Gadgetory

it's an odd-numbered experia so you better believe Sony's got a compact version i'm michael fisher with pocket now at Aoife 2015 with a quick look at a phone built for one-handed use the Sony Xperia z5 compact Sony calls this phone your perfect sidekick and based on size alone it's easy to understand why the compact line is built specifically to cater to appreciators of the petite most hands will be able to reach every corner of the 4.6 inch display the spec sheet includes everything from IP 65 68 water and dust proofing to the newly redesigned 23 megapixel camera there are a few more sacrifices here than in previous generation compact so though while a snapdragon 810 processor powers the phone the same is on the bigger at Z 5 the compact step sit down on the RAM side with 2 gigs instead of 3 and the battery takes a slight hit as well stepping down to 2700 milliamp hours from 2900 the display is also lower res at 720p versus 1080p but given the half-inch size reduction that's not really a problem it's not really the spec reductions that bug me about the z5 compact these are still excellent figures for such a small smartphone but Sony has also changed up the industrial design here and not all the changes are improvements over its predecessor the z3 compact shown here in green the new frosted finish backside is in some ways a step up from the glossy panels of your but the sides are now almost completely unadorned that means there's nothing to distract from how thick this phone is which is a shame because this thing's got some girth while the addition of a fingerprint sensor is welcome the newly repositioned volume key is now way too low for comfort and the two-stage camera button is mushy er than previous generations granted this is pre-release hardware but Sony's Aoife samples tend to get pretty close to retail quality if you don't care about any of that and just want a small phone with a big feature set the z5 compact is still worth your attention certainly it's so nice skin sitting atop android 5.1 has finally gotten something of a refresh to keep it current and hardware now comes in four colors the side hatches and styling have been refined and the whole phone certainly feels more contemporary based on prior Sony performance it's likely the z5 compact will sit near the top of the heap in mid-sized smartphones when we review it this fall I'm just not sure all of Sony's aesthetic changes qualify as improvements there were two other smartphones shown at the Sony booth this Aoife one of them a premium one go check them out in our other hands-on coverage here on YouTube and follow the up-to-the-minute news at pocketnow.com till next time has been Michael Fisher and Hayato huesemann from Aoife 2015 in Berlin stick around for more and thanks for watching