Sony Xperia X review: Remaking the Xperia

X marks the spot

The Sony Xperia smartphones have come a long way. After the Xperia Z series experienced multiple iterations (from the first phone in 2013 to the Z5 trio). Sony finally decided that the old flagship smartphone line-up was due for an overhaul. The phone’s design, focus, and branding underwent a slight shift, with its renewed emphasis on practicality. While the changes seemed nuanced, it warranted a new name to communicate the differences. Hence, the Xperia Z was put to bed, and the Xperia X was born.

While Sony treats the S$848 Xperia X as their new flagship mobile device in Singapore, it’s important to note that the phone comes with a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor. Right off the bat, we understood that Sony isn’t interested in topping benchmark scores, with the premium Xperia X Performance better suited for that task. Sadly, Sony did say that the X Performance will not be making its way to Singapore.

Instead, Sony wants us to pay attention to the phone’s 23-megapixel rear camera as it boasts a brand new Predictive Hybrid Autofocus feature. It also touted a "two-day battery life" and extended battery longevity, thanks to Sony’s smart battery management, and the inclusion of Qnovo Adaptive Charging respectively.

Will the design, camera, and battery life of the Xperia X be enough to compete with the current panel of flagship smartphones that are also priced close to the Xperia X? Let’s find out.

Design & Handling
 

Instead of the stylish, monolithic design language that permeated the Xperia Z5 and its predecessors, the Xperia X opted for a muted, functional appearance. Gone are the reflective surfaces or glass finishing on its rear, as it’s replaced with a brushed metallic look. The most notable physical change are the beveled glass edges on the 5.0-inch display, and its seamless metal rear that wraps around the sides. This made the Xperia X comfortable to grip, without the angular edges its predecessors had. This might all sound too trivial of a change, but it's a noticeable change that you can feel while handling the device; subtle but effective.

The Xperia X also borrows functional design cues from the Xperia Z series. Fans of Sony’s flagship phones will find some of its side controls familiar, such as its dedicated physical camera button just below its volume rocker, and an oblong-shaped lock button on the same side. The lock button doubles as a fingerprint sensor. The opposite side of the Xperia X has the hybrid nano-SIM card tray. If you aren’t using two SIM cards, the second slot can hold a microSD card instead (up to 200GB in capacity). The Xperia X uses a micro-USB 2.0 port for charging and file transfers.

As a whole, the Xperia X is nice to use, easy on the hands, with a premium finish that’s decent on the eyes. It doesn’t dazzle like its predecessors used to, but the new design language did lean towards functionality. However, what we'll sorely miss is the water and dust resistance IP rating that the Xperia Z series has always prominently featured. As such, take note that the uncovered micro-USB port, headphone jack and other crevices are susceptible to the elements of nature.

Display & Audio

Sony Xperia X has a 5.0-inch, Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution) IPS LCD screen that uses Sony’s proprietary display technology – Triluminos Display for Mobile. Image sharpness is of good quality on the Xperia X – then again, Sony usually makes nice displays. What stood out was the warm color temperature. From our test image, the red tint was most visible on the black patches of the hot air balloon. Combined with the color vibrancy, the Xperia X’s display reminds us of the earlier Samsung Super AMOLED based phone screens.

For its audio, Sony has its proprietary ClearAudio+ enhancement technology, and DSEE HX, an upscaling algorithm for compressed music files that gives it "near Hi-Res audio quality" (or so they claimed). Sony’s audio quality has always been good, and the Xperia X continues that tradition. Audio playback is crisp, yet well-bodied in the mid-range frequencies with a flair for handling accompanying instruments in the tracks we tested using headphones. Speakers are as usual just serviceable.

UI & Features

The Sony Xperia X packs Android OS 6.0 (Marshmallow). It’s one of the first Xperia smartphones to come with Android Marshmallow out of the box. There are a few stealthy features we’d like to highlight, on top of Sony’s great job at keeping the interface clean while being unique, and staying lean when it comes to pre-installed apps. Not only can you remove Sony apps from the device, they are easy to differentiate from Android apps you get from Google Play. Proprietary apps tend to take on a round icon (although not entirely true for every app) instead of the standard square tiles you’d normally see. You can also switch the interface up with free or paid themes.

Tap To Wake

The Xperia X has the ability to wake its screen for notification-checking from a locked state. It’s not new to their user experience – we’ve seen it on the Z3 Tablet Compact before. Tap To Wake can also be found on LG, HTC, and even Nokia devices. We brought this feature up because Sony has it disabled by default. It can be found in the Settings app, under the Display options.

Smart Lock

This is an Android 6.0 OS feature we liked, and it works blazingly fast on the Sony Xperia X. Despite its name, this Smart Lock feature is more of a convenience than a security measure. Smart Lock simply lets you slide unlock your phone without a PIN, under certain conditions. You can select the conditions and enable them as you see fit. The phone can induce Smart Lock when you are near a trusted device, located at a trusted place, when it’s on your body, or when it recognizes your face or voice.

It’s up to the user to maximize its effectiveness without compromising the phone’s security. For example, you could set up Smart Lock to work with your face, so you can unlock your phone without having to unlock it with your PIN or pattern, but others cannot unlock your phone, unless they know your PIN or pattern code. You can enable multiple Smart Lock features at once, but that would make the phone less protected – for example, setting your home as a trusted location might give a child unrestrained access to your phone’s content, which may have its consequences.

STAMINA Mode for battery

Battery-saving settings are not new, but you definitely cannot forget about Sony’s proprietary STAMINA mode for extending battery run-time. STAMINA mode disables some features, such as GPS and vibration, while reducing the quality of image enhancement and rendering performance across the board. Apps like email will require manual syncing for updates. In return, your phone gets a longer run-time.

Ultra STAMINA mode takes it a little further by disabling Wi-Fi and mobile data (we wonder what the phone would be good for at this point). The phone will also only allow a handful of apps in this mode, such as Phone, Contacts, Messaging, Camera, Calendar, etc. Needless to say, Ultra STAMINA mode would probably be a choice when you want to save some battery, in the event where you really have to.

Note that Sony’s STAMINA mode does not override Android’s own battery management settings. If you have specific requirements set up in STAMINA mode, head over to Apps > Configure Apps > Battery Optimization and give it a glance, ensuring your stock Android battery management settings also agree with your preferences.

As a whole, the Sony features (coupled with its Android counterparts) are definitely practical and functional, and we like the interface for its look and feel.

Benchmark Performance

Inside the Xperia X is the 64-bit, hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor. On the Snapdragon 650, we have two ARM Cortex-A72 and four ARM Cortex-A53 CPUs, with a Qualcomm Adreno 510 GPU. We expect it to be one of the lower-performing phones on our benchmarks. Sony considers its Xperia X as a flagship (and so does its price) despite its mid-range SoC, when other flagship phones of this year are touting the Snapdragon 820 or similar class SoC. Fortunately, the Xperia X has 3GB RAM within so it should easily handle multiple apps and processes in the background.

Besides the flagship competitors, we’ve decided to include the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, because it also uses a Snapdragon 650 processor, too.

Sunspider

SunSpider JavaScript measures the browsing performance of a device when processing JavaScript. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience. The Sony Xperia X sits comfortably in this benchmark.

Quadrant

Quadrant benchmarks a device’s CPU, I/O, and GPU performance. It’s no surprise that the Xperia X would pale in comparison to the LG or Samsung flagships listed here, but it was a little disappointing to learn that the new Sony smartphone can’t outperform the Z5.

3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited

3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited test uses a mix of graphics and physics tests to measure hardware performance. The first test measures the GPU’s ability to process lots of vertices, while the second does the same thing with lots of pixels and post-processing effects. Finally, the physics test switches the load to the CPU to test its ability to process physics simulations, while keeping GPU load low. We expected these results, going by how the Xperia X fared in earlier tests.

Real world usage of the Xperia X was buttery smooth, but Sony had their interface set to take on a slower, smoother glide-like transition between apps and menus, which can be irritating when you’re in a hurry. As pretty as the phone is with a velvety interface, we’d prefer swifter flicks, and less animation time. Actual load times for apps and internet surfing were blazingly fast. Even without a flagship processor, the phone does run like it had one.

Camera Performance

The smartphone uses a 23-megapixel rear camera with its 1/ 2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor. Features for the rear camera include SteadyShot – its iconic video stabilization technology. What’s new is the Predictive Hybrid Autofocus feature. Sony said that Predictive Hybrid Autofocus uses object tracking and its motion prediction engine to capture moving subjects with better focus. To us, this means that the Sony rear camera predicts where the subject will end up in the shot, and that subject will be focused on when the shutter snaps.

We’re happy to report that the rear camera on the Xperia X had better performance than its predecessors. Not only is the Xperia X one of the sharpest shooters we’ve seen this year, it’s also very detailed (thanks to the high resolution sensor), even when it’s compared next to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It has a color temperature that leans towards cooler hues, but the colors on the Xperia X’s images are certainly more vibrant than the Xperia Z5, and the LG G5.

However, the new autofocus feature has its off-days as it sometimes misses the moving subjects that we've encountered. Images at different resolutions are not consistent. There’s a tendency for the Xperia X to overcompensate at its maximum resolution photos, and they end up losing a little detail. For your reference, we’ve included both the default 8-megapixel image captured on Auto, and the 23-megapixel version below.

Battery Life

Our standard battery test for mobile phones includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

Sony Xperia X has a battery capacity of 2,620mAh. That’s lower than the LG G5’s 2,800mAh battery capacity, yet the Xperia X managed to pull 450 minutes of continuous playback within the same parameters. It’s not an awfully long duration, but it’s nice to see the Xperia X having decent portability. Unfortunately, the Xperia Z5 is better at power efficiency, on top of being on par with (or beating) the Xperia X at the benchmark scores section.

Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology allows the Xperia X's battery to extend its longevity. By moderating the amount of charge going into the cells, it prevents the battery from over-charging (which can potentially make the battery life shorter). The algorithm by Qnovo takes it a step further by slowing down the charge as it approaches 100% capacity, which makes the cell last twice the length of its expected lifespan. We can't however quantify the effect of this technology at this point of time as you'll need to use the phone for several months before one can compare the charging rate and battery life against a new phone and that against other products that are used for a similar period of time.

Conclusion

On its own, the Sony Xperia X is a smartphone that's comfortable on the hand, has a nice finish, easy to use, and it’s sweetened with flagship-tier mobile camera quality, even if it’s a slightly iffy at times. While Sony has every right to see their Xperia X as the new flagship offering (in the Singapore context) without competing in benchmark scores, the battery efficiency and raw numbers are still lower than its predecessor, the Xperia Z5. While we generally don’t question the direction of a smartphone rebranding exercise, it’s still fair to say that the Xperia X is not necessarily an upgrade from the Xperia Z5.

At a price of S$848, it’s not difficult to see that the Sony Xperia X is also priced too high for what it offers. There’s nothing wrong in making flagships phones with lower hardware specs, but the Xperia X is just S$100 shy from phones that come with top tier processors like the Snapdragon 820 on the LG G5. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 - which also uses a Snapdragon 650 processor – is going for just S$299. The Xperia Z5 – which has a flagship processor from its time – had a launch price of S$998 (the Z5 Compact with the same Snapdragon 810 processor had an even lower price of S$828). It’s clear that the Xperia X is in an awkward price bracket, despite being satisfying to use.

At any rate, the Xperia X did honor their promises – which included having a new design, a reminder of their commitment to mobile cameras, and a decent battery life for its size. It’s just up against tougher competition, and in a strange twist, it competes against its own Z5 line-up that Sony still sells.

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