Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact review

Performance

The Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact comes with a Snapdragon 835, complete with 4GB of RAM. Being one of the first out the door with an Oreo ROM does mean bumping into quite a few software optimization issues. We hope that both Sony and the benchmark developers had time to get up to speed with the latest Android version.

The highlight in the performance section would be the 720p display, which should allow the XZ1 Compact to lead in the benchmarks on numerous occasions.

The powerful Snapdragon 835 naturally had no trouble chewing through every task we threw its way. That being said, let's kick off with a pure CPU benchmark. The XZ1 Compact is somewhat behind other S835 smartphones, but nothing critical.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1991
• OnePlus 5
  1932
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  1929
• Nokia 8
  1925
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  1840
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  1826
• Oppo R11
  1596
• Sony Xperia XA1
  887
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  868

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6719
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  6656
• OnePlus 5
  6604
• Nokia 8
  6568
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  6541
• Oppo R11
  5777
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  5596
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  4225
• Sony Xperia XA1
  3611

Moving on to the GPU benchmarks. Quite expectedly - the Xperia XZ1 Compact is acing the onscreen test having big advantage over the competition with that 720p resolution.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  60
• Apple iPhone 7
  60
• Apple iPhone SE
  58
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  41
• OnePlus 5
  40
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  40
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  34
• Sony Xperia XZs
  34
• Huawei P10
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  23
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  21
• Nokia 8
  18
• Sony Xperia XA1
  15
• Oppo R11
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  6.3

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  50
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Sony Xperia XZs
  21
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  20
• Huawei P10
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  13
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  12
• Nokia 8
  12
• Oppo R11
  8.6
• Sony Xperia XA1
  7.9
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  3.5

The offscreen apps show the Adreno 540 inside the Xperia XZ1 Compact is as capable as any other Adreno 540 GPU out there.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  42370
• Huawei P10
  39433
• OnePlus 5
  38844
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  38820
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  38583
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  38541
• Nokia 8
  37593
• Sony Xperia XZs
  33815
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  33023
• Oppo R11
  20350
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  15415
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  10403
• Sony Xperia XA1
  9714

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  1547
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1189
• Apple iPhone SE
  882
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  861
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  855
• Nokia 8
  855
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  853
• OnePlus 5
  796
• Huawei P10
  716
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  626
• Sony Xperia XZs
  623
• Oppo R11
  345
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  241
• Sony Xperia XA1
  191
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  138

Basemark OS 2.0 and AnTuTu seem to be a little less kind to the Xperia XZ1 Compact, but the result cards do resemble that of GeekBench 4.1 pretty closely. Granted, the XZ1 Compact seems to be near the bottom of the Snapdragon 835 bunch. The again, at the first BaseMark OS it appears to give Samsung's Exynos 8895 (S8) less of an edge in performance. Even less so for Huawei's Kirin 960 (P10).

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  180331
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  177326
• Nokia 8
  175872
• Apple iPhone 7
  174532
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  174435
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  157075
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  144462
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  141193
• Sony Xperia XZs
  133574
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Apple iPhone SE
  123961
• Oppo R11
  118677
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  76731
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  63548
• Sony Xperia XA1
  60707

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  3601
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  3547
• Nokia 8
  3503
• Apple iPhone 7
  3416
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  3376
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  2986
• Huawei P10
  2910
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  2818
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  2461
• Oppo R11
  2386
• Sony Xperia XZs
  2386
• Apple iPhone SE
  2163
• Sony Xperia X Compact
  1738
• Sony Xperia XA1
  1351
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  1246

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  4402
• OnePlus 5
  4300
• Nokia 8
  4215
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  3484
• Huawei P10
  3393
• Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact
  3338
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  3272
• Oppo R11
  2961
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  2901
• Sony Xperia XZs
  2606
• Xiaomi Mi 5X
  1377
• Sony Xperia XA1
  1367

The Xperia XZ1 really does live up to flagship standards, and the synthetic scores prove that.

But our real-life impressions are even better - this is one of the smoothest, if not the one, Androids we've played with and we aren't throwing this statement lightly. Having reviewed so many flagships - Galaxy S8 and Note8, OnePlus 5, LG V30, Mi 6 - we've always experience some tiny hiccups which stick and annoy us. Not on the Xperia XZ1 Compact, though.

The phone runs super cool under peak performance, is capable of handling literally anything hassle-free, and offers amazingly smooth Android operations. Yes, the Xperia XZ1 Compact is probably the fastest phone right now, no matter what some score cards are telling you.