The Sony Xperia Z was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 and it made a big splash - literally. The Xperia Z was IP55 and IP57 certified to be dust and water resistant up to 1 meter underwater for 30 minutes, so myriad fishbowl and glass-of-water dunk tests soon ensued.
But just like the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active - which has recently been seen to take on water damage and prompted Samsung and AT&T to offer a one-time replacement on the handsets - the Xperia Z's waterproof abilities have been found lacking in some instances.
The Xperia Z's kryptonite is heat. According to KnowYourMobile, intensive gaming sessions that heat up the GPU and/or exposure to hot weather may affect the Sony Xperia Z's water resistance. Once the device heats up to a certain extent, the glass panel on the back apparently becomes raised, leaving cracks in the armor. The majority of cases reportedly involve the top left side of the device becoming raised, which is the worst place for it to happen (though any location is bad enough and can ruin the phone) because it's where the Xperia Z's Snapdragon processor resides.
The problem with this glass-panel lifting issue is that there's no way for repair centers to know if the water damage was caused by the pack panel coming up or by a user becoming careless and leaving a flap open.
According to XperiaBlog.net, some Xperia Z owners are using hairdryers to melt the glue and then pushing the panel back down with a clamp.
Obviously, this is a temporary fix that is not ideal. Sony hasn't yet responded publically to this concern, but we've reached out to the device manufacturer and will update this article with a statement if it's available.