Many years ago, Sony's smartphone team sat down to design the Xperia Z portfolio and came up with the Xperia ZR. The principle was simple, take all the power and flexibility in the Xperia Z, and put it in as small a handset as they could with as few compromises as possible. The following year solidified the vision with the Xperia Z1 Compact. For me this was a fresh look at mobile design that upended the standard 'better phones must be bigger'.
The Xperia Z5 Compact carries on that design ethos, but with the disruption in Sony's mobile division over the last year, the potency of the Z5 range has been diluted as the competition catches up. What were once unique features are now simply the 'best in class'. But the Z5 Compact is still a wonderful Android device, as I found out last week in my review.
For a long time Apple's approach was to build the best phone possible, and let it move down the portfolio over two years as economies of scale reduced the build cost and made it more affordable (although still keeping the price high enough to build in scarcity and desire). The recently released iPhone SE is a change to this approach. Rather than have the iPhone 5S roll out of the bottom of the portfolio this September, the smaller design has been updated to accommodate the same internals and functionality as the iPhone 6S.
In essence, Apple has followed Sony's approach of taking the internals of the flagship device and forcing them into a much smaller case. That creates a 'new' device for retailers to sell, offers a solid upgrade path to iPhone 5 and 5S owners, but it does dilute the mystique of the iPhone brand.
What happens when the two handsets are compared? Is there a clear winner? Let's find out.
If your only consideration is size then the iPhone SE is the natural choice. Every dimension is smaller, it's lighter, and you can reach every single control with your thumb in a single-handed grip. Yet the design is now approaching four years old with a clear lineage all the way back to the first iPhone. The SE doesn't generate any excitement, it's exactly what you've seen before. The SE just feels... tired.
Sony is in a similar situation with the Xperia range, but there has been some work on the Z5 Compact design. While it retains the Omnibalance design cues, side by side with the Z3 Compact (Sony's previous 'small' flagship) I can see subtle elements have been redesigned - the smart connector has been dropped, the microSD and SIM card slots are now consolidated under a single cover, and the edges have been squared off a little bit more to reduce the effective size and provide a better tactile experience to grip the handset one-handed.
And Sony retains the IP68 waterproofing and dustproofing on the Z5 Compact. Given there is little resistance to water on the SE, this is a huge win for Sony on top of the design work for the new handset.
If you build a small phone, the screen quality becomes key, and this is where the SE really suffers. Sporting a screen that was introduced with the iPhone 5, it is small, cramped and is the biggest compromise of the whole device. Apple's stubborn decision to stick with the 5S chassis design means that there is a lot of wasted space around the bezels - especially at the top and bottom of the handset - and the four-inch screen offers a tiny resolution of just 640 pixels width.
I can understand why Apple has chosen to stay with this screen, the economies of scale must be impressive and the cost will have dropped significantly over the years, but it is a visible achillies heel. It's also missing 3D Touch, which Tim Cook decided was the next best thing six months ago.
There's no comparison to the Xperia screen, Sony gets a clear win here. By going to 4.7 inches, the size of the Z5 Compact is pushed up, but smart engineering means that more real estate on the front of the device is screen thanks to the smaller bezels (helped by the use of on-screen Android buttons rather than a fixed home button). Sony's screen technology is geared towards bright colors and vibrancy, while the SE relies on contrast and a strong backlight.
For me the SE screen does not do enough. It's too small physically, the pixel count is down, it's missing Apple's latest technology, and it just feels washed out. The Z5 Compact has a punch to it that screams flagship.
Next page: Operating systems and performance...
If you're solidly in the Android camp, nothing is going to make you switch to iOS, and vice versa. The relative merits and drawbacks of each platform are well-known and entrenched. I'm going to duck out of this argument and call it a draw.
I will highlight some points of consideration. Sony is moving towards a more vanilla look on Android, and the Z5 Compact feels much closer to a Nexus device than any other Sony smartphone. I also had the Android Lollipop update waiting to be delivered over the air when I opened the box, which was nice as Sony has traditionally been slower than most to offer updates.
The iPhone SE's key advantage is that the move to the A9 system-on-chip means that iOS compatibility should be guaranteed for at least three years of solid performance and frequent updates. The A9 also includes the requisite secure portions of silicon to allow Apple Pay to be implemented.
Both operating systems get the job done, and I know I could get my work done with either platform.
The Z3 Compact / iPhone 6 match-up was an easy performance win for Sony, but that's reversed now. Apple's handset has caught up with the compact line from Sony is with silicon. The SE moves up to 2GB of RAM from the iPhone 5S base, and the A9 chip is top of the line in terms of performance and battery efficiency. Multitasking is far more efficient, more information can be held in memory, and recalling information and apps from storage to start them running is faster and slicker. The iPhone SE just feels better in day-to-day use.
The SnapDragon 810 inside the Xperia Z5 Compact does the job, but switching between apps can sometimes see the smartphone stutter - it's a small but noticeable pause as work is done behind the screen to get everything in place. Qualcomm has worked hard to iron out the design difficulties of the SnapDragon 810, but most flagships have now moved on to the 820. the Z5 compact is six months out of step with the major chip advancements, and it shows.
I'm talking about tiny differences at the edge of the envelope here, but the Z5 Compact has a much more ragged edge of performance. Over the life of these devices the iPhone SE is the device that is going to retain its capability as it is updated.
Next page: Testing the cameras...
Let's get something curious out of the way first. Sony supplies Apple with camera sensors. That doesn't mean that the cameras on the two smartphones are identical, there are far more variables involved in taking an image.
The SE camera matches that of the iPhone 6S, with a f/2.2 aperture, the dual-tone flash, and the same software. Apple hides much of the camera settings in its app and the ethos of the iPhone camera has always been that it is a 'point and shoot' camera that will take good images as quickly as possible with little fuss.
For the target market of the SE that's a good decision. Apple's software ensures that taking a 'good' picture is pretty much guaranteed. What it doesn't do is allow a photographer to tweak the settings to go that extra step towards taking impressive pictures. It's not impossible, but it is much harder if you want to stray from Apple's chosen automatic settings.
Camera sample: Sony Xperia Z5c (r) vs Apple iPhone SE (l) (image: Ewan Spence)
Sony has upped its camera game in recent years. The Z3 Compact was adequate but not stunning, with a tendency to go a bit overboard on the white balance and wash out much of the color in a scene even though it could capture the details.
That choice has to be made in software, and it is still there, but with a bit more subtley and less wash. The Japanese team has reworked all of Sony's camera software as well as upping the pixel count on the sensor. Behind the 23 megapixel rear camera and its faster and wider f/2.0 is a camera with a stronger zoom, faster autofocus, and better color rendition. And you have easy access to the manual settings if you need to compensate or go out of the point and shoot window.
Sony's software is not the most user-friendly for the camera, and the shot-to-shot time needs improvement. For the quickly taken picture both cameras offer similar quality, but the extra flexibility offered by Sony means that the Z5 Compact has far more potential.
Apple iPhone SE camera image with full-scale crop (image: Ewan Spence)
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact camera image with full-scale crop (image: Ewan Spence)
Next page: Conclusions...
Eighteen months ago the match-up of the iPhone 6 and the Z3 Compact was a narrow win for Sony's Android-powered smartphone with practical considerations over-riding the stylistic advantages of the iPhone 6. While the iPhone SE is more utilitarian in styling, and is smaller than the Z5 Compact, Sony's smartphone sits inside a sweet spot that includes physical size, screen real estate, and considerations such as microSD support and IP68 waterproofing.
Sony may not have worked hard to update the specifications and features of the Z5 compact, but it did more than Apple did with the 5S to SE transition. Simply bumping up the chipset is not enough, there needs to be more progress. The SE feels like a marketing exercise while the Z5 Compact still has a vision and vibrancy to it.
It's a late win in the tenth innings, but there is just enough advantage to make this decision clear. Out of the two Sony's Xperia Z5 Compact is the better smartphone.
