Review: Sony Xperia X

Introduction and design

Update: The Sony Xperia X unlocked price is now $50 off through our exclusive Amazon promo code, making it $450 in the US. Only valid for the phone sold directly by Amazon. Offer expires on August 23 at 4pm Pacific.

The Sony Xperia X is a curious phone. It’s a handset that’s not being dubbed a flagship device, but seems to be packing many of the top-end features you’d expect from such a smartphone.

Sony Is pushing the X as having a killer camera with fancy new abilities to track objects in space, with the new technology designed to push you to capture more spontaneous and sharp images.

But besides that Sony is still ramming in its other high-end technology, with Hi-Res Audio upscaling and powerful screen technology, all while keeping the price tag down compared to other flagship handsets.

However, the confusing thing here is we’re not sure if this is Sony’s flagship phone. That technically doesn’t matter – after all, it’s what you’re thinking of buying right now, and you just want to know how good it is – but if you’re a Sony fan, then there could be something better down the line if the Xperia Z6 pops up any time soon.

So with all that added up, what does that actually mean Sony’s launched? Is it a phone that’s filled with compromise to hit a lower price tag, or is it a triumph of convergence?

Is it result of a brand that’s spent years working out how to bring the very best features to its phones without needing to break the bank, just tweaking up the design to offer you a phone that lets you do what you need without stuffing in overly expensive components for the sake of it?

Sony Xperia X price and release date

• Released in May 2016
• Currently costs £400 SIM free in the UK
• Not offered in Australia

This phone started off in the UK with a price tag of £450 and $549.99 in the US (SIM free), but has since dropped to around £400 – which is still a high price for a phone that doesn’t have one of the best processors on the market.

It’s starting at around £25 per month on contract for basic amounts of data, which seems to fit the bill for a phone that doesn’t have a high end CPU and lacks features like waterproofing that you can find on the current ‘flagship’ Sony phone, the Xperia Z5.

It launched in May 2016 in the UK, and has started spreading out across the globe since.

Design

• New rolled glass sides add an attractive look to the screen
• No water resistance where older Sony phones offered this
• Boxy design isn’t as comfortable to hold as other similar handsets

Sony’s also going big on design on the Xperia X, curving the glass into the sides of the phone to bring a more smooth and refined appearance to things.

The X still brings the boxy design that’s a feature of the Xperia range, but that’s not to say it’s ugly. However, it doesn’t make the phone stand out as a striking device when you pick it up for the first time.

The ‘matte glass’ feel to the back is nice, and there’s no doubt when you first fondle this handset that it’s not a cheap phone. However, the placement of the volume keys below the fingerprint scanner is far from ideal. It means you constantly have to shift the handset around just to change the level of souns you’re listening to, and that seems like a weird thing to do.

The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and it’s pretty accurate – we never got too aggrieved at it mis-reading our thumb. It’s also the natural resting place for a thumb or index finger (depending on whether you’re right- or left-handed, resulting in fewer angry instances where you’ll be tapping the button just to get into your own phone.

If you like the way Sony puts its phones together, then you’ll like the way the front glass helps the phone fit into the hand, with the lime gold colouring particularly impressive.

However, it’s far from the sleekest phone on the market, and Sony highlighting the new design as a big feature shows there’s not a lot else to talk about with this latest device.

If you compare this phone to some of the other larger handsets on the market (including the Sony Xperia Z5, which many will want to look at as well given the slight increase in power it offers) it’s definitely more palm friendly, with the 5-inch screen fitting nicely within the frame.

In fact it’s actually quite irritating that Sony hasn’t given the Xperia X a wider screen, as the cheaper and less powerful Xperia XA has an edge to edge display that’s really something to look at – it’s worth a look if you’re into the aesthetics of a phone.

Oddly for Sony this isn’t a waterproof phone, again hinting that it’s tipped towards the more budget-conscious (and will therefore hopefully keep plummeting in price). However, the SIM and MicroSD slots are still together and can be removed with a pull of the fingernail (rather than having to hunt for a SIM tool like on the iPhone).

The design of the Sony Xperia X is, well, only fine. It’s average. It looks like a Sony phone, and is fairly bezel heavy. I like that the glass is curved in a little at the edges, and in some colors (such as Lime Gold) it looks nifty – but it’s far from the best-looking around.

What’s it like to use?

• Sony’s interface doesn’t change stock Android a huge amount
• Swiping downwards constantly opens incorrect menu
• Hi-Res Audio really helps make your tunes sound better
• CPU is oddly underpowered.

Sony’s interface on the Xperia X is nothing really special – it ticks the right boxes and is a slick enough system to use, but does have some grating elements too.

We’ll get right into one of the most annoying parts first: when you accidentally swipe a little downwards on the home screen (or apps drawer) you’ll get a ‘suggested’ apps list, which is based on the apps you supposedly use the most and the best the Internet has to offer.

The second part is especially galling, as Sony is pushing certain apps on you without explaining if they’ll be any good for you.

The big question here is: why did Sony decide to use Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 middle-tier CPU rather than the best on the market, which it’s done with the Sony Xperia Z5 and (presumably) future phones too.

While we’ve really gone past the point of needing a billion cores and hyper-fast clock speeds in our phones, the Snapdragon 650 doesn’t have the engine you feel a hardcore smartphone user will be looking for.

During our speed benchmarking tests, the Sony Xperia X performed comparatively poorly, offering speeds 40% slower than the very best around. Yes, you’re paying a little less for this phone and you do get 3GB of RAM to help push things along, but it does have an effect on the speed of this phone.

It can take a touch longer at times to perform some tasks, such as saving a camera photo at high resolution, and that may start to irk eventually.

We didn’t notice a huge problem in gaming though, and it could be that Sony’s optimised the processor well enough there that you don’t need to worry about the performance.

The rest of the interface is stock Android really, with the slightly more stylish clock one of the only things that really marks out the Xperia X over some of the Nexus phones.

The speakers which flank the screen top and bottom, pumping the music and film audio right into your face, are suitably strong and impressive at times. The sound output is a touch too tinny at times (it doesn’t have the bass-rich stylings of the similarly-priced HTC One M9 from last year) but is loud enough to keep you intrigued while preparing dinner.

The music output on the Xperia X is, once again, strong, with the Hi-Res Audio support and upscaling really helping to make even the most mundane tunes sound decent. If you pair the Xperia X with a pair of Sony headphones the phone can also work as a noise cancelling device too, so you can be even more immersed in the sound.

In terms of out and out media ability, the X is good, but it’s not the best – as you’ll see in the screen performance next – and with the ability to upgrade the 32GB or 64GB versions with up to 256GB of extra capacity by shoving in a MicroSD card, it would have perhaps been nicer to see this challenging the very best media handsets out there.

It can run PlayStation 4 Remote Play, so hook it up to a PS4 controller and you’ll be able to check out your games as long as you’re on the same home network as your console. The screen is a little small for such a task, so if this matters to you then perhaps the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, with its 4K huge display, will serve you better.

It’s simple to use the Sony Xperia X, and the overalls dimensions of the device are such that it fits nicely enough in the palm and everything is mostly within thumb’s reach.

However, it’s just an uninspiring phone in day to day use – we were rarely left feeling that we were missing something if we weren’t able to use the Xperia X for a day, where with other phones there’s often a top feature you want to play with day in, day out.

Screen

• Good quality overcomes the Full HD limitations
• Contrast can err on the dark side (not the Vader kind)
• Typing any kind of text on this phone is frankly terrible

The display on the Sony Xperia X is still limited to 1080p – but once again the brand has used its Triluminos technology and X Reality engine here to make it look like it’s higher resolution.

That doesn’t help with the sharpness at times, but overall the color reproduction is often strong and impressive.

However, when it comes to watching movies the Xperia X isn’t the very best out there – on the 5-inch display you’ll sometimes struggle to make out the difference between the dark and light scenes as the contrast ratio isn’t brilliant.

One of the most irritating things about the screen – and indeed this phone – is the screen touch response, and specifically when typing. It’s just terrible and keeps misreading the key you’re trying to poke.

Trying to peck out a message at speed just isn’t possible, as too often the phone will still be recognising your last touch… And if you’ve got the swipe mode enabled you’ll want to hurl this phone down the toilet.

Ironically, older Sony phones would have survived this.

The brightness is good though, and the height to which you can fire this means that you’ll be able to fairly easily see through the dark scenes mentioned above… It just comes at the cost of battery life.

Similarly, the lowest setting is perfect for using the phone in bed and not wanting to disturb a partner – which is something that’s sadly becoming the norm in society.

Battery and camera

Battery

• Poor results in lab test
• Longer lasting lifespan of battery thanks to new tech
• Rapid charging supported out of box

The battery life of the Sony Xperia X has been extended, according to the Japanese brand, but not in the way you’d expect.

Sony’s been working on making sure that the way we charge our phones won’t harm the battery a lot, stopping it from degrading the components within, through a process called Qnovo adaptive charging.

This works by making sure that the battery isn’t pummelled with charge when it doesn’t need it, thus protecting the precious cells inside.

This means that after a year or so of use, the battery will be healthier and won’t start running out juice much faster than usual – and with modern phones having the power pack built in, it’s not an easy fix to change it.

We’ve not been able to test this one properly as we’ve not used the phone for two years, but Sony has good heritage with things like this so there’s no reason to doubt the claim.

If it does work, then it certainly should be something other brands should look to use, as the iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S8 would really sell if consumers felt confident the battery wouldn’t suddenly need loads of charging just to last the day a year after you bought it.

The charging itself should be pretty rapid, with a quick charging block included in the box – we’re going to be testing this out soon to see if it can really match up to Sony’s claims of five and half hours of use with just 10 minutes of being plugged in, as that sounds like quite a lofty number.

In terms of real world usage, I’m still sceptical of Sony’s claims of longer battery life – the phone doesn’t like to have the screen turned on a lot, with the charge seeming to drop a little too quickly given Sony believes it’s one of the better options on the market.

It’s only got a 2620mAh battery, which places it far behind the leading pack of top smartphones – if you’re buying this phone as a budget-conscious purchase, the OnePlus 3 might be a better bet as it’s much cheaper and has a larger battery pack… Although in our testing the lab results were relatively similar.

When we ran the battery lab test we put all our phones through (a Full HD video looped at full brightness for 90 minutes) it dropped 28%, which is one of the poorer results we’ve seen. To put that into perspective, many phones with higher resolution and larger screens have put in a better performance, showing that perhaps the battery life Sony is claiming isn’t quite there.

Oh, and one infuriating thing: the battery usage graphs are broken, starting far to the right of the screen rather than on the left and descending. It’s a very weird bug, but one that Sony still hasn’t fixed and is really annoying when you’re trying to see how badly (or well) your power pack is performing.

Camera

• 23MP camera is powerful when shot is set up well
• Intelligent auto is good at capturing the right scene
• Selfie cam is particularly good in low light
• Object tracking autofocus fails to live up to billing.

The Sony Xperia X is a phone that promises one of the best camera experiences on the market, but fails in a few key areas. Where phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S take a good picture nine times out of 10, the Xperia X craves a properly set up scene to get the most out of it.

The blindingly quick autofocus that Sony has been touting was nowhere to be found – no matter how hard we tried, trying to accurately catch a picture of someone jumping or an animal moving fast proved impossible.

The intelligent auto mode is good though: it’ll work out with decent accuracy which scene mode would work best and instantly converts to it, meaning low light photography – while offering muddy results – does come up with some sharp images.

It’s worth noting that this mode will default to 8MP pictures to speed up the snapping process, which will annoy those that bought this phone for the powerful camera. Upping the resolution does slow down the speed of the phone to save the photos taken, so it’s worth noting that if you’re desperate to get the best out of the camera.

The Xperia X might not have the sharpest low-light photos, but it does really color them well, with the resulting images among the best we’ve seen on a smartphone.

That result is especially true with the front facing 5MP camera, which is both large (we really enjoyed the wider field of view that was on offer) and the quality of the picture in low light. The phone often smoothed out the picture a bit too much, meaning a weirdly Botox-like face, but that seems to be an unstoppable trend in phones.

Object tracking and faster camera

The headline feature of the camera on the Sony Xperia X is the Predictive Hybrid Autofocus and the super-speedy camera activation, both of which do have really useful real-life cases.

The former has taken a lot of algorithmic from Sony’s engineers, spending time working out how to essentially guess where an object is going to be in space and keeping it clear and sharp when it moves.

The idea is smart, as it offers the chance to capture those moments in life where people aren’t stood perfectly still, or if you’ve got an animal that simply won’t rest for a pose.

However, it’s not without fault. While it does work in terms of keeping the focus where it’s supposed to be, it’s not the easiest system to actually use nor does it really fulfil its primary function. It’s not completely incorrect, but we expected to see sharper pictures.

If this were to be a camera that could really capture what’s going on in real time, then it would be market-leading… But we really couldn’t get it to work as advertised.

The speedy capture – where you can hold the dedicated camera key and the phone will have taken a photo within 0.6 seconds, is a similar experience. Yes, the speed with which it starts up is good, but it sometimes lags when it comes to opening the camera, especially if the app hasn’t been used in a while.

Curiously, it then will load up very quickly each time after, like it’s ‘warmed up’ and instantly take you to an easy to use interface thanks to having a dedicated camera key, something Sony phones are known for.

It also leads to loads of random pictures of feet, as you’ll use this camera key to fire up the snapper (it’s a great shortcut) and it’ll take a picture every time you do so. That said, you can turn it off, but you lose a key feature.

Sony doesn’t offer a lot of modes to play around with on the Xperia X, instead preferring to keep things simple. It’s put a lot of effort into talking up the ‘Intelligent Auto’ mode on the snapper, rather than bundling it with loads of extra features that users could theoretically enjoy.

It’s all part of the brand’s attempts to keep things simple and not bundle in loads of software at once. However, I think Sony has gone too far here, as many won’t bother downloading the new apps and will miss out on genuinely useful additions like Selective Focus, which adds a depth to photos and really enhances them.

Sony’s not delivered with the powerful camera on the Xperia X. From the sporadically slow boot up time to the slow saving of photos, there are too many glitches here.

And the fact that the intelligent autofocus isn’t as good as it sounds is a big miss too. Yes, you can get great pictures from the Xperia X – but you have to work for them too hard when others on the market make it ridiculously simple.

Verdict

The Xperia X is a phone that still confuses from Sony… Is it a flagship phone, or will something from the brand turn up soon that outclasses it? Not adding in Sony’s traditional waterproofing is an odd miss too, as it’s a key thing that a lot of fans enjoy.

The main selling point from Sony is the camera, and the 23MP camera with object tracking doesn’t quite live up to the billing it’s received – a good snapper, but only captures brilliant photos when pushed and set up with a fair bit of effort.

It’s a great phone to hold in one hand though, with the 5-inch screen not feeling overly massive in the palm.

The overall galling factor of this phone is the screen though – whether it’s just a case of being able to type quickly or entering text somewhere else, the screen response is just too slow and if you’re a texting fiend, having a Whatsapp conversation becomes a nightmare.

It seems like a trivial matter, but it blighted so many things within this phone that it’s a really big factor in the score.

Who’s this for?

The Sony Xperia X is a phone offering a number of elements that impress, and that’s mostly around the media efforts. If you’re someone that’s really after the best sonic performance on their phone, the Xperia X is up there with the best.

The glass that rolls into the side of the frame looks rather premium, out-doing the slightly lower price tag on offer here from Sony (with the cost being saved by lower-spec internal components) and – the Lime Gold especially – looking great in the hand.

While some elements of the camera don’t work quite as well as we’d have liked, there’s no doubting that if you’re someone who is willing to stop and take a picture properly, rather than just firing up the camera and grabbing a picture, you’ll tell all your friends that you’ve got the best snapper in a phone and be able to show them some excellent evidence to back it up.

In low light, for selfies and taking a well-crafted, well-lit shot there isn’t much better out there – especially when it comes to color reproduction.

Should you buy it?

The key question about whether this is a phone you should buy depends on how much you care about the on screen keyboard. If you’re someone who doesn’t spend hours a day texting, then you’ll probably barely notice the issue if you’re more careful where you jab the screen.

While it’s good at certain picture types, it’s not an all-round great camera, so you’Il need to be OK with coming out second in the ‘who took the best snap of last night’. Quick pics from something like the Galaxy S7 will far outdo it, and have it beaten hands down in terms of picture capture and shutter speed.

There’s also the issue of the CPU – it being a mid-range chip means that it’s not going to be as rapid at doing things like picture processing, so if you fancy taking a pic and editing it through a photo alteration app it’ll likely take a little bit longer to get through. There is a good slug of RAM though, so flipping between apps isn’t a terrible experience day to day.

This is the phone for someone that wants a handset that fits better in the palm, has a capable camera and good quality audio output – but doesn’t like to text at a rapid speed. It lacks some of the higher-end features we’d expect from a flagship phone, meaning there could be something newer and better coming from Sony – but that’ll command a higher price tag too.

• Not convinced? Then check out these phones:

Sony Xperia Z5

The obvious alternative choice to the Xperia X, for the Sony fan, is the Sony Xperia Z5, which offers a more powerful chip and similar abilities with a larger screen. It’s also waterproof, which is a big boon for those that worry about having their phone near a sink or a swimming pool, and functions well for most tasks.

However, it was unveiled in September 2015, so is starting to age – and could well be replaced in the near future. That said, the age has brought it down in price, so it becomes a very viable rival.

And for those that don’t want something as large, the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact has all the same power in a smaller package too – although the screen is slightly lower resolution.

Read our Sony Xperia Z5 review

iPhone 6S

The iPhone 6S fits the bill as a rival to the Xperia X if you’re someone that wants to pay to have a decent phone – which makes sense given you’ll be using it day in, day out for two years.

Where the iPhone wins out is in the camera stakes, as it’s equally as easy as the Xperia X to hold in one hand but has a better ability to capture a wider range of photos, and has well-integrated features like the Live Photos to improve the experience.

The Xperia X can do things like create highlight reels automatically, but that pales in comparison to the slick way Apple has managed to do it.

There’s also the apps range out there – they’ll always be a touch better on the iPhone and the slowdown over time won’t be as pronounced.

That said, like the Xperia Z5 it’s been out since 2015 – so perhaps checking out the new iPhone 7 would make sense too.

Read our iPhone 6S review

Samsung Galaxy S7

If only there was a Samsung Galaxy S7 mini, it would be the perfect phone to suggest as an alternative. Many of you looking to buy a new phone will probably want to stick with Android, and this is the best phone out there right now (well, the S7 Edge is the top, but that’s a much larger and more expensive phone compared to the Xperia X).

The S7 has an equally capable but much more useable camera, a larger battery and a simply brilliant screen, with lovely contrast ratio and color reproduction.

It’s a little more expensive than the Xperia X, but with a 5.1-inch screen (and minimal bezel) you’ll find it’s relatively to similar in palm size.

But it’s the faster, slicker and more powerful handset that also has a cool dedicated VR helmet – if you can afford the little extra, it’s a terrific choice.

Read our Samsung Galaxy S7 review

Source: techradar.com

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