Sony Z3 Compact benchmarks and impressions
I finally got a replacement of my HTC Desire, I waited a lot an Ubuntu Phone alternative which isn’t ready yet, the iPhone 6, a new Google Nexus phone with Android L but it is a “big padella”, so I’ve bought a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact which is 4.6 inches, fast and Sony will update it to Android Lollipop.. I hope soon.
First look
The build quality is very high (it is also waterproof IP68). The IPS display has a good view angle and blacks are blacks.
The operative system (Android 4.4) is full of Sony proprietary bloatware apps. I hope will allow in future a pure Android experience.
If you come from a SIM or MicroSIM, you have to replace it with a nanoSIM.
Camera
It has a dedicated button, the quality and white balance are good, there is the slowmotion (Timeshift) and the Augmented reality feature,.. that it nice to play with but I don’t think I’ll use it for real.
The 4K videos are huge in memory, maybe a bit laggy but the problem is that most 1080p TVs can’t read them.
Web benchmarks and performance
- javascript speed (v8 v5) score 3426
- canvas speed (fishbowl 250, no audio, no water) 25 fps
- html5 test 497
- antutu 43916
- geekbench 3 single975 multicore 2653
Here the same benchmarks on iPad2 with iOS 8.
Hackability & bugs
It should be possible to unlock the bootloader, but it you do it you’ll lose some camera features like 4K video recording and low-light processing.
It seems some websites with heavy websocket data don’t work well, it happens with stock Chrome browser but also with Firefox (tested with my website #Trenzi, some data aren’t loaded).
Conclusion
I never considered iPhone 6 / iPhone 5s for its price, size and locked ecosystem but somebody consider Sony Z3 Compact a good alternative for its speed in a small factor smartphone.