With the announcement of the Z5 Premium and Z5, Sony also brought out their smaller compact Z5. Packed with basically the same internal hardware as the others, it may be the phone to go for if you want a smaller footprint as the Z5 Compact has a smaller 4.6-inch display with a 720p resolution. But don’t think it takes away from its sharpness. The Compact still clocks in a 323ppi and on the internals, it’s packed with all the same great hardware as found on the Z5 and Z5 Premium. This includes the same octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, the Adreno 430 GPU, 2GB of RAM (which is 1 less than the Z5 and Z5 Premium), and 32GB of internal storage. Plus, you can expand your storage using a microSD card.
The build of the phone is also a bit different. The grey metallic model is absolutely my favorite hands down and the matte finish surface on the back provides a very nice place to put your hand and it doesn’t collect any fingerprints. Compared to the Z5 Premium and Z5, the Compact is definitely the smallest and it’s definitely a little bit thicker than the other two. But in the hand, the phone feels superbly comfortable, thanks to its 5-inch form factor and about 2.5 inches in width.
Compared to say a Samsung Galaxy S6, the Z5 Compact easily fits in the frame of the S6. Plus the slipperiness of the S6 isn’t carried over to the Sony Z5 Compact but you can definitely fix that with a skin from SleekWraps, like the red carbon fiber I have on this one. Flip it to the rear and you have the same 23MP camera that’s found on the other Z5 phones. The build still retains an IP68 rating, which means it’s resistant to water in about 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. Also, there’s one new hardware feature that comes across the board of Z5s which is the fingerprint sensor on the power button. This thing is incredibly fast and responsive. Plus, it’s on one of the most comfortable places on the phone.
Software-wise, the Z5 Compact is running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Sony’s UI interface on top of it. And as stated on previous videos, it’s not the most user-friendly skin to use. But it definitely does the job. But hopefully, we’ll see an update to Marshmallow in the not so distant future.
The last thing I want to mention is the battery on the Z5 Compact, which is a 2700mAh battery. It may sound small in terms of flagship power but if it only has to power a display panel of 720p, it may prove to be a king in battery life. The only fear of battery life is the battery-hungry 810 chipset.
The Z5 is definitely one of the best options to go for this year from Sony. It’s all you can ask for in flagship power without the size and bulk of large devices. So let me know what your thoughts are on the Z5 Compact.
