Improving Your Typing Experience:

While all Android on-screen keyboards come with a predictive text engine, the Xperia Z1s offers an improved typing experience by "learning" from your actual writing style. The keyboard collects data from your Facebook, Gmail, Twitter accounts, as well as from your SMS history in order to adapt to your style of writing. This feature can be enabled by:

  1. Go to "Settings"
  2. Tap "Language & Input"
  3. Tap the setting button associated with "Xperia Keyboard – International"
  4. Select "Use my writing style" and choose which accounts the keyboard should collect data from

Using Info-Eye to Search:

High-end smartphones nowadays come with all sorts of search features, such as speech recognition. However, the Xperia Z1s allows you to search via pictures, thanks to a feature called "Info-Eye". This option can be enabled in the camera shooting-mode menu, and is able to recognize books, landmarks, texts and more. It's even able to scan QR codes, barcodes and business cards.

Customizing the Quick Settings Menu:

The Xperia Z1s comes with a quick settings menu that gives you access to switches associated with "Wi-Fi", "Bluetooth" etc. This is an available option on most high-end devices, but the Xperia Z1s gives you the option to customize the quick settings panel, and edit the icons that you need. To do this:

  1. Open "Settings"
  2. Tap "Personalization"
  3. Tap "Quick Settings" and customize the desired options

Use TimeShift Burst for Better Camera Shots:

Sony's "TimeShift Burst" camera mode is a very useful feature, and allows you to avoid unexpected "photo bombers" or to avoid capturing someone with their eyes closed. This is due to the fact that once you tap the shutter icon, TimeShift Burst mode captures multiple images in a very short amount of time. You can them pick the best shot, and discard the rest. You can enable this option from the camera app, in the shooting-mode menu.

Disabling "Bloatware":

As most Android smartphones that come with a proprietary user interface, the Sony Xperia Z1 features some extra applications that may be considered "Bloatware". Most of these apps are alternatives to Google applications for music, games, movies etc. If you wish to remove Sony's applications from the app menu, you can:

  1. Go to "Settings"
  2. Tap "Apps"
  3. Disable the applications that you don't want to use

NOTE: pre-installed, or "bloatware" apps cannot be uninstalled, but they can be disabled.

Upload Photos to "PlayMemories Online":

The Xperia Z1s comes with a great camera, and chances are that if you're using this device, you'll capture a lot of photos. The thing is, in the worst case scenario, you might lose your phone, or it can be damaged. As a safety measure and also for the sake of storage, you can set your Xperia Z1s to upload your photos to Sony's "PlayMemories Online" cloud service. To do this:

  1. Open the camera application
  2. Tap the icon depicting three dots, located in the lower-left corner of the screen
  3. Tap "Settings" > "Auto Upload"
  4. Mark the "PlayMemories Online" check box
  5. Sign in with your Sony account, or create a new one if necessary

Have Fun with the Augmented Reality Camera Feature:

Once again, the Xperia Z1s comes with a pretty powerful camera, and the good news is that you can actually have a lot of fun with it. The Z1s' camera comes with an Augmented Reality feature, allowing you to add 3D objects to your photos. To take advantage of this fun feature, simply open the camera menu and select "AR Effect". Then, play around with the 3D objects at your disposal.

› See More: Sony Xperia Z1s: Top Tips & Tricks to Enhance Your Xperia Experience