HTC One vs Sony Xperia Z: One to Z

Audio quality

The Sony Xperia Z did quite well in our dedicated audio quality, but as we've managed to confirm several times already the HTC One is simply in a class of its own at the moment.

Both the Xperia Z and the One have perfectly clean output when attached to an active external amplifier, but the HTC flagship took the round with much higher volume levels.

The Sony Xperia Z let some distortion creep in when we plugged in a pair of headphones, while the HTC One output was barely affected. Once again, we noted a huge volume level difference in favor of the HTC One.

And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
HTC One	+0.11, -0.14	-92.4	91.2	0.0012	0.013	-92.4
HTC One (headphones attached)	+0.16, -0.07	-92.1	90.9	0.014	0.055	-70.8
Sony Xperia Z	+0.11, -0.10	-81.9	82.1	0.043	0.041	-81.3
Sony Xperia Z (headphones attached)	+0.62, -0.09	-81.7	81.5	0.204	0.249	-56.4

HTC One frequency response

Sony Xperia Z frequency response

You can learn more about the whole testing process here.

Winner: HTC One. The extra high volume levels of the HTC flagship and its slightly cleaner output helped it ease to the victory here.

Loudspeaker

We tested out the loudspeakers of both phones as they're important for both notifications and for multimedia consumption. The HTC One packs two speakers on its front, each with a dedicated amp. It wasn't the loudest phone we've tested, but the sound quality is arguably the best in the smartphone game. The Sony Xperia Z meanwhile offered below average performance, as we guess that water-proofing isn't helping the sound much.

You can learn more about the loudspeaker test here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Sony Xperia Z	60.1	58.3	61.6	Below Average
Apple iPhone 5	66.8	66.1	67.7	Below Average
Nokia Lumia 920	61.6	64.8	65.8	Below Average
HTC One X+	64.6	65.8	74.6	Average
Asus Padfone 2	57.3	66.7	77.8	Average
HTC Butterfly	69.0	70.7	77.9	Good
Oppo Find 5	70.7	67.7	73.0	Good
Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4	70.6	66.2	77.3	Good
HTC One	69.3	66.6	75.9	Good
Google Nexus 4	71.1	66.6	78.8	Good
Samsung Galaxy S III	75.1	66.5	75.0	Good
LG Optimus G	74.6	71.3	82.7	Excellent

Winner: HTC One. Two loudspeakers that produce louder, crisper sound - it's no contest really.