Today we bring you a comparison of the latest flagship families from Sony, one from last year and another having just been released in some parts of the world.
Sony Xperia X and Sony Xperia Z5 are the two phones in question here. The former was recently released in India and a number of Asian countries, but we are waiting on the day the phone arrives here in the U.S. On the other hand, the latter is now headed into its first anniversary following its September 2015 release.
Apparently, Sony will not be coming in with a Xperia Z6 to succeed the Z5. The newly launched Xperia X series will be taking the place of the Z series, meaning the natural successor to the Xperia Z5 is the Xperia X. So, how do these two phones compare in terms display quality, performance, features and battery life, among other aspects?
Design and display
From a distance, you will quickly tell that these two devices are made by the same company – Sony. You will notice a rectangular design on both units, however, the newer Xperia X is slightly smaller in size than the Xperia Z5. The new phone also boasts of curvier edges that make it a lot easier to hold in one hand. On the rear of the Xperia X is a metallic casing, which is a shift from the use of glass on the rear of the Xperia Z5. This promises a more robust experience than last year’s offering.
The good side of the Xperia Z5’s design is that it comes with water resistance, something the new model lacks. As for the security conscious persons, you will be left with a difficult choice to make since both handsets come with fingerprint scanners.
As pointed out earlier, the Xperia X is slightly smaller than the Xperia Z5. This gives it an even smaller 5-inch display panel as compared to the 5.2-inches available on the Z5. However, the two have the same 1080p resolution, but the smaller model has a pixel density of 441ppi as compared to the 428ppi you get on the larger variant.
Performance specs and battery life
There are some real differences when it comes to the core performance features of these two phones. While the Xperia Z5 packs a flagship Snapdragon 810 SoC, you find a mid-range Snapdragon 650 SoC in the Xperia X. However, both handsets have the same RAM of 3GB. Furthermore, you get storage options of 32GB on either phone, but the Xperia X adds an extra 64GB variant. In addition, you can expand the available storage with a microSD card of up to 200GB.
The Snapdragon 810 was dropped by Samsung in its 2015 flagship lineup thanks to the overheating issues that were discovered to affect the chipset. These are some of the problems you may encounter when using the Z5 for heavy tasks, for instance, when shooting 4K videos.
Even though the Xperia Z5 comes with Android Lollipop out of the box, an update to Android Marshmallow is already available for download. This will put it at par with Xperia X, which is powered by the latest Marshmallow OS out of the box. As for the battery life, the Xperia X gets a smaller capacity than its counterpart, which is a 2620mAh compared to 2900mAh on the Z5.
Cameras
Sony is a pro when it comes to photography. This prowess has been slowly making its way from digital cameras to smartphone cameras, with the company responsible for supplying numerous smartphone OEMs with camera sensors. The story is the same as far as Xperia Z5 and Xperia X are concerned.
Both handsets are packed with the same cameras on the rear – 23MP sensors with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash and PDAF. However, there are some changes on the selfie camera, with the newer Xperia X coming in with a 13MP sensor with the same f/2.0 aperture. On the contrary, you get 5.1MP selfie camera with a f/2.4 aperture on the Xperia Z5. On paper, the newer model should deliver much better snaps than the Z5. One thing the Xperia Z5 has that the Xperia X lacks is the ability to record 4K videos.
Surely looks lime a downgrade.What are’u thinking Sony?