Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact review

Phone

The Xperia XZ1 Compact has its call log separated from the contacts, but there are shortcuts from one to the other in the upper right corner. It can be filtered by missed, incoming and outgoing calls. Smart dial is supported too.

Dialer with smart dial • Call log • Phonebook • Favorites

Loudspeaker

We would take a stereo setup over a mono one any day of the week. However, there are certain drawbacks that come with most dual-speaker phones these days, primarily in the loudness department. Just like most of its siblings, the Xperia XZ1 Compact just doesn't have enough volume to impress.

In its default mode, the XZ1 Compact pushes an "Average" mark. Fiddling with options such as ClearAudio+ does seem to improve sound a bit, but S-Force Front Surround barely changes anything.

A thing to appreciate here is that unlike many of its competitors, Sony opted for a symmetrical setup, making for a much better stereo experience than blasting the earpiece on high.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Sony Xperia XZ	61.6	65.5	67.6	Below Average
Sony Xperia X Compact	64.1	65.1	69.5	Below Average
Apple iPhone SE	63.6	68.0	68.0	Below Average
Sony Xperia XZ Premium	62.9	65.2	71.6	Below Average
Sony Xperia XZs	62.4	65.5	73.3	Average
Sony Xperia XZ1	65.4	68.0	69.1	Average
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact (ClearAudio+)	64.9	71.0	69.0	Average
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact	66.4	70.9	68.4	Average
Samsung Galaxy S8	66.2	70.5	72.5	Good
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact (S-Force)	65.7	70.2	76.9	Good
Xiaomi Mi 6	66.1	69.0	84.1	Very Good
Huawei P10	67.7	70.0	83.6	Very Good
Nokia 8	88.0	77.1	81.4	Excellent

Notable apps

Besides email, Sony has some other app basics covered with its own solutions as well. The News app is a news aggregator, pulling stories from sources on topics of your choice. It can also issue two daily bulletins for you at a time you specify, so you don't miss out on current events. There is also a simple weather app, complete with nice animations.

News • News • Weather

Xperia lounge is Sony's own entertainment app, feeding you exclusive content and competitions related to music, movies and games. What's new is a similar concept, but it acts like more of a guide into Android applications, themes, games and more. It is a curated catalog of links to various other platforms, like the Google Play store, Audible, Amazon and others.

Xperia Lounge

Sony's health-tracking app Lifelog doesn't come pre-installed, though all it takes to download it is a trip to the Play Store. However, there is no shortage of third-party apps that do come pre-loaded on the XZ1 Compact. AVG Protection Pro is a particularly annoying one, since its usefulness is questionable to begin with, and it is also just a trial.

AVR Protection Pro

Sony did finally include a simple file manager in its ROM, which gets the job done. There is a basic calculator as well. The default Google app package should have you covered for most everything else.