4.6-inch IPS panel with ultra-slim bezels

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact has an IPS LCD just like its predecessor. That's where the similarities end, however, as Sony has not only bumped up the screen diagonal to 4.6 inches, but also squeezed it into the same footprint as the Z1 Compact. What's more, they've improved on it by making the colors more vibrant and brighter, while greatly reducing the contrast degradation when looked at from the sides.

The secret behind these improvements lies in the Live Color LEDs that Sony has incorporated into the TRILUMINOS display technology found in previous Xperia mobiles. Live Color LED combines red and green phosphor with blue LEDs to produce brighter and more uniform light without oversaturating the image.



The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact screen

Here's how the display looks under our digital microscope:

The Sony Xperia S3 Compact posted great scores in our display test. It provided some great contrast for its size.

Display test 50% brightness 100% brightness Black, cd/m2 White, cd/m2 Contrast ratio Black, cd/m2 White, cd/m2 Contrast ratio Sony Xperia Z3 Compact - - - 0.77 725 942 Sony Xperia Z1 Compact - - - 0.34 626 1819 Samsung Galaxy S5 0 274 ∞ 0 529 ∞ LG G2 mini 0.12 91 752 0.52 398 748 Sony Xperia Z2 - - - 0.41 488 1195 HTC One mini 2 0.19 220 1141 0.42 501 1196 LG G3 0.14 109 763 0.72 570 789 Oppo Find 7 0.22 248 1135 0.4 448 1123 Samsung Galaxy Alpha 0 228 ∞ 0 456 ∞ Samsung Galaxy S5 mini 0 226 ∞ 0 432 ∞ OnePlus One 0.39 317 805 0.75 598 799

The screen proved to be not very reflective and resulted in some decent outdoor visibility, beating out its predecessor by almost a full number.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Nokia 808 PureView

4.698

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

3.997

Apple iPhone 5

3.997

Samsung Galaxy K zoom

3.675

Nokia Lumia 930

3.567

Apple iPhone 5s

3.565

Samsung Galaxy S5

3.549

Alcatel Idol X+

3.527

Apple iPhone 5c

3.512

Samsung Galaxy Alpha

3.509

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo

3.487

Motorola RAZR MAXX

3.42

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III

3.419

Nokia Lumia 925

3.402

Gionee Elife S5.5

3.386

Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4

3.352

Samsung Omnia W

3.301

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini

3.174

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S

3.155

Samsung Ativ S

3.129

Samsung I9190 Galaxy S4 mini

3.127

Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom

3.118

Nokia N9

3.069

Samsung Galaxy Note

2.97

Samsung Galaxy Premier

2.958

Sony Xperia Z1

2.95

HTC One S

2.901

Samsung I8730 Galaxy Express

2.861

BlackBerry Q10

2.856

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II

2.832

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus

2.801

BlackBerry Z30

2.79

Sony Xperia ZR

2.672

Huawei Ascend P1

2.655

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

2.616

Sony Xperia T3

2.609

Nokia Lumia 900

2.562

Motorola Moto G 4G

2.546

HTC One Max

2.537

Nokia Lumia 720

2.512

HTC One

2.504

Motorola Moto G

2.477

Sony Xperia Z

2.462

Xiaomi Mi 4

2.424

Samsung Galaxy S III mini

2.422

LG G Flex

2.407

HTC One (M8)

2.371

Motorola RAZR i

2.366

Sony Xperia ZL

2.352

Samsung Galaxy Note II

2.307

Oppo Find 7a

2.279

Alcatel One Touch Hero

2.272

Apple iPhone 4S

2.269

HTC Desire 600 dual sim

2.262

Nokia Asha 311

2.25

LG Nexus 5

2.228

Nokia Lumia 820

2.193

HTC One (E8)

2.185

Nokia Lumia 920

2.17

HTC One X

2.158

Nokia N8

2.144

Nokia Lumia 620

2.142

Nokia 515

2.134

HTC Desire 500

2.129

Sony Xperia acro S

2.119

Nokia Lumia 1020

2.103

Oppo Find 5

2.088

Sony Xperia SL

2.078

Nokia Lumia 630

2.056

BlackBerry Z10

2.051

Samsung I9295 Galaxy S4 Active

2.022

Apple iPhone 4

2.016

HTC One mini

2.003

Xiaomi Mi 3

2.001

Huawei Ascend P7

1.992

LG G2

1.976

OnePlus One

1.961

Oppo R819

1.957

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray

1.955

Sony Xperia Z2

1.944

Nokia Lumia 1320

1.941

HTC One mini 2

1.94

Samsung Galaxy Camera

1.938

Sony Xperia J

1.932

Acer CloudMobile S500

1.931

LG Nexus 4

1.926

LG G Pro 2

1.922

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3

1.913

Nokia Asha 308

1.911

Sony Xperia T

1.894

HTC Desire X

1.878

HTC Butterfly

1.873

HTC Windows Phone 8X

1.873

HTC Butterfly S

1.867

Huawei Ascend P6

1.865

Huawei Ascend Mate

1.845

LG G2 mini

1.838

LG G3

1.82

Nokia Lumia 1520

1.813

HTC Desire 616 dual sim

1.797

Sony Xperia V

1.792

HTC Desire 816

1.783

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

1.772

HTC Desire 700 dual sim

1.769

Sony Xperia U

1.758

Meizu MX3

1.754

LG Optimus G

1.753

Sony Xperia T2 Ultra

1.74

Sony Xperia SP

1.733

LG Optimus 4X HD

1.691

Oppo Find 7

1.691

HTC One V

1.685

BlackBerry Q5

1.682

LG Optimus Vu

1.68

Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9

1.672

LG Optimus GJ

1.666

LG Optimus 3D Max

1.658

HTC Desire V

1.646

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2

1.632

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3

1.622

Jolla Jolla

1.605

Sony Xperia Z Ultra

1.578

Sony Xperia go

1.577

Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 I8160

1.566

Samsung Galaxy Core

1.563

LG Optimus G Pro

1.552

Motorola Moto E

1.545

LG Optimus 3D

1.542

Nokia Asha 302

1.537

BlackBerry Curve 9320

1.488

Sony Xperia M

1.473

Oppo N1

1.47

Meizu MX 4-core

1.462

Nokia Lumia 610

1.432

Samsung Galaxy S Duos

1.4

Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo

1.393

Sony Xperia M2

1.393

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

1.38

Sony Xperia E1

1.372

Nokia Lumia 625

1.371

Gigabyte GSmart G1355

1.361

Sony Xperia L

1.351

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8

1.35

Sony Xperia M2 Aqua

1.331

Sony Xperia miro

1.324

Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand

1.321

Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam

1.315

HTC Desire C

1.3

Nokia X

1.291

Sony Xperia C

1.283

Nokia Asha 503

1.281

Nokia Asha 501

1.27

LG Optimus L7

1.269

Nokia Lumia 510

1.268

Samsung Galaxy Fame

1.245

LG Optimus L9

1.227

Meizu MX

1.221

Samsung Galaxy Young

1.22

Sony Xperia E

1.215

Nokia XL

1.204

Sony Xperia E dual

1.203

Samsung Galaxy Pocket

1.18

Nokia Asha 305

1.178

Nokia Asha 306

1.175

Sony Xperia neo L

1.169

Sony Xperia tipo

1.166

Nokia Lumia 520

1.161

Samsung S6802 Galaxy Ace Duos

1.148

Samsung Galaxy mini 2

1.114

Battery life

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact saw a healthy increase in battery capacity to 2,600mAh, up from 2,300mAh on the Xperia Z1 Compact. It also comes with the latest Android 4.4.4 KitKat update, which means that you'll get all of the latest performance optimizations baked right in as well.

We were sure that the extra 300mAh would outshine the 65h endurance rating posted by the Z1 Compact, but we had no idea that it would almost double it! The excellent figures posted in web browsing and video playback mean that the Compact has a very power-conscious screen, while the 16 hours of call time aren't bad either. Excellent standby times also contributed to an overall endurance rating of over 100 hours.

This means that the Xperia Z3 Compact will last you for over four days on a single charge if you do an hour each of web browsing, calling, and video watching per day. Truly impressive!

We didn't even go into Stamina mode. It helps extend your battery life by toggling things like Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth screen brightness, auto sync and background data on and off automatically when the battery charge falls below a certain user-defined threshold. You can also turn off the Wi-Fi receiver if there is no saved Wi-Fi network in range or turn off mobile data when the screen is off, among other things.

You can find out how the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact stacks up against the competition in more detail in our blog post. Details on our testing procedures is available here.

Connectivity

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact comes in a single SIM version only, which has quad-band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 support. 3G and LTE support depend on the region, with either quad- or penta-band 3G alongside a boatload of LTE networks including LTE TDD 2300.

The rest of the connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.0 with apt-X, GPS and GLONASS, plus an FM radio with RDS. There is also NFC connectivity with support for Android Beam for sending files to other Android devices.

The ultra-low power ANT+ connectivity protocol handles connections to various sports accessories such as heart rate monitors or bicycle speed & cadence meters.

There is a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data connections. Media transfer mode is supported for accessing the phone's built-in memory and microSD card over USB.

The microUSB 2.0 port can also be used in USB On-the-go mode for connecting USB peripherals such as pen drives, keyboards or real USB hard drives. There is also MHL support for connecting the Z3 Compact with TV-out, and if you own a compatible HDTV, you can output your phone's screen wirelessly via the Miracast protocol.