Sony Xperia Z5 & Z5 Compact hands-on, first impressions

In addition to the Z5 Premium, we also got the chance to take a look at Sony‘s Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact and here’s our hands-on experience with them.

Among the three that were launched, the Premium has the biggest display at 5.5 inches. The Z5 is next while the Z5 Compact follows at 5.2- and 4.7-inch screens, respectively. It’s important to note that the higher end Premium and Z5 each boast 4K and Full HD resolution, respectively, while the Compact went for a modest 720p HD display.

On-screen buttons were implemented here and they simply go well with the Android 5.1 Lollipop OS installed.

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact

The Compact’s body is just right for one-handed usage so for those who find 5-inch displays a tad too big for their hands, you can go for the smallest of the three siblings.  With the Z5 weighing in at 154 grams and the Z5 Compact at 138 grams, they’re not that heavy to hold, yet are not too light either. Having a bit of heft is a good thing since it doesn’t make the handsets feel like a toy.

Left: Z5 | Right: Z5 Compact

While the Z5 Premium uses quality metal as its frame, the Z5 Compact differs and instead, implemented plastic for the sides. This is understandable as to make the base model Z5 physically more robust with its metal frame, and the Premium to stand out from the series.

This, for the Compact, makes it a little less painful when you accidentally drop it only to see scratches and nicks on its premium, all-metal frame.

Left: Z5 | Right: Z5 Compact

Both devices received IP68 certification just like the Z5 Premium that make them waterproof up to 1.5 meters for about 20-30 minutes, in addition to being dustproof. Seen on the left is the revamped power button at the right side since it now doubles as a fingerprint scanner. This is present for both the Z5 and Z5 Compact.

On the other hand, the flap for memory expansion hides the microSD support that can stretch your storage up to 200GB.

Xperia Z5

From the 32GB internal storage that all three flagships have, they’re left with around 21GB of usable space since the software alone already takes up nearly 10GB.

Xperia Z5 (Green)

Sporting the same 23-megapixel rear shooter partnered with the company’s next-gen EXMOR RS sensor ensures that you not only get vivid images with natural colors, but also sharp and detailed photos thanks to its 0.3-second auto-focusing capability. Sony mentions that this feature alone lets you snap fast-moving images and capture actions like a pro.

From the short time that we’ve spent with these smartphones, we’ve seen how the company has improved them in both the external and internal aspects. The Z5 family is a series of sharp-looking handsets that doesn’t end there since inside, it’s been equipped with beefy components such as a Snapdragon 810 processor, a very powerful rear shooter, LTE connectivity, fingerprint sensor, among others.

Of course, all these don’t come cheap since the Xperia Z5 has an SRP of Php35,990USD 613INR 51,991EUR 584CNY 4,466 while the Compact is at Php29,990USD 511INR 43,324EUR 487CNY 3,722. Will they be worth the buy? As of now we could only say that they’re a bunch of really promising devices — unless a full review proves otherwise. Stay tuned.

Sony Xperia Z5 specs:
5.2-inch IPS LCD @ 1080×1920 pixels, 403ppi
Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810
ARM Cortex A53 1.5GHz quad-core, ARM Cortex A57 2.0GHz quad-core
Adreno 430 Graphics
3GB LPDDR4 RAM
32GB internal storage
Up to 200GB via microSD
LTE Cat. 6
Single SIM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, DLNA
NFC
Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, apt-X
ANT+ support
GPS with aGPS, GLONASS/Beidou
IP68 certified
23MP rear camera, autofocus, LED flash
5.1MP front-facing camera
Fingerprint Sensor
FM Radio Tuner, RDS
microUSB v2.0 (MHL 3 TV-out)
2,900mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
146 x 72 x 7.3mm (dimensions)
154 grams (weight)

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact specs:
4.6-inch IPS LCD @ 720×1280 pixels, 323ppi
Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810
ARM Cortex A53 1.5GHz quad-core, ARM Cortex A57 2.0GHz quad-core
Adreno 430 Graphics
2GB LPDDR4 RAM
32GB internal storage
Up to 200GB via microSD
LTE Cat. 6
Single SIM, Dual-SIM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, DLNA
NFC
Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, apt-X
ANT+ support
GPS with aGPS, GLONASS/Beidou
IP68 certified
23MP rear camera, autofocus, LED flash
5.1MP front-facing camera
Fingerprint Sensor
FM Radio Tuner, RDS
microUSB v2.0 (MHL 3 TV-out)
2,700mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
127 x 65 x 8.9mm (dimensions)
138 grams (weight)