Sony Xperia XZs review: Slow (e)motion

Performance

Sony Xperia XZs is powered by the same Snapdragon 820 SoC that the Xperia XZ has under its hood. There is an upgrade, though- the XZs model brings 4GB of RAM, and thus matches most of the competition out there.

The Snapdragon 820 has been already replaced by the 821 and 835 models, though as it's still a flagship-grade chip we don't hold it against the Xperia XZ. But we would have appreciated it if Sony had gone for the S821 chip in this otherwise copy-paste job, as it would have escaped this description altogether.

Anyway, the Snapdragon 820 chip inside the Xperia XZs offers a powerful quad-core Kryo processor (typically 2x2.15GHz + 2x1.6GHz), Adreno 530 GPU, and comes with 4 gigs of RAM.

As usual, we start our benchmark routine with some Geekbenching and a single Kryo core is as excellent a performer as ever. Single-core operations are crucial for smooth Android experience and the XZs processor is on par with the top competing phones.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  3488
• Huawei P10
  1927
• OnePlus 3T
  1890
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  1860
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  1733
• Sony Xperia XZs
  1724
• HTC 10
  1708
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  1696
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  1682
• HTC U Ultra
  1647
• Sony Xperia XZ
  1578

The multi-core score is equally great, though you can see the S821 devices doing a little better (LG G6, HTC U Ultra, OnePlus 3T).

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei P10
  6069
• Apple iPhone 7
  5654
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  5583
• OnePlus 3T
  4364
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  4209
• HTC U Ultra
  4201
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  4128
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  3987
• Sony Xperia XZs
  3979
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3868
• HTC 10
  3621

The Xperia XZs is getting some criticism for sticking to 1080p screen resolution, but on a positive note the Adreno 530 is a striking performer under 1080p. Quite expectedly, the XZs smashes the Quad HD competition at the onscreen tests, and its raw power in the offscreen benchmarks is equally impressive.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  60
• Sony Xperia XZs
  34
• OnePlus 3T
  33
• Sony Xperia XZ
  32
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  31
• Huawei P10
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  26
• Sony Xperia Z5
  19
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  15
• HTC 10
  15
• LG G5
  15
• HTC U Ultra
  13
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  12

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZs
  21
• OnePlus 3T
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ
  19
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  18
• Huawei P10
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  10
• HTC U Ultra
  10
• HTC 10
  9.9
• LG G5
  8.8
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  8.5
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  7.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  43
• OnePlus 3T
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  32
• Sony Xperia XZs
  32
• Sony Xperia XZ
  31
• HTC 10
  31
• LG G5
  30
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  29
• HTC U Ultra
  27
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  26
• Huawei P10
  22
• Sony Xperia Z5
  18

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ
  20
• Sony Xperia XZs
  20
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  18
• HTC 10
  18
• HTC U Ultra
  18
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  17
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  16
• LG G5
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  15
• Huawei P10
  14

The Sony Xperia XZs scores the same as the rest of the S820 gang in the GPU-intensive BaseMark X test and a notch below the S821 club.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei P10
  39433
• OnePlus 3T
  36958
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  36240
• HTC U Ultra
  35875
• Sony Xperia XZs
  33815
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  32160
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  30507
• Sony Xperia XZ
  29548
• LG G5
  29456
• HTC 10
  28882
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  28480
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  28450
• Sony Xperia Z5
  23923

The compound tests put the Xperia XZs in the same ballpark with the Xperia XZ and that's hardly surprising. The S821-powered OnePlus 3T does noticeably better than the entire S82x family, but other than that the XZs numbers still mean flagship business.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  174532
• OnePlus 3T
  165097
• HTC 10
  154031
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  143639
• HTC U Ultra
  139750
• LG G5
  134541
• Sony Xperia XZs
  133574
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  132849
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  131666
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  129229
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Sony Xperia XZ
  124266
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  116217

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7
  3416
• Huawei P10
  2910
• OnePlus 3T
  2678
• Sony Xperia XZs
  2386
• Xiaomi Mi 5s
  2378
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (S820)
  2352
• HTC U Ultra
  2222
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  2179
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2151
• LG G6 (non-final firmware)
  2126
• LG G5
  2065
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (E8890)
  2050
• HTC 10
  1839
• Sony Xperia Z5
  1482

Sony Xperia XZs offers top-notch performance, superb thermal control, and is future-proof. Yes, there is a newer Qualcomm chipset, which will make it to the upcoming flagships this fall because Samsung pulled a shotgun. But even though the XZs fails to improve on the XZ hardware, it doesn't make it less capable than any other smartphone on the market.