Re: WC 150K Post Challenge - You Ready?!
My mini Sony XZ1C (Xperia XZ1 Compact) review is that it's a solid phone that will probably replace my iPhone SE. I know that's a big statement.
Pros:
-The size is everything to me. It's a little bigger than the iPhone SE, but you get more screen. So it's really pocket friendly, which is how you would expect it to be for me. It basically fits in every pocket the SE fits in, and pretty much the same way.
-Great one hand usage is possible with this phone.
-Performance is great, it feels as fast as the Pixel.
-The battery life is great. I find myself not worrying about battery life like I have done with most of my phones.
-Fingerprint sensor is fast (I got the international model, because I'm not on T-Mobile so I'm not missing anything there).
-Display is fine for me, so that's a pro.
-Pictures are FINALLY better on the software processing side, for the most part. The wide angle selfie thing is pretty cool.
-The speakers are great, I haven't had sound that good in a phone for a while now.
-Calls seem to connect quicker than they did with the Pixel. Not sure why that is.
-Sony's skin/UI launcher supports icon packs and there's also a glove mode which I'm looking forward to trying out.
-Speaking of modes, there's this great setting that stops the screen from dimming once it senses it is in your hand. This works out well usually (will get to that).
Cons:
-The mode I just talked about is nice to have. When it doesn't sense that it is fully in your hand, you see the screen debating if it wants to go dim or stay lit. It doesn't bother me but it is noticeable.
-It has a silly thing that if you wish to add apps from the app drawer, you have to drag apps to the top of the home screen.
-AVG Protection and Facebook is still preinstalled, along with Spotify. I use Spotify and I can get why Facebook but the AVG is silly so it's disabled. Same goes with Facebook.
-No ambient display, double tap to wake or always on display. So the speed of the sensor when I just want to check what time it is can be annoying sometimes, ha.
-The low light experience on both cameras can be noisy looking at times, and also yellow. This experience can be adjusted with other camera apps, or just by making it more cool.
Neutral things (not sure what to call this, but things that are not good or bad but important to note):
-The corners don't feel sharp at all to me. I can get why they would but they are good for me.
-Sony still has an Apps icon in the dock to access the app drawer.
-The front camera has a soft skin effect that is on by default, which is interesting. I turned that off though.
This seems like the phone to finally check off all of the boxes for me. The cameras aren't as good as the Pixel but they are better than they were. I feel like this is a solid replacement for the SE for me. Finally. My main things in a phone are really good battery life, minimal/simple UI, solid cameras and small sized with good performance. The Galaxy A3 met that but performance was varied. The SE battery life and front camera fell short to the A3, and now the XZ1C is like a baby of the Pixel (performance, simple UI, great cameras) and Galaxy A3 (battery life, solid cameras, smaller sized) which I really wanted to have.
Ah, still long but not as long as the AC review, which is right
here if you are interested.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram