2018. 2019. no reason to buy more. there are a lot of temptations. but, when watching gadget reviews, most of them looks the same. before 2019 ends, i found a reason, though. not because i am looking for a reason. but i was more than happy to comply. ha!
the reason? my personal phone since 2016 shows battery
degradation. i get shorter and shorter battery life every day. it was to the
point that it goes off on mid day. at first, i used my other phones. but, the
usage i throw on my phone was different. i feel limited most of the time even
on android smartphones i have in the collection. so the search for the next
personal phone was on.
at first, i browse through the sales online. but there are
some shortcomings i cannot take. i just want similar size to that of xperia z1 compact (a) [sony xperia z1 compact (b)].
uncompromised power, though most midrangers in 2020, even entry levels already
have similar raw power than my z1 compact (a) [z1 compact (b)], if not better. i almost pick
anything that is small. until…
until pandemic came, i relocated “myself” for the “work from
home” to a far far away place. ha! and stumble upon a needy person sporting a
sony xperia xz2 compact, the last xperia having the “compact” on its name. you
know the drill. the rest is history.
this phone launched in 2018, the same year when i stopped
buying phones, or at least pause for a while. buying a second hand in 2020
means it is quite old and may already have signs of wear and tear. but, to my
surprise, it still looks good and performs way better than my z1 compact (a) [z1 compact (b)]. well
of course that was launched in 2014, and it was the first generation. comparing
it to the last generation is pointless. they differ in so many ways. and
similar in many ways, being both xperia devices. xz2 compact is significantly
heavier than z1 compact. slightly larger too. but i am already “at home” in a
couple of months.
battery test. shall we? last year, 2020, i managed to test
this smartphone too. from empty battery, it was fully charged after 2 hours and
11 minutes. quite slow in todays standards, since this phone has lower than
3000mah battery capacity. this year, 2021, the battery charging test results to
2 hours and 7 minutes. if charging is not impressive (but is still on par with
my other phones), the battery life is impressive (at least on my conservative
battery test). it managed to last for a day, 21 hours and 32 minutes. 8 hours
and 32 minutes of which is the active use, screen on time. that is, turning off
stamina mode. impressive right? it means it only needs charging before the
second day ends. or better yet charge it for an hour every morning while you do
your routines, and “ideally” you will not worry of running out of juice. i did
not, especially now being at home working. i can just plug it whenever i want
to.
battery score card
music play on this device is impressive too. the front facing stereo loudspeakers were immersive like that of my sony xperia z3 dual and sony xperia z5 premium dual, just a bit louder than those. bluetooth is better too. but the wired audio? this has no 3.5mm audio port. i have to settle with the usb type c to 3.5mm dongle. i just wish it has 3.5mm audio port, the extra “awareness” you have to do is annoying at times. at first, i always try to plug a 3.5mm jack on the phone, really annoying. if you get pass that, the audio quality is still great, especially when dsee is turned on. it is noticeably better than the dsee my previous xperias have. the volume is not significantly turned down, but the other sound frequencies are boosted, which is better, i think. in my previous xperias, i need to turn the volume up just to get similar loudness as that when dsee is turned off. but still, that dongle requirement before enjoying wired audio is annoying. at least to me.
web browsing, compared to z1 compact (a) [z1 compact (b)], is way better on the
xz2 compact. for one, it has higher pixel density, that is from 720p on the z1compact (a) [z1 compact (b)] at 4.3 inches in 16:9 aspect ratio, to 1080p on the xz2 compact at 5.0
inches in 18:9 aspect ratio. while the aspect ratio is weird to my liking, i
enjoyed how web pages are rendered. the display also has wider brightness
range. it is bright enough when i need to browse the web outside with the sun
shining proudly. it is also dim enough not to hurt my eye when reading at
night. there is also a feature that puts an amber tint on the display to make
it more comfortable to view in darker ambient light. the pages load faster than
my previous personal phone, the newer soc really made a difference.
as for gaming, this is very capable even in 2021. i only
used casual games to at least conform to the other phones i have. and it did
nicely. i enjoyed it more. before testing, i also played a little of asphalt.
the racing experience is enjoyable. did not experience lags, which i did on z1compact (a) [z1 compact (b)]. some users even claimed that it is still better than the budget gaming
phones, usually powered by mediatek g series. for gaming, this is still a good
recommendation. for gaming on a compact phone? there is nothing like it, yet.
photo shoot is another one where the difference from my
previous xperias lies. i like the idea that the phone has better night shots.
the photos in daylight are also noticeably sharper when zoomed out. but when
zoomed in, i still prefer my old xperias, especially the z5 premium dual. the
thing is, xz2 compact seemed to oversharpen which deters some details. but, the
camera experience on this phone is still good. the manual controls are limited.
but so as my previous xperias. making my lg g4 and nokia lumia 1020 better
alternatives when i want to experiment on manual shooting. am not good at it,
honestly. but it is fun. i also enjoyed using the 3d capture, which seems to be
similar to lidar on iphones. though i cannot make some camera modes from past
xperias work. i am referring to timeshift burst and some other camera modes.
video recording brought some new experiences to me too. more
on the display perhaps. i appreciate the hdr display being good when shooting
an hdr video. and one of the new things to experience? superslowmo, 960fps!
just so you know, the most recent xperia i had before this one is z5 premium
and 960fps were launched on xzs and xz premium.
video play? for a small phone, it may seem unenjoyable. but
not on this phone. there is a sample video on the phone which looks great. i
also watched some hdr videos on youtube. but the best video play are those videos
i shoot using the phone. it really made sense when your phone can record hdr
videos and play those on hdr display.
overall, it is a worthy upgrade. i think, i can use this
phone as my personal phone for the same length of time i did with the z1compact (a), or longer. i just hope the battery can hold for such long period. and i believe it will. this is my first phone to have adaptive battery and adaptive
charging. there are some auto tasks too. like the sleep mode, which slows down
the refresh rate of the phone to prolong the battery life. that adaptive
charging is for longevity too. and since it gave me an idea not to fully charge
the phone, i just do not do it anymore. charging up to 90% is enough. and if i
forgot, the adaptive charging can do the job for me. the user experience is
quite different as well. i like how the rear finger print reader is always on.
on z5 premium dual, the display should be turned on to use the side mounted
finger print reader. luckily z5 premium dual has tap to wake feature, so i do not have to
press the power button just to open it. it will prolong the life of the button.
but the xz2 compact has no native tap to wake nor tap to sleep feature. but
wait… it does, only when the ambient display is on. nevertheless, not having
tap to wake on xz2 compact is not a deal breaker since, again, the rear finger
print is always on. it just needs an extra step though when you want to use it on
the table – lift it first, unlike with a side mounted finger print reader.
if you are just curious about the upgrade path on my
personal phone, here is it… Nokia 1100 (a year), Alcatel OT-C552 (less than a
year), Nokia 1600 (about 3 years), Nokia N70 (a) (about 3 years), Lenovo E156
(a year), Sony Xperia miro (about 3 years), Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (a) (about 4
years). then why do i have 25 phones up to this? collections and work phones.
ha! so… what is next? at 27 years old, i should have 27 phones…
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