Sony Xperia Z5 Compact review: The overachiever

7 October, 2015
When it comes to the Compact family, Sony has quite a reputation to live up to. The Z3 Compact is arguably one of the company's most-successful models.

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  • Yogi
  • Hku
  • 13 Oct 2015

Sony always produces a good products .
If ppl are not happy with the product, its their choice.
But they can't force their opinion to be agreed by others ..

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    • AnonD-294887
    • 3uZ
    • 12 Oct 2015

    AnonD-391800, 11 Oct 2015Look thoroughly through example pictures and compare those ... moreIt might be "good" for a smartphone, but it's certainly not good enough to warrant it having the price of a DSLR, which has much better picture quality at the same price. Sure, dragging around a DSLR is more cumbersome and you have your smartphone with you all the time anyway, but I'm not paying so much just for the convenience.

    As for the G4 and note5, personally I think the difference in sharpness appears less jarring because the whole image has less sharpening artifacts. That's my main issue with Sony's cameras. Just give us a TRUE manual mode, with control over noise reduction/sharpening, or enable RAW mode bypassing all post processing. I'd rather post process it myself on my PC.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • Ibx
      • 12 Oct 2015

      Best compact around

        the z5c endurance is very good but not as good as the z3c, because the z5c have increase the pixels to perform a better display. Oh please read the spec info before you troll.
        The small phone perfect for one hand is about 4.6inch not 4.8, unless you have a big hand.

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          • AnonD-111968
          • PZY
          • 12 Oct 2015

          Also, they stick with Qualcomm's ultimate failed SOC SD810-they should have followed LG G4 like what MS Lumia950 did. They added heat sink to hide the heating issue, but it impacts the battery life still. A shameful result is less battery life on Z5C compared to Z3C. Qualcomm what are you doing? I have a high expectation on SD820 on Xperia Z6/Z6C, now I'm cancelling plans to buy any smartphones-Samsung is another OEM ignoring the basic idea of having a microSD just to win benchmarks, Iphone6S with 16GB at more than 1000SGD is an insult to users intellect. I think the better option this time is Lumia 950- I hope it will have the best battery life which Sony was doing great before.

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            • AnonD-111968
            • PZY
            • 12 Oct 2015

            Sony Xperia Z5C comes with a flagship price but "Overheats; Disappointing screen resolution;" I believe this reviewer's comment is true. Sony is not listening this time. The sharp corner on this model is really a bad idea, it's uncomfortable it digs into the palm. With Sony obsession of bezels, they could have minimized it and increased the screen to 4.8" FHD on the same body. 4.6 HD screen is VERY BAD, this will make the photos less sharp. SONY is lazy and they complain of less profit. Another very lousy marketing style is that releasing their phones only after more than 1 month. Time to market is very important, wakeup Sony.

              AnonD-451006, 11 Oct 2015Looking at the example photos from the review I'm seriously... moreIn a wedding, i made about 200 photos with my Z5c, in various light conditions.
              Using the zoom function, the pictures are much less noisy than they were with previous Xperias. The zoom is light fast, faster than my reaction, faster than real life, even at unexpected last second sudden moves, and changed focus subject or depth, it never lost its focus Smith that did happen to me, with various anterior phones.
              The digital stabiliser is flawless, .no Xperia ever before had such a steady shot.
              In still pics, like the ones you see in the review, the details are unsignificant, the variation in detail are because the Z5c is tested here with lower resolution, as it's default setting is 8mp and gsmarena reviews with the default settings, so when the conditions are optimal, for both of the phones, the significant higher mp count, will naturally capture more details.
              I snapped with 20mp, sent them to my friends iPhone 6 plus and the result was jawdropping, they realised that i had a new phone just by the enhanced quality of the pictures...
              The Z5c only has a marginally better camera atm, than Z3c, not a worse one at any case, it's really hard to make it even better than Z3c, which already had a very good one.
              Z5c's camera is only topped by S6 imo, but i am not sure it is not because of the amoled effect.

                Refer to http://cdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/15/sony-xperia-z5-compact/camera/-150x150m/gsmarena_020.jpg
                The Z5c white balance very impressive! it show a handsome man, if the white balance not correct will show the weird effect.
                I refer many images/photos/pictures, the white balance is very important to a camera, example for a food or meal the incorrect white balance will show a up mess and I unwilling to eat, if the flowers white balance incorrect it can not show the original colors and the same with the object colors.
                think about it your smartphone can have a perfect white balance or not?

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                  • AnonD-451006
                  • mRR
                  • 11 Oct 2015

                  Looking at the example photos from the review I'm seriously disappointed, especially when comparing them directly to those of the Z3C. Enough so that I'm now considering changing my almost-finalised order of a Z5C back to a Z3C. I agree that the problems look to be mostly related to post-processing, but if this is the state the software is in, it's quite unacceptable. Go back to check the photos of the Z3C and tell me that's not a world of a difference:
                  http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z3_compact-review-1135p8.php

                  Check the details in the trees, or the railings on the building in photo #3. Also, the indoor shot of the Z3C is fantastic, check out the in-focus area of the sign, and compare it to the muddy, indistinguishable mess in the Z5C version. It might just be a focussing issue, but if that's the case, why wouldn't the reviewer have taken another shot?

                  The differences in video seem less bad, adding to the suspicion of image processing problems, but they're still less convincing in my opinion. That might also be due to weather differences in the footage though.

                  Does anybody have some more real-world experience with the Z5C camera, maybe in direct comparison with how things were on the Z3C? I know I could get around the software issues by using an alternate camera app, but I must say I'm pretty fond of the Sony Camera app otherwise. Especially when it comes to quick-shot mode by using the shutter button from a locked phone, and the seamless switch to video recording.

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                    • AnonD-391800
                    • Bmu
                    • 11 Oct 2015

                    AnonD-294887, 10 Oct 2015The sharpening artifacts visible in those samples come from... moreLook thoroughly through example pictures and compare those with likes of g4 and note5, you will notice the edges of the photo are indeed smudged slightly more than that of the latter ( which are also smudged, less on note more on lg)...
                    that goes to camera tech not software postprocess, z5 has a curved wider optical lens so as it can cramp much more into the frame...
                    But the most part of the photo, the center focused part of them..oh, so much better contrast, white balance, detail...ideal for cropping and managment.
                    Also indoor artificial light photos, and flash lowlight photos turn out much better, focused and detailed on z5 than on the latter two...
                    Lowlight photos without flash are better on g4 and note5 though...
                    So going overall, yes, there is a good reason dxomark put z5 on top of their list.

                      For now I found min shutterspeed is 1/8 sec. With manual mode in setting(not on screen while shooting). No raw... A lot noise, postprocessing... Will be interesting to compare with Lumia950XL that got probably also 12000iso, and more we do not know about. In low light and manual setting sony is just very, very behind and thats not good. At least I wont consider Z5 line if they do not change whole soft behind cam to look more like in lumia/LGV10...

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                        • AnonD-284151
                        • a30
                        • 10 Oct 2015

                        I don't think if this phone overheats...but i'm sure that u ppl are overheating....come on...stop arguing about unimportant stuff

                          Aren't photos taken by alternative camera app better? Are there some limits for them? Also tell me please someone whats the minimum shutter speed (10second/30sec/?). thanks

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • PxV
                            • 10 Oct 2015

                            Anonymous, 10 Oct 2015Becarefull, you'll burn your z3c if u do that too often. Be... moreI mean z5. N0t z3.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • PxV
                              • 10 Oct 2015

                              AnonD-443383, 10 Oct 2015Stop these kind of things. You can shoot 40 minutes of 4k ... moreBecarefull, you'll burn your z3c if u do that too often. Because it doesnt have dual heat pipe like z3.

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                                • Andrew
                                • S1a
                                • 10 Oct 2015

                                Oh heh I forgot dedicated camera key in my Home-Run round-up earlier.

                                So Sony in general doesn't win every points race on fractions of %s. But it does pull out plenty of wins in things that make a difference:

                                - best environmental sealing
                                - microSD
                                - best battery
                                - best/close to best styling
                                - hardware camera shutter

                                Z5 séries just confirms it. Sony makes the most -worthwhile- phones. Period.

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                                  • AnonD-294887
                                  • nfK
                                  • 10 Oct 2015

                                  AnonD-391800, 10 Oct 2015Actually you can not have more detail without better pixelc... moreThe sharpening artifacts visible in those samples come from oversharpening after aggressively denoising. Just look at the leaves on the foliage sample, the pixel mess on the far left has nothing to do with leaves anymore. With less aggressive de-noising and a bit lighter sharpening the photos would look much better - and I'm talking about viewing things at 100%, not 200%

                                  It's true that sharper vs softer is a matter of preference, but Sony's post processing is notoriously overly aggressive. Just look at the history of M2 vs M2 aqua - they finally dialed it back and the results were "fine". I've also managed to use another app to get rid off the horrible oversharpening artifacts, so its not the sensor that is bad, but the app settings. And of course, we can't change them ourselves. [edit] Here are some samples from back when I had it - the difference in quality should be easy to see. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sa64dn9nji4kaq9/AADzkpy_OaD5Uk1n-AejszPya?dl=0[/edit]

                                  Look at Z1C as another example, the GSM color poster shows that rather nicely. The human figures on the beach or the the "Restaurant" sign on the black/white photo of the boat are barely distinguishable compared to other cameras. Z3C does a better job (simply because it's hard to do any worse) and Z5C is around the same ballpark as well, but it's really nothing impressive. Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 has its flaws, but it at least leaves things readable in its photos.

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                                    • AnonD-294887
                                    • nfK
                                    • 10 Oct 2015

                                    AnonD-322352, 10 Oct 2015Z3 Compact had plastic frame, IIRC.I might be wrong on that one, then. I know the Z1C had one.

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                                      • AnonD-391800
                                      • Bmu
                                      • 10 Oct 2015

                                      AnonD-294887, 10 Oct 2015The amount of people claiming the samples have a lot of det... moreActually you can not have more detail without better pixelcontrast, which in contrast produces a sharper image, with unavoidable sharpening artifacts, one you must crop over 200% to actually notice.
                                      So you can either have postprocessing softening artifacts or, sharpening artifacts...
                                      Which one you prefer is a personal taste
                                      Me likes sharper images, better for cropping and aftereffect moderation

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-322352
                                        • KZ8
                                        • 10 Oct 2015

                                        AnonD-294887, 10 Oct 2015The amount of people claiming the samples have a lot of det... moreZ3 Compact had plastic frame, IIRC.

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