Six things you NEED to know about the Sony Xperia X Compact

Six things you NEED to know about the Sony Xperia X Compact

1. The battery is almost BIGGER than the phone

Never mind the specs, as the Sex Pistols used to say. Despite its tiny proportions, the Sony’s 2,700mAh battery is a giant. The iPhone 6s’s battery, for example, is only 1,715mAh. Squeeze that into a “compact” phone with a power-efficient, mid-range processor, and a reasonably clean version of Android Marshmallow, and great battery life is a given.

READ MORE: Prefer your phones a bit bigger? Check out the amazing new Sony Xperia XZ

2. 720p on a 4.6in screen is MORE than enough

A 720p screen makes you think “mid range” in 2016. But that’s because phones have got a lot bigger. On a 4.6in screen this hits the sweet spot between keeping things crisp and clear and not giving the processor surplus pixels to shunt around. Good call, Sony.

3. 23 megapixels of snap-happy bliss

The Xperia X Compact doesn’t have the laser autofocus or huge image sensor of its flagship stablemate the XZ. But it does share the same massive, 23-megapixel pixel count. I spent some time with it at a special pre-launch event in London last week, and it snapped some pretty impressive photos. It struggled more in low-lit situations alongside the Xperia XZ, but this is as you’d expect from a camera that doesn’t have the same-sized image sensor.

4. USB Type-C is here to stay

Yep. Good and bad news here. Good that it’s reversible and brings charging/data speed improvements. Bad that all those micro-USB cables you’ve collected over the past three to four years are now entirely useless. Time to get those cables on eBay.

5. Don’t drop it in the toilet – or the bath

Like its predecessor, and as our photographer found out last year during a particularly acquatic photo shoot, the new Compact isn’t water- or dust–proof at all. So keep it out of the pool. And the toilet. Just keep it away from water.

6. Say hello to 33% more RAM

A solid upgrade here. The previous model had 2GB and was a nippy device to use. Increasing the RAM to 3GB only means one thing: it’s going to be even faster. Probably. We’d wait to see the benchmarks before getting too excited.

Want to know more? Click below to go to page 2 and read our in-depth hands on review