Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact first look

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact hands-on: Small, mighty, kinda chunky…

The Compact line has been the shining star in Sony’s Xperia brand for years, even though the devices in this range haven’t always been perfect. Instead of simply following the crowd, the phones have appealed to those who aren’t hankering after a device with a huge screen.

Xperia Compacts have been at their best when they’ve taken all the components of the bigger phone, jamming them into a body half the size. Thankfully, this is carried through to the Xperia XZ2 Compact. It has the internals, camera tech and most of the bits that make the Xperia XZ2 appear as if it’s taking a step in the right direction – but with a 5-inch screen.
Unlike the XZ2, the XZ2 Compact isn’t made out of shiny glass. Instead, Sony uses a polycarbonate plastic to cover the rear. An aluminium frame remains for rigidity, but the device feels noticeably less high-end than its bigger sibling.

The unfortunate side-effect of cramming heaps of components into a smaller body is that the XZ2 Compact is rather chunky. The bulbous body is at odds with the majority of phones on the market currently, and it will take some getting used to.

On the top of the device is a flap that hides the microSD and SIM tray, while the bottom houses the USB-C port. There’s still a camera shutter on the side, while the fingerprint scanner now sits below the camera on the rear. As you might have noticed, there’s no headphone jack, but a 3.5mm dongle is included in the box. Sony will also sell an accessory that lets you charge and listen to music at the same time – it’s 2018, folks.
The 5-inch display – up from 4.7 inches on previous Compacts – packs a 1080p resolution, an 18:9 aspect ratio and support for HDR playback and upscaling. It looks great with all those pixels packed in tightly, and Sony continues to tune its mobile LCD panels superbly with accurate colours.

You’ll be able to watch videos shot on the phone, since the XZ2 Compact supports 4K HDR recording inside the camera app. This can be toggled on and off easily, so as not to cause any codec compatibility mishaps.

The results looked pretty good, even if I was confined to a fairly drab white demo room. The 960fps slow-mo feature Sony introduced last year is present, but it’s no longer limited to 720p; instead, it’s 1080p. However, you’ll still only be able to turn about 3 seconds into this slow-mo format, so it remains quite restrictive.
Other camera features include a 19-megapixel sensor with added memory, 3D facial scans and predictive capture. Those 3D features have been added to the selfie camera, too – although it remains super-gimmicky in my eyes.
Interestingly, Sony has replaced the 13-megapixel selfie camera with a 5-megapixel version – as a result of the space lost in the design changes. However, I was told that image quality shouldn’t suffer due to an improved image signal processor (ISP).

That ISP has been designed in partnership with Qualcomm and Sony says it should reduce noise, improve low-light performance and colour reproduction – it’s exclusive to these devices. I’ll have to spend more time with the camera to see how it fares, but Sony certainly has big ambitions. Maybe this time it will deliver.

Powering the phone is the Snapdragon 845 mobile platform and 4GB of RAM, plus there’s 64GB of storage supplemented by a microSD card slot. The battery sits at 2870mAh, but unlike the XZ2, there’s no Qi wireless charging here.
Android Oreo comes as standard along with Sony’s UI, which hasn’t seen much of an update in some time. It looks fine, but is a bit clunky with its horizontal app tray and slew of duplicate apps.

First impressions

Slightly chunky exterior aside, the XZ2 Compact has plenty going for it. There’s no other device – aside from the iPhone 8 – that’s this powerful and this pocketable. If you’re tired of big phones, the XZ2 Compact is for you.

You can pick up the Xperia XZ2 Compact in four colours (black, silver, green and pink) from the end of March. Pricing has still to be confirmed.
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