Introduction
Sony was the pioneer of compact-sized flagships when it first released the Xperia Z1 Compact back in the day. It packed the same flagship-level processor, the same flagship-level camera and the same flagship-level features like waterproofing, in a single-hand-usage-friendly form factor.
But times have changed, and Sony has rolled with them. The Xperia X Compact is not as much about being a tiny flagship as it is about being a Compact Xperia X - the same blueprint, shrunken down. It carries the defining characteristics of its bigger counterpart like the Snapdragon 650 chipset, the fingerprint scanner, the 23MP camera and the front-facing speakers but comes with a smaller display of lesser resolution and, of course, a smaller footprint.
Key specifications
4.6"1280x720 pixels
23MP 1080p
1.8GHz Snapdragon 650
3GB RAM 32 GB memory
2700mAhLi-Po
Most makers already seem to consider phones with 5"-5.2" compact enough and its very hard to find flagship-grade specs on a phone that has a screen below 5" - making the Compact club a pretty exclusive one.
Naturally, a smaller phone has its drawbacks - it can either be slim with a smallish battery or have a larger battery at the expense of a thicker body. With a thickness of centimeter the Sony Xperia X Compact is the latter sort of small phone - and is all the better for it.
But Sony has managed to sneak a fair bit of flagship flair into this smaller phone like the top- notch camera and its best display technology as well as a fingerprint reader.
Design and build quality
Sony didnt go crazy in developing the looks of the Xperia X Compact. Its a simple rectangular phone with a plastic body and sensible button and port locations. Some may scoff that the X Compact doesnt share the premium ALKALEIDO alloy of the Xperia XZ but the X Compact makes up for it with a choice of a few fabulous paint jobs (our favorite being the Mist Blue we are reviewing).
Weve already touched on this, but the Sony Xperia X Compact is far from being a slim phone at 9.5mm. The added girth comes with two benefits - it houses a large 2,700mAh battery, and the 23MP camera sits flat on the back.
All the physical buttons sit on the right side of the phone - theres a large, slightly recessed power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader, a single-piece volume rocker, and a camera shutter button.
On the other side, you get a microSD card slot while, on the top and bottom, theres a headphone jack and a reversible USB Type-C port, opposite one another.
The front is buttonless thanks to on-screen navigation buttons and Sony has managed to keep the front-facing stereo speakers of the previous generation.
If we had to pick a fight with the Xperia X Compact over something that would be the omission of water resistance - this is the first Sony Compact to make a compromise on elements resistance.
Another gripe concerns the North American Sony Xperia X Compacts - they lack the fingerprint scanner of the global unit.
Design and build quality score
2.5
Display
A compact phone is made possibly by its screen size - i n the case of the Sony Xperia X Compact, thats a 4.6" LCD of 720p resolution with all of Sonys display tech built-in.
As dimensions go, this screen easily accommodates single-handed use.
As for the display technology, Sony is using an LCD with their proprietary Triluminous tech, which means the panel has a wider color gamut and can visualize a wider variety of colors than regular LCDs). The display is driven by Sonys X-Reality engine which enhances the contrast and colors of photos and videos in the gallery.
We think its fair to say that Sony nailed the screen in the Xperia X Compact. Its about as good as an LCD can get with top-notch brightness, high contrast, and superb visibility outdoors.
Display score
4.0
Battery life
The Sony Xperia X Compact has a beefy 2,700mAh battery to power its small screen and efficient processor. It didnt disappoint with a 73-hour endurance rating. That means that the X Compact will be able to go for three whole days on a charge if you do an hour of calling, web browsing and watching video per day.
The breakdown is this - in our battery life test the Sony Xperia X Compact was able to last 14 hours of constant calling, 11 and a half hours of browsing the web and just under 10 hours of watching video. Couple those numbers with an impressive standby time and youve got very good battery endurance.
On the software side the Sony Xperia X Compact comes with support for Qnovo adaptive charging, which minimizes battery cell damage by monitoring and adjusting charging parameters in real time.
The Xperia X Compact supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (and retroactively 2.0) meaning it can recharge almos t 70% of its battery in just 30 minutes on a supported charger. You can also improve the battery runtime if you use Sonys Stamina mode battery saver feature.
The only thing the Sony Xperia X Compact lacks is wireless charging.
Battery life score
4.0
Audio
In terms of audio output quality, the Sony Xperia X Compact did greatly in the active external amplifier part of our audio quality test. The smartphones output was clean and its loudness above average.
Plugging in a pair of headphones brings the volume down and adds some intermodulation distortion. Stereo quality worsens somewhat too but remains good, but overall the performance is only average on this occasion.
We usually are big fans of front-facing stereo speakers, but the ones on the Xperia X Compact are only commendable on their placement. They arent very loud nor do they exhibit any particularly high sound quality.
Audio score
3.5
Photo camera
The Sony Xperia X Compact uses the same camera as its larger counterparts - namely Sonys 22.8MP IMX300 sensor coupled with optics that have a very wide 24mm field of view and a respectable aperture of f/2.0. Autofocus is laser-assisted, and the Xperia X Compact also has Sonys predictive autofocus so it would track some slightly moving subjects.
The rest of the feature list consists of a single LED flash and an RGBC-IR sensor - thats RedGreenBlueClear-InfraRed which should help the camera determine the proper white balance. Our impression is that the RGBC-IR sensor does a good job of picking a natural-looking white balance in good light but suffers a bit in lower light, opting for a cooler look thats still not realistic.
The Sony Xperia X Compact serves up detailed images, especially in good light. There arent any phones in its range that come close to the level of detail from the 23MP sensor. Colors are vibrant and dynamic range is good overall.
Like with all other Xperia smartphones with this camera sensor, the Xperia X Compact photos dont look as hot at 1:1 magnification due to the heavy-handed processing. There is lots of digital noise visible, too, even in good light.
Sony Xperia X Compact camera samples
The selfie camera is a step back from the Xperia X - instead of a 13MP shooter we get a 5MP one. Still, it does an okay job and has a very wide field of view (22mm).
Sony Xperia X Compact selfie
Photo camera score
3.5
Video camera
In whats most likely a business decision more than anything else, Sony has denied the Xperia X Compact 4K video recording and the phone captures only 1080p clips with a choice of 30fps and 60fps.
On a positive note, the Sony Xperia X Compact is a perfectly capable FullHD camcorder. Its 1080p videos are easily one of the best weve seen out of any Xperia smartphone.
Theres no optical image stabilization, but theres a gyro-based electronic stabilization in place.
Video camera score
3.0
Software
Initially, the Sony Xperia X Compact launched with Android Marshmallow back in September, but an Android Nougat build is on its way.
Sonys software has become more and more streamlined throughout the years and has adopted a clean, close to stock look. For instance, both the Task Switcher and the Notification Area follow Androids original styling.
Of course, Sonys own style creeps in here and there with Sonys Xperia icons and the custom-look wallpapers and lo ckscreen. Another added feature is Xperia Themes - themes are something thats missing from stock Android.
You can always access Sonys quick app search, which is coupled with suggestions based on your most frequently used apps as well as recommended Play store installs.
Sonys custom suite of multimedia apps is here - Music, Album, and Video all along with Googles own Photos and Play Music. The Sony Lifelog app logs both your fitness activity like walking and running alongside your smartphone usage like browsing for a fuller picture of your day.
Finally, Sony has a full-featured backup service that can secure your apps, contacts, messages and phone settings. You also get Sonys Stamina mode for a better battery endurance.
Software score
4.5
Benchmark performance
In the past Sony Compact smartphones were equal to their larger, flagship counterparts in terms of processing power but the Sony Xperia X Compact does away with that tradition. Instead of a flashy Snapdragon 820, it uses a Snapdragon 650. This chipset strikes a good balance between power and efficiency with two performance cores and four battery-efficient ones.
Power users neednt worry though as the Xperia X Compact has an ample 3GB of RAM.
The Snapdragon 650 is better at processing than the best-of-2015 Snapdragon 810 and only ever seems inferior to it in the graphics department. This means that the Sony Xperia X Compact will generally run faster at everyday tasks than a lot of phones from last year.
Its no secret that smartphones are now at a place where being snappy isnt an issue anymore and is all about being battery efficient. Were glad to report that the Sony Xperia X Compact runs cool and wont stutter regardless of the task at hand.
Benchmark performance score
5.0
Wrap-up
To wrap things up, the Sony Xperia X Compact is a great small smartphone. If you look beyond the specs sheet, this is one of the best small phones you can buy. It has a capable camera that, in good light, would capture photos with unrivaled detail. Its got a top build quality, an excellent screen, a snappy, well-placed fingerprint reader, stereo speakers and a solid processor.
The software is fast and has a few Sony-made apps and features that add value to the device - a great multimedia suite, Xperia themes, app search and Stamina battery saver mode. The latest Android 7.0 Nougat is on its way too.
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Also consider
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
Sonys previous Compact is still a viable small smartphone despite its age. If you can find a sale, it might be worth a look over its successor if only because of its water resistance and slightly better battery performance. Otherwise, the older Compact has the same screen and camera and a processor that runs hotter.
Sony Xperia X
The Sony Xperia X is, as the name suggests, the same phone only larger. Currently, the Xperia X has dropped significantly in price and goes for about the same around-400 euro price as the Xperia X Compact. The main difference between the two is th e larger 5" 1080p screen of the Xperia X, the 13MP front-facing camera and the smaller battery.
Apple iPhone SE
The Apple iPhone SE is arguably the best small phone there is. And with a 4-inch screen, its almost minuscule by todays smartphone standards. It does offer a great 12MP camera with 4K video, and also Apples top chipset from last year, good battery life and Apples iOS experience and app ecosystem. It will cost you a premium much like anything else by Apple.
We would sorely miss waterproofing on the Xperia X Compact - we admit it still feels weird to see a Sony flagship without it. We can live without 4K video as the 1080p clips are quite good on their own, but we would like to see Sony finally clean up its camera processing.
It seems that the smartphone industry is mostly innov ating at the phablet level and phones made with single-handed operation in mind are falling behind in features and abilities. What was once a no-compromises segment has now shifted into upper-midrange territory.
Still, as far as Compact smartphones go, the Xperia X Compact is one of the best you can get.
Sony Xperia X Compact
Total GSMArena score
3.5 / 5
| Design and build quality | 2.5 | |
| Display | 4.0 | |
| Battery life | 4.0 | |
| Audio | 3.5 | |
| Photo camera | 3.5 | |
| Video camera | 3.0 | |
| Software | 4.5 | |
| Benchmark performance | 5.0 | |
| Coolness | 3.5 |
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