In many respects the Z1 Compact and the 2013 flagship SonyXperia Z1 are pretty similar. They both have expandable storage, the same UI,
the same camera and a familiar design.
But are you really missing out on anything when you buy a
Compact over the full-size model? Here’s how the two differ.
The Z1 is much, much larger
The most obvious – and probably most important – difference
between the Xperia Z1 Compact and the Xperia Z1 is size. There’s a huge gulf
between these two.
The Z1 is 17mm taller and 9mm wider. In phone terms that a
lot of extra footprint. A trade-off is that the full-size Z1 manages to get a
full 1mm slimmer than the Z1 Compact, as there’s more room for the internal
components to spread out.
Any issues we have with reaching from one end of the screen
to the other with a 5-inch phone melt away with the Z1 Compact. Its design is a
lot more accessible in this respect.
And has a larger screen
This difference in size is all down to the size of the
screens. The Z1 has a 5-inch screen, the Z1 Compact a 4.3-inch display.
Although 4.3 inches seemed large for a phone just a few
years ago, it’s now the sort of size we usually see in much lower-end,
affordable mobiles. This is the risk of making a phone like the Z1 Compact –
such associations may mean the average buyer simply isn’t willing to pay out
for it.
The Xperia Z1 has a higher resolution screen
The screen specs do give some cause for arguing the Z1
Compact should be a bit cheaper, though. It has a 720p screen where the Z1
display is Full HD.
Sony would argue that a smaller screen means the Z1 Compact
doesn’t need as many pixels, but pixel density is still a lot lower in the
Compact despite the smaller screen. The Compact’s pixels-per-inch rating is 342
where the Z1 rides high with 441. There’s not a dramatic difference in terms of
the perception of sharpness, but keen eyes will certainly be able to tell the
difference.
But the Z1 Compact has a better-quality panel
That said, the Z1 Compact does benefit from being a newer
phone in other ways. Sony has learnt a few tricks since the Z1 arrived in
September 2013.
Many people, us included, complained about the slightly
rubbish viewing angles of Sony’s top-end Xperia Z1 – despite Sony's claim that
it features some of the technology that powers the company’s flashy LCD TVs. As
is often the case, these claims rang a bit hollow in the end.
The Z1 Compact makes significant improvements to the actual
image quality, which is arguably much more valuable than pure pixel density.
Contrast and black levels are improved, and there’s less of the ‘greying’
effect when the phone is at an angle than you get with the full-size Z1.
Compact has a smaller battery, lesser stamina in some situations
As a small phone, it not great surprise that the Z1 Compact
has a smaller battery than the 5-inch Z1. It has a 2300mAh battery compared to
the Z1’s 3000mAh unit.
Numbers for things like call time, standby time and music
playback are naturally much better on the Z1. However, real life performance is
likely to be a lot closer as the Compact has a less battery-draining
screen. We’re currently mid-way through
our battery testing of the Z1 Compact, but we expect to see – like the Z1 –
strong battery stamina. The Z1 can last for two days of light use, and a good
day and a half for even pretty enthusiastic mobile phone folk.
They have the same core processor specs, storage
Other than these differences, the Sony Xperia Z1 and Z1
Compact are pretty-much identical. They have the same camera, the same
Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and
the HTC One Mini, the Z1 Compact is not a phone built with budgetary
compromises that fit with its smaller scale.
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