If yous liked what Sony brought to the table with the Xperia Z3 just wished it was a little bit smaller, Sony has you covered. The Xperia Z3 Compact features a smaller 4.6-inch brandish in a more than manageable body; great news for those who dislike the contempo trend of massive flagships.

The Z3 Compact packs all the same goodness inside its chassis: a powerful Snapdragon 801 SoC, a 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS camera, fast connectivity features including Category four LTE and NFC, and IP68 waterproofing. It comes with the same software, too, and so for all intents and purposes information technology's a smaller Xperia Z3.

The Compact also occupies an interesting position in the marketplace with little, if any competition. The iPhone 6 packs pinnacle-finish hardware and is close in size, though it'south yet slightly larger. But if y'all're specifically later on a small high-finish Android phone your options are limited, especially if you lot aren't willing to cede specs. Aye, Samsung does sell the 4.7-inch Galaxy Alpha, though if you read my review of that handset I'd hold off purchasing it.

While there might be non much competition for the Xperia Z3 Compact, at that place are no winners past default. Sony does have a good history with producing these smaller-sized devices – I actually liked the Z1 Meaty when I reviewed it before this year – then how have they managed to improve?

1 area that hasn't received much attention between the Z1 Compact and the Z3 Meaty is the blueprint. It's still typical Sony affair, using their minimalist slab style that's been a characteristic of most every smartphone out of the company in the past couple of years. It hasn't received some of the design upgrades of the Xperia Z3, which is role of what fabricated the newer handset then great.

Like the Z3, you get tempered drinking glass panels on the front end and back of the Compact which are smoothen, mostly feel pretty proficient, and attract fingerprints. The edges are a dissimilar story: using plastic rather than aluminium on a premium-priced production. The finish consequence isn't every bit skilful, though thankfully the type of plastic used doesn't feel inexpensive.

Aside from the edge aesthetics, the choice to not upgrade the Z3 Compact to the curved aluminium of the Z3 has ergonomic implications. Although the Compact is noticeably smaller than a typical 5-inch flagship, the edges don't fit as snugly in your hands as they exercise on its larger blood brother. It'south a minor betoken, only one I feel Sony had the opportunity to upgrade on this handset.

Still, because of its size, the Z3 Compact is easy to agree and operate, especially one-handed. While personally I don't mind larger devices, those out there who crave power and portability will similar the size of this device. To further assist with usability, Sony has also slimmed down the bezels and positioned the screen slightly above the heart point.

To fit all the powerful components alongside a sizable battery inside the Z3 Compact'south torso, the entire device has been made thicker than the Z3. Information technology's not a huge difference, only it's noticeable that the Compact from feeling every bit svelte. Luckily the thickness doesn't impact the handset's portability, and in this instance I prefer functionality over course.

Like nigh of Sony's loftier-end smartphones from the past few years, the Xperia Z3 Meaty is fully water resistant, rated at IP65 and IP68. This means the device is fully grit tight, resistant to depression pressure water jets, and protected confronting 1.5m of fresh water for up to thirty minutes. Then long equally you don't take the phone into common salt h2o, you'll be fine for some underwater photography and gaming in the shower.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to people familiar with waterproofed smartphones that there are several flaps on the Xperia Z3 Compact to protect the various ports and slots. On this item pattern, one flap is located above the magnetic charging port on the left-manus side, housing the micro-USB port and microSD menu slot. The flap beneath the magnetic connector houses up to 2 nano-SIM ports, depending on the model y'all go.

If you plan on charging the Z3 Compact through USB, the flaps tin become annoying every bit you'll be lifting them up more than often than you expose the phone to water. However you lot do get the opportunity to charge the handset through the same magnetic connector, which is adequately ugly but can save you the annoyance of opening the flaps. To do so yous'll need the DK48 charging dock, which Sony sells for around $30.

The correct-hand edge of the Z3 Meaty has all the device'south critical buttons: the small, round power push button sits immediately above the volume rocker; and further down you'll find the dedicated ii-phase camera button. For a device this small, the power push feels a good 10-20mm also depression for comfortable operation, although I'd rather have it in the electric current position than forth the elevation edge.

On the forepart of the handset, Sony has included dual front-facing speakers but like the Xperia Z3 and Z2, a trend that began with the HTC One in early 2022. Similar many phone speakers, they're not the greatest in terms of quality, even if they can go quite loud. But the main benefit to having two speakers on the forepart is stereo sound when gaming or watching videos, which is a major improvement over a single, rear-firing speaker like you go on most other devices.

All the other standard bells and whistles are available on the Xperia Z3 Compact, including a handy notification LED, front-facing photographic camera, three.5mm sound jack on the top edge, several microphones and even a pigsty for threading through your charms.