Sony Xperia XZ3 hands-on review

Xperia on Android Pie

The Xperia XZ3 might represent a radical new design step in the Sony family, but its OS is all too familiar. Well, at least the Xperia launcher is. If continuity is your thing, the Ui delivers plenty. Sony has really streamlined its app package and overall UX quite a bit, in recent OS iterations , making for a rather neat and clean experience.

Xperia launcher • Settings • Notifications • Quick toggles • App drawer

The more astute among you, however, might have already notice from these screenshots, that something is obviously different. That is mostly the new Android 9 Pie core, shining through to the familiar Xperia UI. That's right, the XZ3 ships with Google's latest and greatest in mobile OS. Customized to Sony's taste, of course.

If you look close enough, the signs are clearly there, only scattered about. Like, the new and improved volume controls and the slider placement, on the side of the UI. Of course, Sony's own Dynamic Vibration adds and extra layer of settings on top.

Volume slider • Volume slider • Volume controls • USB Preferences

Some other small additions are present and accounted for, as well. Like the in-depth USB Preferences menu.

Speaking of advanced settings, there is no shortage of those for the display of the XZ3. Besides the always on interface, we already mentioned, color and contrast are subject to tweaking. There is even a custom white point adjustment. These might just come in handy in easing long-term fan transition from LCD to the particular feel of an OLED panel.

Display settings

Another Android Pie feature, that seems to be making an appearance on the XZ3, of sorts, is the suggested apps interface. However, instead of in the app drawer, it has its own UI, dubbed Side sense. Or rather, the Side sense menu, since Side sense refers to all the features, enabled by Sony's new edge gesture tech. We already mentioned the integration within the camera app.

The menu is called upon by double tapping anywhere on the curved part of the display. Like we already mentioned, its contents are basically a list of "predicted" apps, as well as some settings shortcuts and toggles. These could, indeed, be powered by the new Android Pie recent apps APIs, then again, it could be a proprietary Sony algorithm entirely.

Side sense

In its current shape, the menu is convenient enough, but it does lack depth and polish. You can manually add apps, though, which is nice. Side sense can also detect swipes on the display edges, which are currently mapped to the back button. It's an interesting concept.

3D Creator app

We kind of feel obliged to mention the 3D Creator app as well, since Sony seems to still be pouring quite a bit of effort into it. There are now some improvements under the hood and apparently some animations for facial expression, which we couldn't test out at this point in time. Frankly, we don't really feel like we missed all that much.

Performance

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and 4GB of RAM. That all sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? As far as internals go, the Xperia XZ3 basically borrows its from the Xperia XZ2. So, no change in performance then?

Left: Sony Xperia XZ2, Right: Sony Xperia XZ3

Well, we kind of expected that to be partially true, as far as raw horsepower is concerned. After all, Sony hasn't been marketing any fancy new internal design or optimization. No fancy new vapour chamber, that can allow the chipset to go full throttle for longer. Or, at least, none that Sony is marketing.

Even so, the chassis on the XZ3 is quite a bit different, which can have an effect on thermals and performance. But, even if you think that;s a bit far-fetched, there is also the matter of the resolution bump, up to QHD+, on the Xperia XZ3. That means the Adreno 630 has to work that much harder to push pixels to the screen. Hence, on-screen GPU tests are definitely going to be different.

Throwing the XZ2 Premium into the mix might be an interesting experiment in scalability for the Adreno 630. Since, rough match tells is the XZ3 is roughly rocking a 4.15MP resolution, on screen, while its 4K sibling has to deal with practically double that, at 8.29MP.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo NEX S
  9160
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  9003
• HTC U12+
  9001
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• LG G7 ThinQ
  8865
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  8681
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  8509
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  8494
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  8466
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349
• Oppo Find X
  8018
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679
• Honor 10
  6591
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  6428

In pure CPU tests, the Xperia XZ3 appears to perform in the general Snapdragon 845 ballpark. That is to say, there is definitely more to be squeezed out of Qualcomm's flagship offer, but, in real-life terms, there should be no perceivable performance difference.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• vivo NEX S
  2466
• HTC U12+
  2456
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  2454
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  2438
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  2431
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  2419
• LG G7 ThinQ
  2395
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  2343
• Oppo Find X
  2322
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  1915
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907
• Honor 10
  1894

Interestingly enough, the single-core performance of the XZ3 seems to lag a bit behind its siblings, like the XZ2 and the XZ2 Premium. This could, very well, come down to software optimization.

More compound benchmarks, like Basemark OS 2.0 paint a pretty similar picture. The Xperia XZ3 seems to be lacking a bit behind. Still, it is a rather old benchmark, at this point, which more than likely means that it can't take advantage or appreciate the Android Pie optimizations and new APIs.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• HTC U12+
  4300
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  4196
• vivo NEX S
  4167
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  4152
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  3859
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  3858
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  3713
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  3675
• Oppo Find X
  3636
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  3379
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3354
• Honor 10
  3337
• Huawei P20 Pro
  3252
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3064

To illustrate our point, to some extent, here is what the latest version of the frequently updated AnTuTu benchmark thinks of the Xperia XZ3.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X
  291218
• vivo NEX S
  287081
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  284555
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  265314
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  264734
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  264044
• HTC U12+
  263696
• LG G7 ThinQ
  259393
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  259244
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  217298
• Huawei P20 Pro
  209884
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  203119
• Honor 10
  200440

We're not saying this is exactly an accurate representation of its performance, but AnTuTu appears to be taking Android Pie into account, if nothing else.

Graphics performance, with older GFX 3.0 tests on Android Pie has been a rather interesting topic. Back when the Google Pixel 2 XL received the final version of the Android 9 update, we re-tested all of its performance metrics and observed a rather odd trend, where Android Pie would perform worse under GFX 3.0 loads.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  83
• vivo NEX S
  83
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  82
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  82
• Oppo Find X
  82
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  76
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  74
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  70
• LG G7 ThinQ
  66
• Huawei P20 Pro
  66
• HTC U12+
  64
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  64
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  61
• Honor 10
  57

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  59
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  59
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  59
• vivo NEX S
  59
• Oppo Find X
  58
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  57
• Huawei P20 Pro
  55
• Honor 10
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  51
• HTC U12+
  50
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  46
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  45
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  45
• LG G7 ThinQ
  43
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  36

It seems the Xperia XZ3 is in the exact same boat. Of course, only the off-screen tests can be used for comparative purposes with other devices. Still, the trend is there.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  61
• HTC U12+
  60
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  60
• Oppo Find X
  60
• vivo NEX S
  60
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  58
• LG G7 ThinQ
  57
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  56
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  55
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  42
• Huawei P20 Pro
  40
• Honor 10
  37

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  57
• vivo NEX S
  55
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  53
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  51
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  50
• Oppo Find X
  50
• Honor 10
  37
• Huawei P20 Pro
  37
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  34
• HTC U12+
  33
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  31
• LG G7 ThinQ
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  21

As test difficulty ramps up, the variances in the Adreno 630's performance on the XZ3 and other non-Android Pie handsets seems to shrink more and more. An odd thing, indeed.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ3
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• LG G7 ThinQ
  35
• HTC U12+
  35
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  35
• Oppo Find X
  35
• vivo NEX S
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  25
• Honor 10
  23
• Huawei P20 Pro
  23

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  37
• vivo NEX S
  34
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  31
• Oppo Find X
  28
• Honor 10
  21
• Huawei P20 Pro
  21
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• HTC U12+
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  19
• LG G7 ThinQ
  18
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  13

Still, our observations for the phenomenon come from only two devices, at the moment and are hardly conclusive. As more and more older models start getting Android Pie, we will definitely look into the matter of older OpenGL ES 3.0 loads.

In the particular case of the XZ3, it could all, very well come down to software optimization. Perhaps BasemarkX and Basemark ES 3.1 offer a more accurate representation of the overall graphical fidelity of the Adreno 630.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• HTC U12+
  44390
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  44097
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  44013
• LG G7 ThinQ
  43833
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  43826
• vivo NEX S
  43810
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  43652
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  43596
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  43285
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  42134
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  41994
• Oppo Find X
  40537
• Huawei P20 Pro
  39945
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  39143
• Honor 10
  29435

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  1482
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  1481
• vivo NEX S
  1208
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  1193
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  1187
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  1177
• HTC U12+
  1177
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  1176
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  874

While looking at these early performance figures, do also keep in mind that the XZ3 unit, we tested is still an early release. The software is bound to go through some extra refinement and optimization, prior to the full review. Plus, it's based on Android 9 Pie, whereas all of its contenders on the chart are still running older version of Google's OS.

Left: Sony Xperia XZ2, Right: Sony Xperia XZ3

Our experience shows that the latter can actually tip the scale in either direction, either improving of hurting pure-numbers performance for a number of optimization and compatibility reasons, which we won't get into. Bottom line, don't take these initial numbers to heart quite yet.

Conclusion

The Xperia XZ3 raises more than a few interesting questions. Unfortunately, most of these can only be answered from the fans and the general market reception of what is undoubtedly the most different device to join the Xperia smartphone ranks, in recent memory.

Having spent some time with the XZ3, it really seems like everything is there and works well together, if that makes any sense. The particular hardware choices are logical and worthy of a flagship. Software improvements are incremental and based on years of experience.

Accessories

Sure, there are arguably, some gimmicks, like the new Side sense or the camera launch gesture, but nothing to hinder most people from properly enjoying the XZ3 as a whole.

And that's where the real question comes in - does it all work for an Xperia? Is the altered formula a good one? Is it going to stick and is it even intended to? We feel like those are the important questions the Xperia XZ3 will be faced with in the coming months. If nothing else, the whole situation will definitely be worth keeping a close eye on.