Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Review

Sony has come out with this waterproof model Z1 compact in 4 distinct colors like White, Pink, Lime and Black. The manufacturers claim that they have come up with an entire range of premium features and specifications that one expects from today’s smartphones. All good things from the flagship Z1 is now  in small package  so we now have to see whether Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is a perfect example of the saying or not.

4.3 inch phone with high-end specs and features too harsh to call it a mini version of the flagship phone. 

 

Design and Display

It comes with capacitive touchscreen with 2.2 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors. You will have 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. If you run out of memory, then there is an expandable storage MicroSD slot which will give you storage of 64 GB. The weight of this device is 138g and the display screen size is 4.30 inches which have the resolution of 720X1280p. The screen size is compact and that adds up to the color vibrancy and crisp view. Viewing angles have improved from the previous version, but the narrow backlight makes the screen appear dark if you are looking from the side. When you look at the device it gives you an image of the box with robust designing.

Sony Xperi Z1 Compact (18)

Features

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has the Social Live which helps you upload all those beautiful moments of your life in real through Facebook. The sensitivity of the screen is high so you can operate without removing your gloves. If you want to boost the battery you will be able to do that through Stamina battery management tool which is pretty impressive and had my unit last for 2 days. The Gorilla Glass helps to protect the screen from scratches.

Camera

The rear camera is 20.7MP and you will also find a 2MP front camera. The picture quality is excellent and it takes pictures which can easily be compared with any digital camera picture. Whether it is landscape, underwater photography or portrait you can easily click-through all kinds of pictures loads of features are installed in the camera app like the Timeshift burst takes 61 frames within just 2 seconds ,Social live to broadcast videos live via Facebook but the overall picture quality is bit inconsistent as too much of post processing is involved in the pictures.

Camera app

 Sample Images.

[nggallery id=54]

Sample video footage.

Battery Life

As the screen size is small therefore it has helped in extending battery life a lot. With 2300 mAh battery you will easily get up to 8-9 hours of talk time under normal usage with stamina mode enabled it lasted almost 2 days.

Benchmarking Results.

Sony Xperia Z1 compact benchmarking

Sony Xperia Z1 compact Geekbench

Sony Xperia Z1 compact 3D Mark test

GFX Benchmarking

Final Thoughts

It is a good buy if you are looking for a phone in 4.3 inches screen size , but has all the specification without losing out on quality. Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is a good buy overall.

 

 

General

2G Network

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network

HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network

LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600

SIM

Micro-SIM

Body

Dimensions

127 x 64.9 x 9.5 mm (5.0 x 2.56 x 0.37 in)

Weight

137 g (4.83 oz)

– IP58 certified – dust proof and water resistant over 1 meter and 30 minutes

Display

Type

TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size

720 x 1280 pixels, 4.3 inches (~342 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch

Yes, up to 10 fingers

Protection

Shatterproof and scratch-resistant glass

– Triluminos display

– X-Reality Engine

Sound

Alert types

Vibration; MP3 ringtones

Loudspeaker

Yes

3.5mm jack

Yes

Memory

Card slot

MicroSD, up to 64 GB

Internal

16 GB, 2 GB RAM

 

 

 

Data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Data

GPRS

Up to 107 kbps

EDGE

Up to 296 kbps

Speed

HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL

WLAN

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth

Yes, v4.0 with A2DP

NFC

Yes

USB

Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go, USB Host

 

 

 

Camera

Primary

20.7 MP, autofocus, LED flash, check quality

Features

1/2.3” sensor size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR, panorama

Video

Yes, 1080p@30fps, video stabilization, HDR, check quality

Secondary

Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features

OS

Android OS, v4.3 (Jelly Bean), planned upgrade to v4.4.2 (KitKat)

Chipset

Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800

CPU

Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400

GPU

Adreno 330

Sensors

Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging

SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM, Push Email

Browser

HTML5

Radio

Stereo FM radio with RDS

GPS

Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS

Java

Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Colors

Black, White, Pink, Lime

– ANT+ support

– SNS integration

– TV-out (via MHL A/V link)

– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

– Xvid/MP4/H.263/H.264 player

– MP3/eAAC+/WAV/Flash player

– Document viewer

– Photo viewer/editor

– Voice memo/dial

– Predictive text input

 

Battery

 

Non-removable Li-Ion 2300 mAh battery

Stand-by

Up to 670 h (2G) / Up to 600 h (3G)

Talk time

Up to 10 h (2G) / Up to 18 h (3G)

Music play

Up to 94 h