Sony Xperia X: as a remake of a Z series
The Xperia X is not the most upscale of Sony's new mobiles in 2016. For that, it will wait a little longer and watch for the release of the Sony Xperia X Performance. This X is then a recovery of elements of the Xperia Z5 , coupled with hardware news looking rather at mid-range very strong.
The touch screen remains at 5.2 inches and on Full HD, a diagonal of 12.7 cm for a definition of 1920 x 1080 px, all on a LCD panel IPS "Triluminos", Sony technology accentuating contrast, colors and brightness. The entrails of the beast consist of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 hex-core mobile chip, with a dual-core clocked at 1.8 GHz (ARM Cortex-A72) and a quad-core (ARM Cortex-A53) at 1 , 4 GHz. To accompany it, a 3 GB RAM and a 32 GB storage capacity expandable via the addition of a microSD card (more than 128 GB additional, depending on the upcoming microSDXC cards).
The photo and video are handled at the rear by a Sony Exmor RS sensor module of 23 Mpx and at the front by a new sensor of 13 Mpx. The Xperia Z capped at 5 MP on this point. A fingerprint reader is always there. Everything is powered by a battery of 2620 mAh and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a home software overlay now well installed on the mobile products of the brand.
The Sony Xperia X smartphone is priced at € 599. Attention, fans of Xperia Z, the X does not have IP68 certification and is not waterproof or even recognized as resistant to splashing liquid.
If the upcoming Xperia XA slice in the dark, the Xperia X does not finally move away from the latest Xperia Z on aesthetics. Notable details will change, such as the adoption of a metal frame on the back rather than the usual alloy of glass and plastic, or rounded finishes on the entire edge of the screen, but in the end, the essence Z5 is still present. The grip that comes is very close, with even better grip, despite the metal back sliding, thanks to the polycarbonate edge holding in palm.
We can still find fault on the front, where the lower / upper edges are still not bad and even more than on the Z5, since here the screen occupies 69.9% of the surface, against more 71% on the Xperia Z5. Good extra point for the fingerprint reader, placed on the right side in the on / off button and falls perfectly under the thumb of a right-handed and a good part of the index of a left-handed. Accurate and responsive.
In the radius of other flats, precisely, Sony keeps in his wallet an already unfortunate point on the Z5, namely the position of the physical button volume control. Placed at the bottom of the right edge of the mobile, it is simply impossible to reach for a right-handed person in normal use, or else with sacred gifts of contortionist and a left-handed person will find the manipulation very ergonomic. Admittedly, this button, positioned near the physical trigger, also acts as control zoom of the camera, but fixed on the upper part of the slice, it would have all the more good overall.
Nothing to say on the other hand side heats, the Xperia X never gets too hot, even when asked to tap into its resources such as video games, video capture in Full HD or the sequence of photos. However, we can not deny that unlike the Snapdragon 810 chip Xperia Z5, the 650 of the X is also not conducive to overheating of meninges.
We had left Sony and its Xperia Z5 with a slight taste of unfinished and a small decline in some areas of the display compared to other generations of Z. On this X, the Nippon corrects a little shooting, especially on the contrast, with a higher average rate ( 1333: 1), a properly held black and a couple so close to those of the best screens on the market. The maximum brightness is in the top of the sector basket (556 cd / m²). A habit for Sony and a good way to ensure absolute readability under any condition of use. Yes, but ... here, the screen has an average light reflection of still 16%, a reflectance twice as high as the best student in the class on this part, the Galaxy S7. It feels a bit with stray lights in good weather, among other reflections.
Sony deploys several modes of expression on this mobile: Standard, X-Reality (treatment derived from TV Bravia) and Vif. Rare enough to emphasize, the Standard mode is not the best. It is thus necessary to pass in X-Reality mode to have the most faithful colors possible. If this is not perfect yet, the average human eye will not see the difference next to the colorimetric maestro Galaxy S6 edge or iPhone 6s Plus. The display drifts very slightly towards blue, due to a color temperature of 7435 Kelvin. Only drop compared to Z, slab reactivity, with a touch delay of 75 ms, against 47 ms on the Z5.
No software revolution for this Xperia X, except the native integration of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Sony still modifies some elements of its lightweight interface that comes to cover for several generations the Google mobile OS. Changes primarily cosmetic, with a general menu that gains clarity and color codes. Sony also integrates an active search of applications and the system from the home screen, like an Apple iOS Spotlight, by sliding your finger on the screen from the center down.
In addition to the basic Google applications (Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Hangouts, Drive, Play Store ...), the terminal still comes with the slew of partner apps or own Xperia. The ruined place could be advanced, but here not for nothing, since most are unstable. What to glean a few hundred megabytes. The performance of the Xperia X is amazing. Indeed, we did not expect this new midrange platform from Qualcomm at this level. The Snapdragon 650 can be seen as a half-succession of the 808 (chip LG G4), its architecture especially, however, over time, this 650 is more balanced and constant than the 808 and 810. Basically, this puce will never let go in the middle of the race, on the CPU as the GPU, and turns the Xperia like a Swiss cuckoo, whatever the use. In the end, only the photo processing seems to pose a case of conscience to the processor (see below).
