Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
- B
- BoFiS
- 81G
- 12 Jan 2015
The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is the best Android phone (or smartphone in general) that's come out in the past 3+ years. While every other flagship phone has gotten progressively larger with each new version, Sony has properly listened and created a fully-featured, fully-powered smaller version of it's huge Z3, and the results are an overall better phone.
The 4.6" 720p LCD screen looks beautiful and crisp, while also sucking up less power, resulting in the Z3 Compact's fantastic battery life. In fact, it is the highest-rated Android smartphone based on battery life in GSM Arena's charts. The smaller screen also manages to fit on a phone that's no larger than the 4.3" Z1 Compact, while being slightly thinner.
So what you get is a top of the line, Snapdragon 801, 2GB of ram, a microSD slot, 20MP camera with camera button, stereo speakers, and waterproof rating in a phone that actually fits in your pocket or hand.
The Sony skin on top of 4.4.4 is very minimal, and if you want to customize further, the phone is fully unlockable so if you know what you're doing, you can unlock the bootloader (per Sony's instructions) and root the device.
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- Marco
- stS
- 12 Jan 2015
Front glass is not shatter proof. Just one time it felt on the floor ( phone has cover) and glas has a crack line. Part of display is not sensitive anymore. Never happened with Nokia...
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- Pluto
- 3sE
- 12 Jan 2015
I have a Z3 Compact and I'm having no problems at all with it. Its super fast, the screen is excellent, I love Smart Call Handling and Smart Backlight Control they all work perfectly. The phone even tells you if you're preventing Stamina mode from working properly and if your device is left on standby for a long time, the phone will suggest you switch on stamina mode to save even more battery life. Its a really smart device and I love it. I have the white version and it looks beautiful and feels solid and very premium. Other ppl keep complimenting me about the phone. When I'm not using it I actually just hold the phone in my hand because it feels so comfortable. The phone lasts me about 51% at 22:01 laste at night and I text on bbm a lot a few whatsapp messages, 4G, listening to music for at least 4 hours and browsing for 1 hour and about 30 mins. When I got it and charged it for the first time it took an hour and 30 mins to fill up from 15% to 100%. I even dropped the phone when I was standing coz it is a bit slippery and it landed on tiles and it has no cracks whatsoever. I haven't tested the waterproof yet. Best phone I've ever had.
- A
- Awesome701
- 3Yc
- 11 Jan 2015
AnonD-350803, 11 Jan 2015I had a Sony Xperia for 7 days, and here you have the down ... moreI think you naturally overheat the processor by playing games, well Sony is really obvious with its products! I got a Sony Xperia Z3 since it got released it didn't have any defaults and it has satisfied me ! , users should use the product properly until and unless if they know how to use it
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- metalyoshi
- nHP
- 11 Jan 2015
i have one, on the 8th day of ownership, i can only assume it flexed in my chest pocket, and shattered the back.def no impact, been carrying various smartphones there 4+ years with no issue. sony repair, 3 weeks later i drop it onto a laminate floor, no higher than 400mm to fall, smashed it again. my fault,yes, to all you haters, but ive dropped my prev phones countless times from much higher with no consequences. it wasnt in a wallet, i dont like them, and before anyone says it, if they have to go in a wallet now cos they are so thin/fragile/fantastic or whatever, then why not make them as thick as they would be in a case, with a rubber back, because whats the point of it being shiny glass both sides if it cant handle a bit of real world average use. my money has gone where my mouth is, im fixing it to sell, and have already replaced it, at my own expense, with an s4. as far as operationally, im not blown away by anything it does,and though virtually every single electronic device in my house is top of the line sony, this is the last sony product i will ever buy
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- AnonD-350949
- MMb
- 11 Jan 2015
I've owned this mobile since November last year, and I'm sorry to say it has been a real disappointment for me.
* Without any particular reason the back side has shattered into a thousand pieces. (I even have a protective case around it)
* It drains battery like no other phone I have had and needs to be recharged at least once a day.
/eirik
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- Pluto
- 3sE
- 11 Jan 2015
Such a lot of trollers on this forum. Your stories are ridiculous (a tiny stone falls on the screen and battery lasts 15hrs and battery overheats). And another thing is that it is possible for you to get a defected device so get it replaced. Its just sad to see how many people are making Sony look bad but in fact there phones are excellent.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Mfx
- 11 Jan 2015
AnonD-350803, 11 Jan 2015I had a Sony Xperia for 7 days, and here you have the down ... moreEven Z1 survive underwater during "six week":)
Real Z3 compact users know z3c has an excellent battery life
You say yourself z3c's speakers are awsome in the shower and you say again z3c's waterproof is not good
What a funny troll!
Without having Z3 c or iphone, don't dream,
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- AnonD-350803
- JqZ
- 11 Jan 2015
I had a Sony Xperia for 7 days, and here you have the down side specs that SONY didn´t say:
1 - 20M camera: useless! Don´t know why but you get the same quality with a 8M picture, consuming much less memory space.
2 - Waterproof: not so much! You will get a black screen after diving it 2 times in the water (tests made with all panels shut and at 20 cm depth)
3 - Unfreeze black screen: impossible! Unfortunately there is no way to unfreeze it because the 10 seconds power button pressing function doesn´t exist! You´ll have to wait the battery drains out.
4 - Games with quad-core 2,5Ghz: not so much! To prevent over heating the CPU clocks between 300Mhz and 2,5 Ghz, reducing the frame rate and fun of the game. When the CPU temperature reaches 50°, the CPU clocks between 300Mhz and 1,2 Ghz, thus reducing even more the frame rate, making it very difficult to play any game. Above 56º it will terminate any game or application you might be running. You can experience those problems after playing 2 races on Real Racing3. If you live on the North or South Pole you will be fine playing all games.
5 - Battery, 2 days: forget it! The battery is good with the stamina mode on, but only last 15h, wich is sufficient for a day work but never 2 days, but there is a problem with the charging system because it takes ages to fill the battery, and if you are running applications like GPS, while charging, the apps drain the battery faster than you can recharge it.
Of course you also have some upsides like:
1 - Design: very good looking
2 - Stereo front waterproof Speakers: excellent sound even in the shower
3 - Battery economy software: maybe the best and with more options I´ve ever seen.
Now I´m returning to iphone, wich I regret I have left, but if you still want to buy a Sony it´s up to you!
Good luck!!!
- n
- neversony
- Kg{
- 11 Jan 2015
my precious well taken cared Z1 compact lasted only for 3mos.have it check by Sony service center,found out that motherboard was defective and was advised that its uneconomical to repair.wtf!...never again SONY XPERIENCE!
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- Anonymous
- m9$
- 10 Jan 2015
AnonD-347080, 31 Dec 2014PRODUCTION FAULT, BEWARE! I purchased a Z3 Compact mid-Nove... moreMy Z3 compact I have only had 2 months and it started to randomly shut down and not immediately restart. Leaving overnight I found it might start the next day. Not good. I have read a few reports in this forum of similar problems like yours. Sony service is not helpful. First they send you an email telling you to try fixing it yourself by connecting to PC and doing a repair procedure! This phone has problems. It might be waterproof but what good is that if it wont work when you need it. I have sent mine for a Sony repair now. If it breaks down after that I'm getting my money back.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 32I
- 10 Jan 2015
DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! The first of this phone I got was faulty, the 'waterproof seal' kept popping out after a couple seconds of me pushing it back in so I got it replaced the next day. I hadn't used the second phone for the first couple days as my number hadn't transferred to my new sim card, however even with the lack of use a big crack from the camera lense on the back appeared. I managed to get that one replaced as it was in the same week of me buying the stupid phone and was due to a manufacturing fault. The next phone seemed to be OK worked well but then a tiny stone gets dropped on it from no more than 5cm high and the whole screen completely cracks! I have no use of the screen now, I'm trying to access it through another source as there is no response at all on the touch screen. Getting it repaired is another ridiculous problem, sony won't accept it as a manufactures fault even though they have used the most pathetic weak glass ever. So getting it repaired from other sources cost around £140! Yeah the phone is nice and works well but if the glass cracks and leaves shards of glass in your fingers after only the slightest waft of air what is the point in it? It is the biggest regret that I now have for the next 2 years! Do not buy this phone unless you plan on wrapping it in bubble wrap and never actually using the phone for the purposes it claims.
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- Samy
- fvU
- 10 Jan 2015
Great looking little phone and was my only option upgrading from the moto razr i. Pretty much the only compact flagship there is.
The screen is great and you need to forget its resolution as there are no viewable pixels at all. The colors are also great. Battery life is also pretty good and will last two days of moderate to heavy usage.
The only thing I didn't really like was Sony's launcher, specially since you can only remove bloatware that is uninstallable through the menu (for bloatware that can only be disable you need to do it from the settings menu). The icons were also unnecessarily large.
After installing Nova launcher, however, the experience just becomes a lot better IMO. Plus, you gain all the stock lollipop animations and icons.
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- AnonD-350507
- sSJ
- 10 Jan 2015
its a great phone as it gives good features but the price is very high. it has IP68 rating and almost all features as same as the Z3 but it does have a slightly better battery life than the Z3. The only difference between Z3 and Z3 compact are their screen sizes and their screen resolutions. also Z3 gives 3GB ram and Z3 compact gives 2GB ram.
- n
- nick
- ntE
- 10 Jan 2015
sax007, 09 Jan 2015It's a vicious cycle man. When z4 comes out, there will be... moreSony change their politics and there will no longer be two flagships each year. So Z4 will be the best Sony's phone for next year, not just 6 months.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 3JJ
- 10 Jan 2015
before buying z3c, i want to know how to tell if the camera has the pink problem in the photos? is it a software or hardware issue?
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- Apollyon
- J%0
- 10 Jan 2015
Pros:
Great performance.
Dedicated camera button
Useful additions to stock - double tap to wake, a file manager with system permissions,
Waterproof
Good theming engine without root (mine already looks more like Lollipop than Touchwiz will do after it's 5.0 upgrade...)
Remote play will be awesome.
Supports wide variety of casting options - Miracast and Chromecast Mirroring.
In the middle:
Probably the best battery life on the market, but nowhere near as good as the reviews or advertised without enabling functions that impair performance. It lasts me a day. But just a day.
Camera is great in some ways (good detail) and bad in others (auto tends to use too high an ISO leading to grain and the autofocus *sucks*).
Takes SD cards at the expense of not having options to buy more internal storage which it doesn't have enough of.
Ships with quite a lot of bloatware, but 95% of it is easy to remove or disable.
Cons:
Takes a bit of work to set up to be *good*, disabling bloatware and installing more attractive launchers.
Seriously, the autofocus.
Companion software is completely broken on Yosemite with no announced fix.
Flaps are troublesome when you need to charge.
Magnetic dock is so compulsory it should be in the box.
- f
- fahad
- L2N
- 09 Jan 2015
1- great screen size for a normal hand.
2- super great batterylife.
3-
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- Anonymous
- w43
- 09 Jan 2015
awsome
- s
- sax007
- gJq
- 09 Jan 2015
AnonD-349175, 09 Jan 2015Hi there, I am planning to buy Z3 Compact. But the rumors f... moreIt's a vicious cycle man.
When z4 comes out, there will be rumors and leaks about z5 and you'll be in dilemma again...
I say go for it.