Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

The Xperia Z1 Compact sports a 4.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 720p. This is one of the major differences when comparing it to its bigger sibling, which bears a full HD 5-inch display. However, its display size is why the device gets its ‘Compact’ moniker and thus offers good handling. Thanks to the HD resolution, the images and text come out really well on the smartphone. The screen is crisp, and brightness is also adequate, though it’s a tad reflective. Under sunlight, there was no problem in viewing the screen.The navigation buttons are present on the screen itself – allowing users to access the home, back and recent apps functions. This implementation reduces the screen real estate available. Also, the navigation keys are quite different than the standard layout found in most Android devices that provide an option key as well, though it's closer to the stock Android UI. So it might take some getting used to this and checking the options for each app individually.

If the number of megapixels toted by mobile phone camera are compared, then the Xperia Z1 Compact’s 20.7-megapixel sensor (along with the Lumia 1520) will come right behind the 41MP PureView camera of the Nokia Lumia 1020. Rightly so, the camera is one of the highlights of the device. It has all the ingredients to result in great images – including Sony’s G Lens and Exmor RS optics backed by the BIONZ processing engine. One thing we really liked about the camera was its zero shutter lag allowing you to take pictures almost instantaneously. It also becomes easier to click directly via dedicated key, which launches the camera even when the device is on standby.

The smartphone ships with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and the company has already started rolling out the KitKat update. It isn’t a stock interface, but thankfully Sony hasn’t gone the same way as Samsung by cramming it with bloatware and feature spam. Instead there are several useful touches here, mostly aimed at making the usage experience better.

Till now, we have simply reiterated that the Xperia Z1 Compact packs a powerful hardware, but not discussed how it performs. Let’s see what the internals of the mobile phone offer. At its heart, ticks a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.26GHz. Yes, it’s the same chipset that powers its bigger brother as well as the current crop of flagships viz. the LG G2, Nexus 5, Gionee Elife E7 and Nokia's Lumia 1520. For offering compelling graphics performance, the device has an Adreno 330 graphics processor. During our usage with the device, the processor zipped through all tasks thrown at it and there wasn't a single instance of slowdown. The experience of playing graphics-intensive games such as Riptide GP 2 and SHADOWGUN: Deadzone was flawless and enjoyable. The phone heats up within half an hour of gaming, though it’s rarely noticeable thanks to the glass back. It also doesn’t deteriorate the gaming performance in any way.