The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, unlike the other Android minis, has a full-blown Snapdragon 800 chipset under its hood. No dual-cores or quad Cortex-A7s here. It is running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean rather than 4.4 KitKat, which may hurt it a bit, but we'll see how that works out.
Also, since it has a smaller 720p screen, the Adreno 330 GPU (which is normally used on 1080p devices) will have an easy job.
But let's start with the CPU first. The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact actually manages to beat its big Z1 sibling in the first two tests, but that's probably within the margin of error for the tests. Geekbench 3, however, shows a more noticeable difference. The Z1 Compact is a millimeter thicker than the big Z1, has Sony improved the cooling of the chipset?
Lower is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
The answer may be "yes" since the Z1 Compact proceeds to win the Quadrant and AnTuTu 4 full-system benchmarks. We also ran Basemark X by Rightware - this test promises to circumvent the ways phones detect benchmarks and boost their clock speeds.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
3D graphics should really be a strength for the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact with its beefy GPU and 720p screen (that's less than half the pixels of a 1080p screen). In off-screen performance, the Z1 Compact is in line with the Android flagships and virtually matches the iPhone 5s.
In on-screen performance, the Z1 Compact jumps ahead by a health margin and stays with the iPhone (which has nearly the same screen resolution, just a bit lower).
A lighter 3D engine like Unreal that powers Epic Citadel runs into the 60fps software limit. Snapdragon does almost 60fps at 1080p as well, so we're skipping this benchmark.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact shows stellar performance so far, but it gets more average results when it comes to web benchmarks. The JavaScript performance is the usual from Snapdragon 800, though Samsung seems to have an ace up Note 3's sleeve. Still, the Z1 Compact finishes this round of benchmarks with a win in Vellamo.
Lower is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has shown true flagship performance and even though the new batch of flagships is months away, they'll probably still run Snapdragon 800 or similar. More importantly, unlike competing minis (they know who they are), the Z1 Compact honors the name of its big sibling, so you won't feel like you're getting a mid-range phone with a shiny name.
Google Now gives you a short overview of information it believes is relevant to you right now. Going to work in the morning? Google Now knows this and lets you know if there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office, and offers you a re-route.
It can interpret a lot of things from your search history as well. If you've been searching for, let's say, your favorite football team, Google Now will prepare a card showing you the next match the team is playing and will provide score updates once the game begins.
Google has also integrated Voice Actions. They can handle stuff like sending messages (SMS or email), initiating a voice call, asking for directions, taking a note or opening a site. Google Now can also launch apps, manage your calendar and look for nearby places of interest and stuff like movie openings in theaters.
Google Now on the Xperia Z1 Compact gets activated with an upward swipe from a press-and-hold of the Home button. You can either type or talk to it and the app will give you one of its info cards (if available) and read out its contents (you can disable this in the app settings). If there's no card to help with the answer to your question Google Now will simply initiate a Google web search instead.
We have a dedicated review of some popular voice assistants, where you can learn even more about Google Now. Just follow this link.
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