Performance

Within the Xperia Z3 Compact is hardware that'south largely the same as the Xperia Z1 Meaty, and substantially identical to the Xperia Z3. This means nosotros're looking at a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC with a 2.v GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU clock at 578 MHz, and a dual-channel LPDDR3 memory controller that'southward practiced for fourteen.nine GB/s of bandwidth. There's merely two GB of RAM in this device, downwards from 3 GB in the Xperia Z3.

Connectivity wise you get all the high-end stuff y'all're used to, including Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Category iv LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and A-GPS+GLONASS. I had no trouble getting whatsoever of these wireless features to work during my testing, which is always a proficient sign.

As the Xperia Z3 Compact packs the very same SoC equally the Xperia Z3 – the MSM8974AC – information technology was no surprise to me to find identical performance in everyday usage. The Meaty is a seriously fast device that opens apps promptly, multi-tasks with ease and runs intense applications and games without stressing itself out likewise much.

The one difference between the Z3 and the Z3 Compact is the display resolution. The GPU in the Z3 has to render to a 1080p display, while the Meaty gets the much less intensive 720p. Equally both GPUs are identical, at that place'due south a operation heave associated with but having to return to 720p. That'due south why, as you'll come across in the benchmarks below, the Z3 Meaty performs better in on-screen GPU-bound applications.

In the real world playing games bachelor on the Play Shop, there isn't really anything available that is much more playable on the Z3 Compact than the regular Z3. The GPU is merely also fast for Android games, which is a proficient matter because on either device performance shouldn't be a business. Withal, in a year or so things might exist different, which is where we could see the Compact edge out its larger brother.

In our suite of benchmarks listed above, at that place'south nothing nosotros haven't seen before. The Snapdragon 801 is a powerful SoC that sits towards the meridian of the performance charts (edged out past cut edge silicon similar the Snapdragon 805), and everything points to the Compact existence only every bit fast equally the Z3 and other flagship handsets.

We're also seeing very like functioning to the Xperia Z1 Compact, which launched at the start of the twelvemonth. The predecessor to this handset features a Snapdragon 800 chipset, and so it'south non surprising to see just modest performance gains in the Z3 Meaty. In existent globe use I'd look both devices to perform every bit fast as each other; if you're on the Z1 Compact, this is certainly not a major upgrade.

Internally the Xperia Z3 Compact comes with 16 GB of storage, of which around eleven.57 GB is available to the user out of the box: not a huge amount merely certainly suitable for a few camera shots and apps. The device does come with the always-useful microSD carte slot though, giving yous a cheap way to upgrade the storage capacity of the device.

Again just like the Xperia Z3, the Z3 Compact supports the full range of Sony's loftier-end audio features. This includes agile noise cancellation when paired with Sony's specially-fabricated earphones, which should exist included in the box (merely weren't provided with my review unit of measurement). There'due south likewise "high-res" 24bit/96kHz sound playback support through either USB or the 3.5mm headphone jack, handy if your library is in a lossless format like FLAC.

Sony actually has an extremely robust audio feature set, making this (or the Z3) the premier choice if you're an audiophile. On meridian of the same features you also take admission to dynamic normalization, a graphic blaster, and microphone sensitivity options if yous similar recording concerts. I'd stay away from the rubbish sound enhancement and virtual surround features, but other than that I'm impressed.