Last year, Sony finally reached the end of the alphabet with its Xperia Z. It wasn't just that the company ran out of letters, though: With the Xperia Z, we saw Sony streamline its scattered phone strategy, piping all its attention into a single high-end device. Then, it followed up with the Z1, which brought a massive 20.7-megapixel camera.
Today, we once again have a new phone to talk about, except it's perhaps not the device you might have been expecting. Nope, this isn't a Z2, and no it doesn't bring an even higher-resolution camera. Instead, Sony's joining the small-flagship club, with the Xperia Z1 Compact. Interestingly, unlike some of its rivals, Sony is promising that you won't have to compromise on features for the sake of a more pocket-friendly handset. At £440 SIM-free in the UK, that apparently includes a no-compromise price, too. By the looks of it, though, Sony has worked hard to stick with the same specs as the original -- bar, of course, the screen size. So, is this finally proof that "mini" doesn't have to mean mediocre? We put it to the test to find out.
At first glance the original Z1 and the Compact are nearly identical -- apart from the physical dimensions, of course. Look a little closer, however, and you'll spot a few small differences. For example, the Z1 Compact now has all the connections and ports on the left side, complete with the usual protective flaps. The microSD slot and micro-USB port sit up top, with the (micro) SIM slot hanging out on the bottom edge. (To jog your memory, the Xperia Z1's SIM port is over on the top-right edge.) Other differences: The headphone jack is ever so slightly farther inset on the top edge, and the camera flash now sits beside, not below, the lens. As you can see, we're already scraping around for significant differences. It's also worth noting that the build materials once again include glass and aluminum, so you won't have to suffer any plastic downgrade here (we're looking at you, HTC).
With the Compact, Sony stuck with its so-called OmniBalance design, which means for now, at least, it's passing on the chance to reimagine its phones. Instead, the company has been making subtle tweaks with each new device. And that's OK, too. After all, we've found little fault with the build quality and design on the Z and Z1, so why change it? As you can imagine, then, the Compact feels just as premium as the other Z-series phones, and possibly more so, given how dense it is. It's so dense, in fact, that at 137 grams, it's even heavier than some bigger flagships, like the Nexus 5.
Of course, this well-trodden design path brings many of the same trade-offs. Inour Z1 review, we noted that it was something of a fluff-magnet; every time you retrieved it from your pocket, it would bring with it a renewed collection of lint. Unfortunately, that's just as true of the Compact. It's impressive to see how efficiently it extracts the finest fibers from your pocket every time you remove it. If you ever need to take photos of this phone -- say, for a review -- you'll definitely need canned air, a lint-free cloth and an abundance of patience.
Another unfortunate carryover is the speaker placement, along the bottom edge of the phone. When we were testing the original Z1, we found that holding the phone in landscape to watch a movie meant one of your hands inevitably obscured the speaker, muffling the audio. Nothing has changed this time around, which means if you're watching something in landscape, you'll want to make sure you have some headphones on hand. Granted, this is a common location for the speaker, but for some reason -- perhaps the slight recess -- it's particularly noticeable on the Compact.
On a more positive note, Sony decided to break away from its normal black, white and purple color choices. The Compact does come in black and white, but also a zesty lime hue and a fairly wild pink option. Our review unit was the lime one (though it's a very yellowish lime), and we quite like how bold it is -- a treatment we hope Sony decides to keep giving its phones. Another nice touch is that the metal edges match, or complement, the body color. On the lime one, for example, the aluminum sections are a light gold, or "champagne" tone, and it definitely gives the overall design a coherent feel. Be warned, though, that after barely three days with the Compact, we noticed a small part of the champagne finish had chipped off, revealing the true metal color beneath.
As with the exterior design, talking about the Compact's specs is an exercise in repetition. It's like-for-like with the original Z1, for the most part. For those of you who don't keep track of such things (that's most of you, we'd hope), the two phones share a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, a 20.7-megapixel camera (1/2.3-inch sensor) and 16GB of onboard storage (expandable by 64GB via microSD). Additionally, it packs 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0 (with aptX support), ANT+, GPS/GLONASS and NFC. Our global (D5503) model supports LTE Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 20 -- this covers almost all European networks. While there's no word on a US release, it's compatible with T-Mobile and AT&T, and potentially some areas on Verizon too. There's a bevy of media options as well, with support for Miracast, DLNA and MHL. As has become a bit of a Sony trademark, the Compact is also IP58 waterproof and dust proof, meaning it'll happily take a dunk in a bath, toilet or drink. There's no wireless charging, though, which is a shame. As usual, the battery is locked inside, so you can't swap it out and pop in a spare.
The key things to note are that the display is now 4.3 inches in size with "only" 720p resolution (the Z1 measures five inches on the nose and boasts 1080p). That sees the pixel density drop slightly from 441 pixels per inch to around the 340-ppi mark, but that's still pretty decent. Similarly, the battery now has a capacity of 2,300mAh, down from 3,000mAh in the original. The positive spin there is that a smaller display sucks less juice, so in theory, it's a technical, not functional trade-off. Given that the main difference is the size, Sony's done a fine job of shoehorning all that technology into a smaller package. We already mentioned that the Compact definitely feels denser, but it's a smidge fatter too -- about one millimeter thicker.
If you're used to using a larger phone, the Compact might not initially feel as small as you'd expect, especially with the decent-sized bezel at the top and bottom. Overall, it's probably right to call this mid-sized, rather than small or mini. (In all fairness to Sony's marketing team, "compact" is a more appropriate word.) It actually has a similar footprint to the iPhone -- which is unsurprising, given that Sony is probably going after Apple customers here. In short, Sony's managed to create something that's very easy to use one-handed, without feeling particularly small or slight.
| SONY XPERIA Z1 COMPACT | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 127 x 64.9 x 9.5 mm |
| Weight | 137g |
| Screen size | 4.3 inches |
| Screen resolution | 1,280 x 720 |
| Screen type | Triluminos LCD with 16 million colors |
| Battery | 2,300mAh Li-ion (non-removable) |
| Internal storage | 16GB (12GB free) |
| External storage | microSDXC, up to 64GB |
| Rear camera | 20.7MP (1/2.3-inch sensor, f/2.0 lens with 27mm equiv. focal length) |
| Front-facing cam | 2MP stills, 1080p video |
| Video capture | 1080p |
| NFC | Yes |
| Radios | HSPA+ (850/900/1700/1900/2100); GSM GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20) |
| Bluetooth | v4.0 |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974) |
| CPU | 2.2GHz quad-core Krait 400 |
| GPU | Adreno 330 |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Entertainment | MHL, Miracast, WiFi Direct, DLNA |
| WiFi | Dual-band, 802.11a/ac/b/g/n |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Operating system | Android 4.3 (Sony-specific UI) |
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