When choosing phones, especially between flagships, it’s more of what features you are into. In this case, are you for the first 3D scanner, the Xperia XZ1 or the.. well, fastest iPhone with a sub-5″-inch display?
What’s up, Manila? This is Caesar of ManilaShaker, and what I have here is the Sony Xperia XZ1 and Apple iPhone 8 for a comparison.
| SPECS | Sony XZ1 Compact | Apple iPhone 8 |
| Display | 4.6″ 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD (~424 ppi) | 4.7″ 750 x 1334 LED-backlit IPS LCD (~326 ppi) |
| Dimensions & Features | 148 x 73.4 x 7.4 mm, 155g, Dedicated sim & MicroSD tray, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm, 148g, Dedicated SIM tray |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 835 | Apple A11 Bionic |
| CPU | Octa-core 4×2.45 GHz Kryo & 4×1.9 GHz Kryo | Hexa-core 2x Monsoon + 4x Mistral |
| GPU | Adreno 540 | Apple three-core GPU |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM, 64GB (expandable up to 256GB) | 2 GB RAM, 64/256 GB, no card slot |
| Connectivity | LTE Cat. 16, 802.11ac, BT 5.0, GPS, Type-C 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC | LTE Cat. 12, 802.11ac, BT 5.0, GPS, Lightning Cable 2.0, NFC (Apple Pay only) |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Ion 2700mAh | Non-removable Li-Ion 1821mAh |
| Price | PhP 34,990.00/$700 | PhP 44,500/$890 |
Design
Kicking it off with the design, the two differs a lot with just the general shape. The XZ1 still has Sony’s OmniBalance design language, retaining the Xperia’s iconic shape with rounded edges and all. As for the iPhone 8, it’s step-up from last year’s iPhones with its more elegant finish that is then elevated with its glass backing. Although I initially hated glass back smartphones, the mere size of the iPhone 8 makes it comfortable to use.
Both are water and dust-resistant, with the XZ1 being half-a-meter more resistant than the iPhone 8. Apple has claimed that their new ion-strengthened protective glass is their toughest yet. And on the XZ1’s front is Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
While the size differs a lot between the two, I find the iPhone 8 easier to handle. Mostly because of how well it fits into my hand without being overbearing.
Ports are very different between the two, especially with the lack of a headphone jack for the iPhone 8. Speakers are in stereo for both. The iPhone 8 has its speakers on the earpiece and lower right grille while being both on the front for the XZ1.
It is only the XZ1 with an option for storage expansion or a secondary SIM with its hybrid dual-SIM trays.
Display
Despite having the same aspect ratio, the XZ1’s IPS LCD panel is on a different level. TrueTone may be great, but the same can be done with the XZ1’s albeit at a lesser extent.
While both are HDR10-compliant, the XZ1’s tunable and more color-accurate display is the better of the two. What it suffers from is significant trailing, which I did find annoying during my time with it.
User Experience
iPhones never did stretch out to be as complex and power-user friendly as Android phones, but still amazing to use nonetheless. With the introduction of iOS 11, performance is yet optimized for their new chipset and GPU. Going through iOS 11 itself is a breeze although I still wished that they borrowed a few key aspects from Android, like split-screen.
The XZ1 comes with Oreo, and it seems to be unoptimized at this point. The two features I’m pretty happy with for this update are Picture-in-Picture and notification channels. While PiP has been around, Android O will fully support it with limited app support upon launch. As for notification channels, these remove the developers’ control over their apps’ notifications’ importance. Total control.
While I did complain a lot about the 4K video recording mode being on a separate panel up here, Sony finally put it in the Video tab. Other than that, there hasn’t been much change from what the Camera UI has been.
On iOS 11, it’s still the same, but now with Apple’s HEIC codec that made their phones 4K60 capable.
Camera
| Phone | Rear Camera | Front Camera |
| Sony Xperia XZ1 | 19 MP, f/2.0, 25mm, EIS (gyro), predictive phase detection and laser autofocus, LED flash
Video: |
13 MP, f/2.0, 22mm, 1/3″ sensor size, EIS (gyro)
Video recording: up to 1080p@30fps |
| Apple iPhone 8 | Dual 12 MP, (28mm, f/1.8, OIS & 56mm, f/2.8), phase detection autofocus, 2x optical zoom, quad-LED (dual tone) flash
Video: |
7 MP, f/2.2, HDR
Video recording: |
Moving on to probably everyone’s favorite part – the cameras, there isn’t much to talk about. While differences in results may end up being similar to the ones in our video here, it still was worth testing.
Details were simply the iPhone’s forte. Each image it took is crispy to the core but suffers from excessive noise in extremely dark areas. Colors are on point with the iPhone too, and that goes for both the rear and front cameras. The XZ1 did trail behind, but not by a significant margin.
What the XZ1 wins at is low-light photography by not having too much noise in exchange for lower exposure.
As I’ve mentioned, the iPhone 8 is 4K60-capable through the use of HEIC. Not only is the footage smoother, but it is more stable since the XZ1 cannot use EIS on 4K.
Oh, and feature-wise, in addition to super slow motion, the XZ1 is capable of 3D scanning. Once you have captured 3D models, you can have them printed.
Performance
While both do carry their respective environments’ flagship specifications, the significant price difference between the two puts the XZ1 at an advantage.
| Device | AnTuTu | Geekbench (single-core) | Geekbench (multi-core) | PCMark Work 2.0 |
| Sony Xperia XZ1 | 155058 | 1825 | 6500 | 6423 |
| Apple iPhone 8 | 198454 | 4185 | 9683 | 2269 |
In both AnTuTu and GeekBench, the iPhone gave the XZ1 a beating. In 3DMark’s Slingshot Extreme, the XZ1 took lead.
Battery
Despite the iPhone 8’s battery being smaller in capacity, iOS 11 has proved to be more optimized than Android O in that category. Charging time is faster on the iPhone provided that you have a fast charger.
| Device | Battery | Battery Time | Charging-Time |
| Sony Xperia XZ1 | 2700 mAh | 25h 24m | 2h 15m |
| Apple iPhone 8 | 1821 mAh | 35h 22m | 1h 24m |
Audio
When it comes to what has the better stereo setup, it’s the definitely the iPhone 8. Room volume is not that distant, but the clarity and how the sound is produced is better on the iPhone. Low frequencies come out on the bottom speaker and everything else is then projected on the front-firing one. In turn, this makes the listening experience a treat on the iPhone 8.
The XZ1’s front-firing stereo speakers are better than most, but for this one, the iPhone 8 takes the cake.
Verdict – “So, what would you recommend more?”
Even though the iPhone 8 wiped the floor clean, I personally do not think that it should be about P10k more expensive than the XZ1. A lot of things can be put into consideration, especially extra features and the like. So, what do you think? Are you for the Sony Xperia XZ1 or iPhone 8? Comment it down below and click the Subscribe button for more videos like this.
Again, this has been Caesar of ManilaShaker, and thank you for reading! ‘Til then!
