Sony’s small but powerful Android phone
Smartphones are now bigger than ever, with 5 to 6-inch screens increasingly common. This is great if a large screen is your priority, but for anyone with small hands these huge phones are tricky to hold and use – especially with one hand over long periods of time. This makes the Xperia Z3 Compact especially welcome.
Not to be confused with the 8in Z3 Tablet Compact (see our review, Issue 440), the Z3 Compact has a 4.6in screen. This is obviously larger than the 4.3in screen of its predecessor the Z1 Compact (see our review, Issue 419) but the difference is pretty negligible. And while it’s significantly wider than the 4in iPhone 5s, it’s comfortable to handle –especially when compared with phones that are marginally larger but much more unwieldy, such as the 4.7in iPhone 6 (see our reviews, Issues 408 and 436 respectively).
Disappointingly, the screen itself is nowhere near as bright as screens on other phones. Although it’s legible in most circumstances, we struggled to make out details when we used the phone in bright sunshine. But what it lacks in brightness, it makes up for in colour accuracy and contrast. Its 720p resolution seems low compared to phones with 1080p screens, but any lossin sharpness is barely noticable.
The Z3 Compact’s charm doesn’t just stem from its compact size. As with Sony’s other Z-series devices, it’s waterproof at depths of up to one metre, as long as you immerse it for no longer than 30 minutes and make sure the protective flaps covering its ports are snapped shut. This is great if you like reading in the bath, or are simply very clumsy around water. We were concerned that the phone’s glass rear would be too slippery, but this proved not to be the case in our test.
It’s also fast. The 2.4GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor is one of the fastest available so, paired with 2GB of memory, it sped through our demanding benchmark tests. Its Adreno 330 graphics chip is also quick and should handle the latest 3D games.
Battery life was similarly impressive. In our tests, it lasted just under 15 hours 30 minutes when playing videos continuously. Its stamina was even better when connected to Vodafone’s 4G network and used for calls, photography, web browsing and GPS, managing just over 31 hours 30 minutes. When connected to Vodafone’s network in London’s West End, callers reported that we sounded loud and clear, although they often sounded fuzzy and distant to us.
We were expecting great things from the camera, given the quality of those in older Xperias, but we were left feeling underwhelmed. Outdoor shots on overcast days looked far too dark, while colours were sometimes a little oversaturated. Fiddling with the settings in Sony’s camera app helped somewhat, but this shouldn’t be necessary.
An even bigger problem was noise, which tended to obscure the finer details in some shots. This is due to Sony squeezing 20.7 megapixels on to a small sensor. It fared better indoors, especially in low light, with reasonably bright and detailed shots, although noise was still present.
Sony has promised an upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop at “the beginning of 2015”. Until that arrives, the Z3 Compact runs 4.4 KitKat, which Sony has only lightly tweaked. Our favourite Sony addition is the mini apps that float on top of other apps in resizeable windows, mimicking PC-style multitasking. The selection of apps is small, but the Gmail, calendar and calculator mini apps are particularly useful.
The Z3 Compact’s camera and screen could both be better, but it’s fast, with lengthy battery life and all in a sensibly sized, waterproof design. It’s a cracking Android phone.
SPECIFICATIONS
4.6in 1280x720-pixel touchscreen • 2.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor • 450MHz Adreno 330 graphics chip • 2GB memory• 16GB storage • 4G • Micro SIM • MicroSD slot • Android 4.4 KitKat • 129g • 127x65x9mm (HxWxD) •One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15015
VERDICT: Not perfect, but if you want the latest smartphone technology in a small package then this is still a great choice
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPhone 5s £459 (without contract) An even more compact smartphone with a great camera and handy fingerprint reader
