HTC One vs Sony Xperia Z: One to Z
One to Z
Audio quality
The Sony Xperia Z did quite well in our dedicated audio quality, but as we've managed to confirm several times already the HTC One is simply in a class of its own at the moment.
Both the Xperia Z and the One have perfectly clean output when attached to an active external amplifier, but the HTC flagship took the round with much higher volume levels.
The Sony Xperia Z let some distortion creep in when we plugged in a pair of headphones, while the HTC One output was barely affected. Once again, we noted a huge volume level difference in favor of the HTC One.
And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| HTC One | +0.11, -0.14 | -92.4 | 91.2 | 0.0012 | 0.013 | -92.4 |
| HTC One (headphones attached) | +0.16, -0.07 | -92.1 | 90.9 | 0.014 | 0.055 | -70.8 |
| +0.11, -0.10 | -81.9 | 82.1 | 0.043 | 0.041 | -81.3 | |
| +0.62, -0.09 | -81.7 | 81.5 | 0.204 | 0.249 | -56.4 |
HTC One frequency response
Sony Xperia Z frequency response
You can learn more about the whole testing process here.
Winner: HTC One. The extra high volume levels of the HTC flagship and its slightly cleaner output helped it ease to the victory here.
Loudspeaker
We tested out the loudspeakers of both phones as they're important for both notifications and for multimedia consumption. The HTC One packs two speakers on its front, each with a dedicated amp. It wasn't the loudest phone we've tested, but the sound quality is arguably the best in the smartphone game. The Sony Xperia Z meanwhile offered below average performance, as we guess that water-proofing isn't helping the sound much.
You can learn more about the loudspeaker test here.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overal score | |
| 60.1 | 58.3 | 61.6 | ||
| Apple iPhone 5 | 66.8 | 66.1 | 67.7 | Below Average |
| Nokia Lumia 920 | 61.6 | 64.8 | 65.8 | |
| HTC One X+ | 64.6 | 65.8 | 74.6 | |
| Asus Padfone 2 | 57.3 | 66.7 | 77.8 | |
| 69.0 | 70.7 | 77.9 | ||
| Oppo Find 5 | 70.7 | 67.7 | 73.0 | |
| Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 | 70.6 | 66.2 | 77.3 | |
| HTC One | 69.3 | 66.6 | 75.9 | |
| Google Nexus 4 | 71.1 | 66.6 | 78.8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy S III | 75.1 | 66.5 | 75.0 | |
| 74.6 | 71.3 | 82.7 | Excellent |
Winner: HTC One. Two loudspeakers that produce louder, crisper sound - it's no contest really.
Reader comments
- smith
- 07 Jan 2019
- guj
HTC one is the best in music playing and body shape unlike the z x I love HTC m7 its a good thin machine
- emmobi
- 28 Jul 2016
- Nue
HTC from de test is beta...
- AnonD-535060
- 08 May 2016
- sS0
I've both Sony xperia z and htc one m7.the most i like Sony but now i rolling with ht because my sony phone is mirror broken 'two time'.:-)