and I have to call whomever back because I can't do both.
I get almost two days out of a full charge on this (1day with a lot of usage), longer if you enable one of the stamina modes; opposed to the m8 I only got a day or a tad longer(less than a day with a lot of usage), but,  usually both streaming Pandora for a couple hours with screen off,  the usual amount of texts and emails and maybe 45 min of Web browsing with a few 20-35 min phone calls.
Waterproof is my big thing,  the xperia is waterproof to a point,  make sure flaps are closed and I bought some silicone headphone jack port plugs and put a little silicone sealer (let it dry) on them to keep the water from entering the headphone port, salt water would wreak havoc in there; I rinse the whole phone with fresh (bottled) water after. No problems.