by Bilal Iqbal
There was a time when the 3.5 inch screen on the original iPhone could correctly be described as huge. Touchscreen phones were just coming in vogue, and circa 3-inches was common for the first of such devices. Consider the Samsung Armani that launched with a now ridiculous-sounding 2.6 inch screen in 2007 or LG Prada that came with a 3-inch screen. One of the first Samsung phones running Android, the I7500 Galaxy flagship, came with a 3.2 inch screen.
Now, an entry-level Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy Pocket 2, features a 3.3 inch screen. The smallest iPhone comes with 4 inches of screen, and that’s already a generation old — the latest iPhones start with a 4.7 inch screen and are not afraid to embrace the phablet form factor in the form of the 5.5-inch-screen-touting iPhone 6 Plus.
The Galaxy Pocket 2 and its competitors from other manufactures are decidedly cheap devices, specced down to a price. When price is of no concern, and even when they are making phones for smaller hands, manufacturers do not tend to go lower than 4.3 to 4.7 inches. With even the iPhone 6 embracing this size, the chance of getting specced-out phones in much smaller bodies may already be a lost cause.
Clearly, the trend reflects market demands. True, there may be a minority of people who either have tiny hands or prefer holding a smaller phone, but most people like big screens. The bigger screens make up for their size by making life much easier on the web, in games and just about any task on the phone that you can think of.
But there are some people who just can’t or won’t live with big-screen phones. They do not have as many choices in the market as their big-screen counterparts. For this comparison, we are only considering phones that feature the bleeding edge of technology in small form: the Galaxy S5 Mini and HTC One Mini 2 feature low-end specs that just don’t cut it. LG itself does not have a smaller version of its excellent G3.
The only smartphones that fit this criterion from known manufacturers are: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, Apple iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.
First off, the Apple iPhone 6 is the biggest of the four devices and also the most expensive (starting at QR2,800). If you are dead set on getting the latest iOS device, then the iPhone 6 is your only option. Apple could have easily given you a much smaller device with the same screen size if it had wanted, but it chose to make the phone thinner instead of reducing the height or width of the device.
The Galaxy Alpha features a screen as big as the iPhone 6, but beats it on size: it has less height, less width and less thickness. It does compromise on battery life (it features virtually as big a battery as the iPhone 6, but consumes more power), getting 52 hours in the GSMArena battery test, vs 61 hours for the iPhone 6. Honestly speaking, we are used to seeing much better scores nowadays, and both devices disappoint on this count. If you are a light to moderate user, you should be able to get through a day easily with both devices, but you may find yourself reaching out for the power outlet before the day is up if you tend to do a lot on your phone. The better battery life on the iPhone 6 may last you an extra couple of hours, depending on your usage pattern, which may mean the difference between driving back home after work with a dead phone and a working phone. Apple iOS is also universally known for its easier accessibility for new users. What the Alpha has going for it is a higher resolution camera, Android flexibility, removable battery, lighter and smaller body.
Enter the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. While Sony may be struggling to differentiate itself enough to win customers in the big-screen segment, it has the formula nailed down perfectly in the compact segment. The Z3 Compact features the exact same internals as its bigger brother, the Xperia Z3, in a body that is genuinely compact.
The only thing that is different is the screen resolution — the Z3 Compact features a 4.6 inch 720p screen (same as the Galaxy Alpha and almost the same as the iPhone 6, 750p), while the Z3 features a FHD (1080p) screen — and less RAM (2gb vs 3gb). Apart from that you get the same class-leading (in terms of resolution) 20.7mp camera, Snapdragon 801 quadcore chipset running at 2.5ghz and Adreno 330 GPU.
The battery size gets smaller, yes, but the battery life is better than the already-excellent score that the Z3 posts. The Z3 Compact scores a 101 hours on the GSMArena test, which is almost twice as good as the Galaxy Alpha and the iPhone 6. You should roughly be able to get two days of heavy use out of a Z3 Compact on full charge. The phone may not be the thinnest of the three at 8.6mm, but is smaller when it comes to width and height (127.3 x 64.9 x 8.6 mm). Sony achieves this by putting a marginally smaller screen in its phone and by not having a physical home key like Apple and Samsung. This is also truer to the phone’s Android roots. It retails for around QR2,200, the same as Galaxy Alpha.
Lastly comes the Z1 Compact, which features almost the same components as Z3 Compact but can be found for much lower price in the market. It has a smaller screen of 4.3 inches in a body that is sized virtually the same as Z3 Compact and its battery scores 65 hours on GSMArena battery test. In hand, the Z3 Compact feels much more premium than Z1 Compact, owing to the minimal bezels. So unless you are hampered by limited budget, the Z3 Compact is the better option of the two.
Most reviewers tend to copout at this point by saying: to each his own. But we believe the Sony Z3 Compact is truly a remarkable device for what it is and the price it is going for. On numbers alone, the Z3 Compact has us won over.
l The author can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @tknobeat
