Sony Xperia SP review: SPlendid

Synthetic benchmarks

The Sony Xperia SP uses a Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960 chipset, which includes a 1.7 GHz dual-core CPU - planting it firmly in the upper end of the midrange. It does, however, feature an Adreno 320 GPU, the same found on the flagship Xperia Z, so we're expecting good performance when it comes to graphic-intensive activities like gaming.

As we said, the Xperia SP is a midrange device largely due to its dual-core CPU, yet the processor is clocked quite high at 1.7 GHz, which resulted in some pretty good performance in the BenchmarkPi single-core CPU benchmark.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  132
• LG Optimus G Pro
  147
• HTC One
  151
• Sony Xperia SP
  184
• Sony Xperia ZL
  264
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  330
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Meizu MX 4-core
  362
• Nexus 4
  431

When it comes to multiple CPU testing, the Xperia SP expectedly lands behind most quad-core devices, but not by much. In fact, the SP results act as a sort of bridge, landing somewhere in the gap between quad-core flagships and dual-core midrangers.

Linpack

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  788
• LG Optimus G Pro
  743
• HTC One
  646
• Sony Xperia ZL
  631
• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• HTC Butterfly
  624
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• Sony Xperia SP
  348
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214
• Nexus 4
  213
• Meizu MX 4-core
  189
• HTC One X+
  177
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175
• HTC One X
  160
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  24716
• HTC One
  22678
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Sony Xperia ZL
  20743
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20056
• HTC Butterfly
  19513
• Sony Xperia SP
  15874
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Oppo Find 5
  15167

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  12376
• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One
  11746
• Sony Xperia Z
  8075
• Sony Xperia ZL
  7912
• Sony Xperia SP
  7897
• HTC One X+
  7632
• LG Optimus G
  7439
• Oppo Find 5
  7111
• HTC One X
  5952
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5916
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5450
• Meizu MX 4-core
  5170
• Nexus 4
  4567

Interestingly, the Xperia SP scored more than the Xperia ZL on GeekBench 2.

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  3227
• LG Optimus G Pro
  3040
• HTC One
  2708
• Sony Xperia Z
  2173
• HTC Butterfly
  2143
• Sony Xperia SP
  2105
• Sony Xperia ZL
  1995
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1845
• LG Optimus G
  1723
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1661
• iPhone 5
  1601

We ran GLBenchmark off-screen, which means we're testing at a fixed resolution, which lets us test the raw GPU power. The Adreno 320 is currently one of the more powerful mobile GPU's around, and the one found in the Xperia SP didn't disappoint, scoring as high as the Xperia Z flagship.

GLBenchmark 2.7 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  41
• HTC One
  37
• Oppo Find 5
  32
• Google Nexus 4
  32
• Sony Xperia Z
  31
• Sony Xperia ZL
  31
• Sony Xperia SP
  31
• Apple iPhone 5
  30
• LG Optimus G Pro
  30
• LG Optimus G
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• HTC One X
  11

But most games will probably want to run at native resolution, so we're including Epic Citadel, which uses Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine is popular with mobile game makers, so it's a pretty important test. Here, the Xperia SP was able to top out are charts, but before we get too excited, let's keep in mind that the test is run in native resolution, which in the SP's case is 720p. Most of the other top scores are from 1080p-toting devices.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia SP
  58.0
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  57.1
• HTC One
  56.4
• Sony Xperia Z
  55.6
• Sony Xperia ZL
  55.4
• LG Optimus G Pro
  54.2
• Nexus 4
  53.9
• Asus Padfone 2
  53.4
• LG Optimus G
  52.6
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  41.3
• Oppo Find 5
  38.6

Having tested many other droids with Google Chrome as the default web browser, we were expected a clearly midrange performance, but it turns out Chrome has become a lot faster after its latest software update. The Xperia SP scored 1116ms on SunSpider, which is the top result by a Sony device.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  810
• Samsung Ativ S
  891
• Apple iPhone 5
  915
• Nokia Lumia 920
  910
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  972
• HTC One X+
  1001
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1011
• Motorola RAZR i XT890
  1059
• Sony Xperia SP
  1116
• HTC One
  1124
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1192
• Sony Xperia ZL
  1290
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1312
• Sony Xperia Z
  1336
• LG Optimus G
  1353
• HTC Butterfly
  1433
• Nexus 4
  1971
• Oppo Find 5
  2045

In HTML5 BrowserMark 2 and Vellamo tests, the Xperia SP did very well, once again likely due to the Chrome browser's most recent optimizations.

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G
  2555
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  2438
• Sony Xperia SP
  2263
• HTC One
  2262
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2107
• Sony Xperia Z
  2093
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1801
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Nexus 4
  1794
• Nokia Lumia 920
  1774
• Nokia Lumia 820
  1760
• Samsung Omnia W
  1632
• HTC Butterfly
  1475
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia SP
  2497
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• HTC One
  2382
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2186
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  2060
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Oppo Find 5
  1658
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1641
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1468
• Nexus 4
  1310

We're more than happy with the Xperia SP, and particularly impressed by the beefy Adreno 320 GPU found inside. While it cannot match the raw horsepower of some of the top dogs, the 720p display means there aren't as many pixels to push out, resulting in some great performance for its class.