Tag: Sony

Sony has begun rolling out the Android Nougat update to some of the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z5 lineup.  The Xperia Z5 and Z5 Premium started seeing the update to the 7.0 build yesterday while today, the Xperia Z3+ and Z3+ Dual started having the update roll out to them.  The update will take several weeks to get to everyone but you can always manually check for it by going to Settings>About Phone>Software Update.  In general, you can expect the download of the update to be about 1.5GB for the phones and the update time will take 15-20 minutes including a reboot.  Once you have it installed, you will have all the goodies that come with Nougat along with some improvements in the Sony apps on the phones.

If you don’t remember what’s all in Nougat, you can take a look at my review for the highlights.

Today’s Deal is on a great phone that I reviewed a few months ago.  The Sony Xperia X Compact has a lot of punch in a little package and right now, it is on sale for $379 at Amazon.  Normally this 4.6″ phone is $499, so this is a healthy amount of savings.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor.  It has four 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 cores &  two 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72 cores.  The processor is coupled with the Adreno 510 GPU which provides good graphics performance.  The X Compact has 3GB of RAM onboard and has 32GB of built-in storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the Micro SD slot that is built into the SIM tray of the phone.

Display wise, the Xperia X Compact has a 4.6″ IPS LCD display that renders at 720 x 1280.  That gives you 319 ppi which is low compared to other devices out there.  I caution readers to consider that this device has a much smaller display so 319 ppi is actually very comfortable on this screen size.  Indeed for comparison, the iPhone 6 had 329 ppi so we aren’t talking about a massive difference from even larger devices.  The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Sony is the latest manufacture to start releasing Android Nougat updates for their devices.  Today the company started rolling out the Nougat update to the Xperia X Performance, both the US model as well as the global, dual-SIM model.  The update is software revision 39.2.A.0.327 for those keeping score at home and the OTA update should be hitting devices over the course of the next few days.  The update is about 1GB in size so you will want to be on Wi-Fi in order to download the update.  Once you have it, your phone will need 15-20 minutes to complete the install and it will be rebooted in the process.

Amazon you can pick up a great deal on the 5″ mid-market Sony Xperia XA as part of Black Friday.  At $199, the Xperia XA has a Mediatek MT6755 octa-core processor running at 2GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.  That onboard storage can be expanded up to an additional 200GB thanks the the MicroSD slot available.  The phone is sold unlocked and works with GSM carriers here in the United States like AT&T, T-Mobile and StraightTalk.  Sorry Sprint & Verizon customers, this phone won’t work on those networks.

Camera wise, you have a 13MP rear shooter with OIS with a front facing 8MP shooter.

We live in a world with big display phones and in Androidland, that is most certainly the case.  It is hard to find device under 5″ that have any sort of horsepower or performance.  The problem is, not everyone wants a 5.5″ device or even a 5.2″ device and that means you are meant making compromises in either screen size (going larger than you want) or performance.  I’ve been using the Sony Xperia X Compact over the course of the last few weeks and it is the one phone in the sub-5″ screen size market that doesn’t require that compromise.  It offers solid performance, good battery life and a camera that is truly impressive.  As I posted in my initial thoughts on the Xperia X Compact, it is a phone that should not be judged on it size when it comes to performance.  This phone has plenty of horsepower to do anything you need, including gaming and streaming, but does it in a small and comfortable package.  While the $499 price tag may put some off, if you are in the market for a smaller phone that doesn’t have a lot of compromises, the Xperia X Compact should be on your short list.

Here is my review.

If you equate the power and performance of an Android phone based on the screen size and device size, you need to stop.  Now.  The reason is that the recently announced Sony Xperia X Compact destroys your paradigm.  This 4.6″ device is a powerhouse with a phenomenal display and dare I say unbelievable camera.  Seriously, it rivals a digital SLR in image quality and color correctness.  I’ve been using the X Compact the last few days as my main phone and while getting use to the smaller size compared to my Nexus 6P was a bit tricky at first, the performance and design of this phone is exceptional.  I’ll be doing a full review of the phone over the course of the next few weeks but here are my initial thoughts on the Xperia X Compact.