The Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact comes with a Snapdragon 835, complete with 4GB of RAM. Being one of the first out the door with an Oreo ROM does mean bumping into quite a few software optimization issues. We hope that both Sony and the benchmark developers had time to get up to speed with the latest Android version.
The highlight in the performance section would be the 720p display, which should allow the XZ1 Compact to lead in the benchmarks on numerous occasions.
The powerful Snapdragon 835 naturally had no trouble chewing through every task we threw its way. That being said, let's kick off with a pure CPU benchmark. The XZ1 Compact is somewhat behind other S835 smartphones, but nothing critical.
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S8 1991
OnePlus 5 1932
Xiaomi Mi 6 1929
Nokia 8 1925
Sony Xperia XZ1 1840
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 1826
Oppo R11 1596
Sony Xperia XA1 887
Xiaomi Mi 5X 868
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
Xiaomi Mi 6 6719
Samsung Galaxy S8 6656
OnePlus 5 6604
Nokia 8 6568
Sony Xperia XZ1 6541
Oppo R11 5777
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 5596
Xiaomi Mi 5X 4225
Sony Xperia XA1 3611
Moving on to the GPU benchmarks. Quite expectedly - the Xperia XZ1 Compact is acing the onscreen test having big advantage over the competition with that 720p resolution.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 60
Apple iPhone 7 60
Apple iPhone SE 58
Xiaomi Mi 6 41
OnePlus 5 40
Sony Xperia XZ1 40
Google Pixel (5.0) 34
Sony Xperia XZs 34
Huawei P10 30
Samsung Galaxy S8 23
Sony Xperia X Compact 21
Nokia 8 18
Sony Xperia XA1 15
Oppo R11 15
Xiaomi Mi 5X 6.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 50
Xiaomi Mi 6 25
Sony Xperia XZ1 25
OnePlus 5 24
Sony Xperia XZs 21
Google Pixel (5.0) 20
Huawei P10 16
Samsung Galaxy S8 13
Sony Xperia X Compact 12
Nokia 8 12
Oppo R11 8.6
Sony Xperia XA1 7.9
Xiaomi Mi 5X 3.5
The offscreen apps show the Adreno 540 inside the Xperia XZ1 Compact is as capable as any other Adreno 540 GPU out there.
Basemark X
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S8 42370
Huawei P10 39433
OnePlus 5 38844
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 38820
Sony Xperia XZ1 38583
Xiaomi Mi 6 38541
Nokia 8 37593
Sony Xperia XZs 33815
Google Pixel (5.0) 33023
Oppo R11 20350
Sony Xperia X Compact 15415
Xiaomi Mi 5X 10403
Sony Xperia XA1 9714
Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal
Higher is better
Apple iPhone 7 1547
Samsung Galaxy S8 1189
Apple iPhone SE 882
Xiaomi Mi 6 861
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 855
Nokia 8 855
Sony Xperia XZ1 853
OnePlus 5 796
Huawei P10 716
Google Pixel (5.0) 626
Sony Xperia XZs 623
Oppo R11 345
Sony Xperia X Compact 241
Sony Xperia XA1 191
Xiaomi Mi 5X 138
Basemark OS 2.0 and AnTuTu seem to be a little less kind to the Xperia XZ1 Compact, but the result cards do resemble that of GeekBench 4.1 pretty closely. Granted, the XZ1 Compact seems to be near the bottom of the Snapdragon 835 bunch. The again, at the first BaseMark OS it appears to give Samsung's Exynos 8895 (S8) less of an edge in performance. Even less so for Huawei's Kirin 960 (P10).
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
OnePlus 5 180331
Xiaomi Mi 6 177326
Nokia 8 175872
Apple iPhone 7 174532
Samsung Galaxy S8 174435
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 157075
Sony Xperia XZ1 144462
Google Pixel (5.0) 141193
Sony Xperia XZs 133574
Huawei P10 126629
Apple iPhone SE 123961
Oppo R11 118677
Sony Xperia X Compact 76731
Xiaomi Mi 5X 63548
Sony Xperia XA1 60707
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
OnePlus 5 3601
Xiaomi Mi 6 3547
Nokia 8 3503
Apple iPhone 7 3416
Samsung Galaxy S8 3376
Sony Xperia XZ1 2986
Huawei P10 2910
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 2818
Google Pixel (5.0) 2461
Oppo R11 2386
Sony Xperia XZs 2386
Apple iPhone SE 2163
Sony Xperia X Compact 1738
Sony Xperia XA1 1351
Xiaomi Mi 5X 1246
Basemark OS II
Higher is better
Xiaomi Mi 6 4402
OnePlus 5 4300
Nokia 8 4215
Sony Xperia XZ1 3484
Huawei P10 3393
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 3338
Samsung Galaxy S8 3272
Oppo R11 2961
Google Pixel (5.0) 2901
Sony Xperia XZs 2606
Xiaomi Mi 5X 1377
Sony Xperia XA1 1367
The Xperia XZ1 really does live up to flagship standards, and the synthetic scores prove that.
But our real-life impressions are even better - this is one of the smoothest, if not the one, Androids we've played with and we aren't throwing this statement lightly. Having reviewed so many flagships - Galaxy S8 and Note8, OnePlus 5, LG V30, Mi 6 - we've always experience some tiny hiccups which stick and annoy us. Not on the Xperia XZ1 Compact, though.
The phone runs super cool under peak performance, is capable of handling literally anything hassle-free, and offers amazingly smooth Android operations. Yes, the Xperia XZ1 Compact is probably the fastest phone right now, no matter what some score cards are telling you.
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