Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet review: ExpertiZe

Synthetic benchmarks

Update June 29: We re-ran the benchmarks with the retail Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet and saw the same scores in all but the JavaScript Kraken 1.1 and HTML 5 BrowserMark tests.

The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, and enough has been written about it to revisit it all again. What could potentially work in its favor in this case is the sheer area that the designers have for heat dissipation, though with the plastic back and limited thickness you can't really engage the entire surface.

What also needs to be pointed out again is that the review unit we have for testing is a preproduction prototype, so it may not be entirely representative of the performance of future commercially available models. The prototype status of the device is likely the reason why most benchmarks we installed were rejected by the device and immediately uninstalled. We still managed to run a few tests, and the results can be found below.

We threw in the comparison the HTC One M9 and the Samsung Galaxy S6. Obviously, the flagship phones have little to do with the Xperia Z4 Tablet in terms of form factor. However, the Galaxy S6 can provide a good comparison of the S810 versus the Exynos 7420 when both have to deal with QHD resolution (OK, WQXGA versus QHD, but still close enough).

Meanwhile the One M9 is the latest device we had with the same S810, so it should be an indication of how things stack up between brothers. There hasn't been an S810-powered device above FullHD resolution in the office before the Xperia Z4 Tablet, so that's the next best thing.

Out of the compound benchmarks we managed to run only Basemark OS II, and the Z4 Tablet really has nothing to hide. The overall score is easily the highest among competing tablets, including the iPad Air 2 and the Nexus 9, but it also beats the Galaxy S6. The Sony tablet pulls ahead from a worse starting position.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  2045
• Apple iPad Air 2
  1937
• HTC Nexus 9
  1890
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1769
• HTC One M9
  1526
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  1141
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  829
• LG G Pad 10.1
  529

Graphics performance turned out solid, as well. The offscreen scores (rendered at 1080p resolution) put the Xperia Z4 towards the top of the bunch, though the iPad Air 2 is significantly ahead in the lighter T-Rex routine.

Moving to onscreen results (at the respective device's actual screen resolution) the Z4 Tablet still lags behind the iPad Air 2 and the Nexus 9, but those have a 2,048 x 1,532 pixel resolution which is only 77% of the Z4 Tablet's pixels. The Sony Tablet actually manages to beat the Galaxy S6 in the more intense Manhattan test.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  70.4
• HTC Nexus 9
  60.2
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  59
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  54
• HTC One M9
  49
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  27.7
• Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet
  27.5
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  22.5

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  32.6
• HTC Nexus 9
  31.5
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  27
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• HTC One M9
  23
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  12
• Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet
  11.7
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  8.1
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  5.6

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  52.2
• HTC One M9
  50
• HTC Nexus 9
  46.2
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  38
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  37
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  28.1
• Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet
  27.4
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  14

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  24.7
• HTC One M9
  24
• HTC Nexus 9
  22.6
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  11.7
• Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet
  11.3
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  4.7
• LG G Pad 10.1
  3.8
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  2.9

Basemark X paints a similar picture with the iPad Air 2 on top, followed closely by the Nexus 9. This time though the Galaxy S6 is in front of the Xperia Z4 Tablet.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  29753
• HTC Nexus 9
  28244
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  27169
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  23298
• HTC One M9
  19848
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  12911
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  6875
• LG G Pad 10.1
  807

Browser performance was exemplary too. We have a new record holder in the Kraken 1.1 JavaScript benchmark, and you guessed it, it's the Z4 Tablet. However when we ran the test again with the new unit we received the score dipped quite a bit. The pre-release Sony tablet posted a respectable BrowserMark 2.1 score as well but the retail unit once again showed a lower score. This could be due to the use of different browsers - the first tablet we tested had its own browser while the latter uses only Google Chrome.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  3854
• HTC Nexus 9
  3953
• Apple iPad Air 2
  4054
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4154
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  4777
• HTC One M9
  5500
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet retail
  5577
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  6500
• LG G Pad 10.1
  14794

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  2718
• HTC Nexus 9
  2588
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
  2287
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet retail
  2074
• HTC One M9
  1681
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  1515
• Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
  1467
• LG G Pad 10.1
  949