This is the Sony Xperia Z3 for T-Mobile. It’s one of the only carriers to carry the Sony flagship smartphone and actually leave it pretty much unaltered. We saw the Verizon Xperia Z3v not too long ago. But as you know, that went through a major redesign, which actually made it resemble more of the Z2 and not actually as much of the Z3. So I’m actually excited to get my hands on the unaltered Xperia Z3.

So if we go ahead and open up the bottom flap and open it up, we’ll find the Xperia Z3 for T-Mobile sitting right on top. I’m going to put it off to the side for a moment to take a look at what lies underneath because first you’ll find the standard micro USB charging cable used to charge the Z3 of course. Then we will find the wall wart with a USB port so that you can actually plug in the micro USB cable. And then finally, we have a T-Mobile SIM card, which actually has already been installed for me it looks like. And that’s really it. Pretty standard as you can see.

Now if we go ahead and rip off all that plastic protective coating on the device both on the front and back, we will see that beautiful Sony Xperia Z3 undressed and looking sexy. Honestly, first impressions is that this device feels great in the hands. If we take a quick look around the device, we’ll find the micro USB charging port on the left hand side with a port to power the PS4 Remote Play feature. There’s a slot for the microSD card and SIM card above the power sleep on/off button and volume controls and dedicated camera button. The 3.5mm headphone jack is on top and then there is nothing on the bottom.

On the front of the Z3 lies the dual front-facing speakers, a 2.2MP front-facing camera up top and nothing on the bottom since there are software navigation buttons. If we flip this phone over, we’ll find the 20.7MP camera and flash with the glass back cover that actually feels very premium. It could be a bit slimy feeling because it is glass but it’s much better than plastic. I will definitely tell you that.

And just overall, the device feels really great in the hands. My view has definitely been distorted after using the Xperia Z3v from Verizon for so long that the stock, unaltered Sony Xperia Z3 feels so much better. It’s so much more lightweight and just a lot thinner. And the curved aluminum edges make a big difference. It really feels premium in the hands. It doesn’t really feel all that clunky at all like the Z3v does.

If you power this device on though and take a look around, the defaulted color changing background is nice. And the overall device appears to be pretty quick. The major difference I did notice from this T-Mobile version of the Z3 is on the bloatware. You have several T-Mobile apps like T-Mobile account, T-Mobile Name ID, and T-Mobile TV along with T-Mobile Visual Voicemail and Mobile Hotspot. There’s just a lot of bloatware and that’s really the only fault I could find with this phone so far. Because as you can see, it’s pretty fast and responsive. The Sony skin is very light, it doesn’t appear to be too heavy at all and the Z3 is running the latest available version of Android, that being Android 4.4.4 KitKat. It will be updated to Android Lollipop within the next few months says Sony so that is some good news.

But with that said, that is basically what makes up the T-Mobile Sony Xperia Z3.