Sony - XPERIA X Compact 4G LTE with 32GB Memory Cell Phone (Unlocked) - White

This is my first unlocked phone, and the added flexibility is great, but the phone itself is solid and feels great in my hand. I am not a big gamer, but texting, calling and moderate web surfing does not heat the phone as much as other manufacturers. Call clarity is great. The phone finds WiFi without issue. Bluetooth works excellently (at least with Sync on the car and truck, the Panasonic home phone and by Dewalt tough system charger/stereo). The camera action is fast, but as is true of Sony and Canon tends towards red portions of the color spectrum. Battery life is good, charging takes about 2hrs from dead to 100%. I am very pleased with the size. It fits in my pocket so I am glad I went with this phone vice the XZ.

The X compact is truly a compact phone which feels right at home in your hand. The rounded sides makes it comfortable to hold. The front and back curve towards the edges giving it a unibody like design. From the top or bottom the device's outline resembles that of a usb-c port. The compact size is complimented by its light construction of just 135 grams. Sony went with an all plastic construction which is glossy and has a ceramic look to it as well. Previous Sony compact devices were IP certified, no water resistance or water proofing here though. It contains a mid range Snapdragon 650 processor and an Adreno 510 gpu. Though its not flagship, it flys through the Android OS. It handles multitasking like a champ with its 3gb of ram and unlike last years 810, the 650 doesnt get hot and throttle it's performance. Here are some benchmarks and as you can see its almost comparable in performance to the 810. Games were smooth when playing a couple of titles. Loading times were a bit slow but once loaded it ran just fine. Up front you are presented with a surprisingly great display. It is 720p which is just fine for a 4.6" screen. So gaming and media content wont be the best experience but it is still enjoyable. With screen specs like these, it just means the cpu/gpu doesn't have to work as hard to push as many pixels either. Colors are vibrant, blacks are more black than I've seen on other displays that are LCD. Viewing angles are good with no real color shift. It is decently bright in daylight use too but wish it was brighter. Would've liked to see the screen get dimmer as well for night time or include a night time mode to rid of the blue color. But Sony does include a screen image enhancement capability in case you want more true or vivid colors. When typing on the phone, I found my thumbs to be a bit cramped but you grow accustomed quickly. Flanking the screen you are provided dual stereo speakers which sound surprisingly good but volume output is lacking, especially when there is background noise. Audio doesnt get distorted at higher volumes though. You can even feel the vibrations of the speakers at full volume while holding the phone. It is appreciated to have this considering most flagships and larger phones dont even have this feature. The only downside is it's easy for lint and other debris to find its way into these areas and easily noticeable on the blue or white variant. Audio in general is fantastic. Whether its listening with headphones, the speakers or recording audio. The X compact supports high bit rate audio recording. Sony includes audio profile adjustments when headphones are plugged in and different audio settings, which give you a great deep and rich audio experience. It even tries to upsample low bitrate audio. A lower res screen and a mid range chipset both aide in battery life. The X compact packs a 2700mAh battery which got me through a full day of mild to slightly heavy usage. thanks to Android Nougat with doze on the go and some of Sony's doings, this resulted in consistent 5hr to 6.5hr sot but your mileage may vary. If you do run low on juice, you can easily recharge using the Quick charge 3.0 and dont have to fiddle with plugging in your cable a certain way with USB-C either. Something the X compact adopted from its bigger brother, the XZ, was the camera. It uses the same 23MP sensor. It even includes the laser autofocus and RGBC-IR sensor for providing accurate white balance and colors in photos and videos. Photos come out sharp and colors are accurate and quite vivid but not overly saturated. You can easily and quickly access the camera by pressing and holding the dedicate camera shutter from anywhere in the OS. This button also has half press focus capabilities when taking photos. The camera also has object tracking to keep focus on subjects. Though Sony touts 5 axis stabilization, this only applies when taken macro photos which you can see in the corner of the view finder. HDR is only available in manual mode though which is unfortunate. The 5MP front facing camera takes good shots, colors are rich but it is not the widest angle lense. Video quality is great but limited by the chipset. Therefore no 4K or slow motion recording. Where the camera struggles is in low light. Lots of noise is introduced and lighting gets washed out. You lose detail and in some cases takes just a hair longer to take the shot. Software is quite close to stock Android, which is an improvement over Sony's older software. The OS runs fast without a hiccup. Ability to change themes is nice if you are into that sort of thing. Added features such as, double tap to walk or sleep, stamina modes for extending battery life. There is some Sony bloat which you can disable if you choose. I wish Sony would have just used Google's apps: dialer, calculator, clock, etc versus including their own to use. Unfortunately, for the US model the fingerprint scanner is disabled in software. This can be easily changed via a firmware flash to the UK software. Once done, the fingerprint scanner works fast and very accurately. The side mounted scanner is convenient no matter how you hold the device or if its sitting on a desk. With 32gb of internal storage, it doesnt leave you with much room to store videos or music. Sony does include expandable storage up to 256gb but I was disappointed that there was no native adoptable storage. Earpiece quality was very clear and able to get loud enough to hear in louder environments. I had no signal issues on Tmobile. It does come carrier unlocked for GSM, it supports important bands for tmobile and att. Bluetooth connected very quickly to my devices and GPS was accurate and quick to lock on. The original price tag of $500 is steep for this device, but at $400 or $350 that its going for now, it is a much better deal. In a large competitive market of $400 smartphones the Sony Xperia X compact is an easy recommendation if you want a small device and a great camera. If you must have the latest flagship specs and a large screen, look elsewhere.

What a wonderful phone that is now on deep discount all over the Internet! With a 23MP camera, 3GB of RAM, and a small form factor, you'd think this would be higher on everyone's lists. It is VERY trendy for paid reviewers to rip on anything that isn't flagship. And while this isn't the sacred "bezel-less" design that advertisers have ingeniously made consumers think actually matters, I think you should really consider the Xperia X Compact. Now well priced, it can handle just about anything you throw at it. Considering I've always used Moto phones before this, the all plastic case doesn't bother me in the least. It feels like a very solid, impressive phone that takes quality photos and has a snappy, fast response for apps. My one qualm is from Sony's needless bloatware that cannot be removed (it's bad enough Google has stock non-sense as it is), only disabled. It isn't advertised as waterproof, but I think you should look up some videos testing this to be impressed by what it can stand ;) I don't see this mentioned ANYWHERE, but it even has an NFC chip for such things as Android Pay and transfers. Very nice! It feels great in the hands and I am proud I bought one new, one year after release. This thing will be relevant for a long time. No question, the BEST midrange phone on the market, even in 2017!

The only good smartphones in the market that's smaller than 5" screen are either this or iPhone SE. Performance is very good for normal day-to-day use (internet, social media, occasional light gaming). Camera is great, although time between shot can be up to 3s. Battery is great, typically hold around 30% by the end of the day.

It's hard to find a quality compact phone to use with one hand, but Sony is the only company that still makes them at this quality level. My last phone was the Sony Z3 compact and this one is a perfect replacement. Maybe doesn't have the top end features like the flagship phones, but it has everything I need. Snappy, simple UI, top notch camera, excellent battery life, and storage expandable. I also got this phone at a great price of $350. It was a steal. The glossy body is slippery, but I solved the issue by applying a clear skin made by Skinomi and now it has the perfect grip.

I owned both the X and the X compact for a month before I decided which to keep. Originally I purchased the X. I fell in love with it, especially the camera. It was a tad heavy and the battery wasn't as great. So I sprung for the X compact. I used both phones for a week before I decided on keeping the compact. The X compact has a better battery thanks to the 720 screen vs 1080. It's only visible of you look REALLY close. The same picture taken with the 23mp camera zoomed in looks clearer on the bigger X model. Other than that, the white balance is slightly yellowish on the X compact vs the X. As far as the camera is concerned...It's the same. No difference. Even the ISO and shutter speed came dead even or close to it when side by side pics were taken. It's a joy to hold vs the bigger X model. A lot more comfortable. More slippery, I recommend a case. Yes, it's thicker, but because it's lighter and noticeably shorter, it's way easier to pocket. I chose this model because the screen on time is better by an additional hour or more depending on usage. I come home with the battery at 45-55% vs 25-35%. The market for compact phones is very small but Sony did an excellent job in making a reliable phone with an awesome camera. You'll have 5-6 updates out of the box from 6.0 to 7.0 + February security patch. I recommend doing all that and then reset again. The UI is smooth, and games play with a great frame rate. It DOES GET WARM with heavy browsing or extended game play. Be cautious. I baby my phone battery as to avoid it wearing so quick. Hope this helps.

I have always had small, pocketable phones and have no need for a big screen, but need decent (not blazing) performance. And I don't want an i-anything. This market has been shrinking, but this phone still fits the bill. It's performance is very good, though I don't game on the phone and will, at most, watch YouTube clips and play a lot of music with it. The battery life is great with my level of use, typically 2-3 days, if I am not playing a lot of music and just doing apps for work. It rarely gets warm even with more demanding use. The screen looks great. Phone calls are clear. The camera is pretty good. Sony just updated Android to 7.0/Nougat over the air. Complaints are: the volume rocker is in a stupid location; NOBODY can find it useful there. Sony disables the fingerprint scanner on the start button in the US (a patent issue, I hear). There is a glitch with reconnecting to car bluetooth that has the phone playing through it's speakers despite being connected and controlled by the car (this shows up on Sony forums for several years now). Because it is not a common phone, screen protectors and cases are very limited. Overall, I'm very happy with the phone. It's a big step up from the prior compact Samsungs I've used.

So far has fully met my expectations. Only android phone with SD capability, compact size, decent phone voice quality at a reasonable price. Too bad the new Sony xz1 is so high priced, othwise I would have waited for its release. Phone manufacturers need to STOP making phones the size of small computers! Phone are supposed to be PORTABLE and AFFORDABLE! My computer stays at home, my phone goes in my pocket.