Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Review: Not Your Ordinary Mini

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Review: Not Your Ordinary Mini

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We review the Xperia Z1 Compact!

There has been no shortage of amazing, hi-end smartphones announced in the previous months. But while flagship offerings of international and local brands has been increasing in both features and specs, they’ve also been steadily growing in size. It’s something that we’ve had to live with in the changing mobile marketplace, and while there’s certainly people who want the latest and the greatest in terms of specs, not everyone wants to lug around a 5-inch smartphone. Unfortunately that’s your only recourse if you want a smartphone that has the best specs on tap – or you can compromise and go with “Mini” versions of those flagships which are smaller and less capable. Sony’s latest smartphone, the Xperia Z1 Compact, does away with this mentality and brings flagship specs and features into a device that’s small enough for everyone.

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact specs

  • 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 processor
  • Adreno 330
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16GB internal storage, with microSD card support for up to 64 GB
  • 4.3-inch TRILUMINOS HD IPS display, 1280×720 pixels
  • 20.7MP Exmor RS CMOS image sensor with 27mm wide angle and bright F2.0 aperture
  • 2-megapixel front camera
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • 3G, HSDPA, LTE
  • Android 4.4 Kit Kat
  • 2,300 mAh battery
  • Php 25,490 

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A shrunken down Xperia Z1

When Sony set out to create the Z1 Compact, they went out of their way to avoid the traditional Mini route that other manufacturers go with. This philosophy is evident with the craftsmanship of the body of the Z1 Compact. Instead of cheaping out with less premium materials, Sony has managed to recreate the look and feel of the full-sized Z1 with the Z1 Compact. When you put it side by side with the Z1, the Z1 Compact really does look and feel like a Z1, just 3/4ths smaller. Even the button placement is the same with the Z1 Compact, though they did move around the ports around, with everything now located on the left side of the device. Like its bigger brother, the Z1 Compact is also water resistant.
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Because the Z1 Compact is smaller, it feels handier and easier to conceal than its bigger brother. And while Sony tried its best to keep the specifications of the Z1 Compact as close to the Z1 as possible, they had to downgrade the resolution of the display to HD instead of the full HD that’s in the full-sized Z1. This isn’t a big issue, since the overall screen size of the Z1 Compact is just 4.3-inches. A higher resolution display would be wasted on it, as most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two in a screen this size.
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Like the Z1, the Z1 Compact’s ports (SIM, microSD, USB) are all completely sealed to protect it from the elements. It’s important to note that you will have to make sure that the seals are completely closed and are free of dirt for the water resistance to work – one errant grain of sand is all that stands in the way of having a water resistant gadget that you can use underwater and a wet, glorified paperweight.
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Unfortunately, we did not have the device long enough to see if the seals on the Z1 Compact suffered from the same issue that some of Sony’s water resistant phones which wore out after repeated use. The best answer to this is to just buy a charging dock that connects directly to the metal contacts on the side of the Z1 Compact so you won’t have to open the seals every time you need to charge it.
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The display of the Z1 Compact is where it shines over its older, bigger brother. While it’s only an HD display, it has far better viewing angles than the Z1, which suffered from narrow viewing angles. That’s certainly not an issue with th Z1 Compact.
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No compromise specifications

The Z1 Compact has all the hardware that you’d expect from last year’s flagship device – 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. This is complimented with Sony’s own UI overlay that’s not as overwhelming as the ones in other brands. You’ll certainly feel its there (with just enough of Sony’s own flair to remind you that you’re using one of their phones) but it never really gets in the way. The Swype-like keyboard does get annoying though, and you’d be better off just installing Swype or our favorite – Swiftkey.
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As far as performance is concerned, the Z1 Compact certainly delivers, as nothing could slow the little guy down, not games or apps. Its synthetic benchmark scores are obviously meteoric, and its actual performance even more so. Gaming, movies, apps – the Z1 Compact handled everything that we threw at it without breaking a sweat. It’s certainly a phone that can go toe to toe with the best of them.
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20.7-megapixel camera is a beast

One of the best features that the Z1 Compact took with it from its older brother is the 20.7-megapixel camera. Sony claims that the sensor on the Z1 Compact is the equivalent size in the company’s Cybershot line of cameras, and they’ve also thrown in a couple of imaging technologies from that line into the Z1 Compact for good measure.
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The result is great photos in whatever environment you find yourself in – even if that environment happens to be around majestic whale sharks.
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We did discover though that the Z1 Compact is a bit difficult to use when underwater, especially if you’re going to start using it to take photos of your friends (and in our case, large, bus-size sharks).
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We noticed that when water splashes on the display of the Z1 Compact, it sometimes tricks the digitizer into thinking it’s a human finger, which sometimes exits the camera application.
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Also, you’re pretty much stuck with the shutter button on the side of the phone if you’re going to take photos, which means you can’t really tell the camera to focus on a specific thing before pressing the shutter.
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We managed to get a few photos where the camera focused on the bubbles and not the gigantic shark in front of it, but to be fair these are small niggles in the overall experience.
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Phenomenal battery life

Even thought the Z1 Compact took a hit on its overall battery rating, possesing only a 2300mAh battery, it managed to score an impressive 10 hours and 40 minutes on our battery loop test. This translated to more than a day of battery life, even with LTE on, which is pretty impressive to be honest. Speaking of LTE, our experience with the Z1 Compact’s LTE is similar to the one on our Galaxy S4 when LTE was present.
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Need a compact smartphone with no compromise specs? Get the Xperia Z1 Compact

Is the Xperia Z1 Compact worth the price it’s asking for? Absolutely. While it retails significantly more than similarly sized Android smartphones, it’s the phone to get when you’re looking for something that’s compact and easy to carry yet doesn’t compromise on hardware.

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