Sony Xperia XZ1 review: XZibit one

Synthetic benchmarks

The Sony Xperia XZ1 comes with Snapdragon 835, complete with 4GB of RAM. Being one of the first out the door with an Oreo ROM out of the box does mean bumping into quite a few software optimization issues along the way. And we are not just talking about Sony's own various pieces of code, running on the new OS. Third-party software needs time and to properly adapt to Oreo and its new APIs. That process depends entirely on the app developers out there.

Benchmark apps need to be properly adjusted to adequately handle every new iteration of Google's mobile OS. Major updates, especially. This is why relatively bigger margins of error can be expected in the following test scores.

It is important to note that even at this state, from a real-word user standpoint, the Xperia ROM we tested on our device ran smoothly with no hiccups. The powerful Snapdragon 835 naturally had no trouble chewing through every task we threw its way. That being said, let's kick off with a pure CPU benchmark.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  6754
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6719
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  6629
• OnePlus 5
  6604
• Nokia 8
  6568
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  6541
• HTC U11
  6393
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6301
• LG V30 (non-final)
  6151
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5460
• LG G6
  4175

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1986
• OnePlus 5
  1932
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  1929
• Nokia 8
  1925
• HTC U11
  1919
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  1915
• LG V30 (non-final)
  1904
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  1840
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1836
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1832
• LG G6
  1767

Still the XZ1 holds its own amid a crowd of flagship hardware offers. Judging by the single-core results, there might be room for optimization yet, in order to squeeze out a hundred or so points extra and catch up to the likes of the OnePlus 5 or Mi 6.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  6404
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  6338
• Nokia 8
  6293
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  6293
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  6278
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6132
• HTC U11
  6125
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6106
• Huawei P10
  6069
• LG V30 (non-final)
  5869
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5837
• LG G6
  4209
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  4139
• Sony Xperia XZs
  3979
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3868

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  2031
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  2026
• Nokia 8
  2005
• HTC U11
  1993
• LG V30 (non-final)
  1986
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  1986
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1943
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1938
• Huawei P10
  1927
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1915
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  1913
• LG G6
  1733
• Sony Xperia XZs
  1724
• Sony Xperia XZ
  1578
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  1535

GeekBench 4 does seem to favor the Xperia XZ1 a bit more than the newer version of the benchmark. The compute score it managed to pull is especially impressive. Or put another way - a Snapdragon 835 doing what it is designed to do - provide top-notch performance.

Geekbench 4 Compute

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ1
  8003
• HTC U11
  7992
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  7577
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  6920
• LG G6
  6484

Basemark OS 2.0 seems to be a little less kind to the Xperia XZ1 than GeekBench 4, but its result card does resemble that of GeekBench 4.1 pretty closely. Granted, the XZ1 seems to be near the bottom of the Snapdragon 835 bunch. The again, it appears to give Samsung's Exynos 8895 less of an edge in performance. Even less so for Huawei's Kirin 960.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  3609
• OnePlus 5
  3601
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  3547
• Nokia 8
  3503
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  3319
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  3298
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  3174
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  2986
• HTC U11
  2970
• Huawei P10
  2910
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  2461
• Sony Xperia XZs
  2386
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2151
• LG G6
  2126

AnTuTu also evaluates things like storage and GPU performance and the XZ1 produces a score matching the XZ Premium. Sony phones are actually not quite on par with the other 835 chips here, but this appears to be due some sort of an issue with the benchmark app itself than their performance.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  180331
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  178674
• HTC U11
  177343
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  177326
• Nokia 8
  175872
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  174070
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  168133
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  144462
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  144223
• LG G6
  143639
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  141193
• Sony Xperia XZs
  133574
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Sony Xperia XZ
  124266

We now move on to the graphics department with the GFX tests.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  61
• HTC U11
  60
• OnePlus 5
  60
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  57
• Nokia 8
  57
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  50
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  50
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  49
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  49
• Sony Xperia XZs
  42
• LG G6
  41
• Sony Xperia XZ
  37
• Huawei P10
  29

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  56
• OnePlus 5
  56
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  48
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  48
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  40
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  40
• Sony Xperia XZs
  40
• Sony Xperia XZ
  37
• HTC U11
  35
• Huawei P10
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34
• Nokia 8
  33
• LG G6
  24

The Adreno 540 is a powerful graphics unit and combined with the 1080p resolution on the XZ1 it produces some impressive scores on the on-screen tests.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  42
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  42
• HTC U11
  41
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  41
• OnePlus 5
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  39
• Nokia 8
  39
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  39
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  39
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  33
• Sony Xperia XZs
  32
• Sony Xperia XZ
  31
• LG G6
  26
• Huawei P10
  22

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  41
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  41
• OnePlus 5
  40
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  40
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  34
• Sony Xperia XZs
  34
• Sony Xperia XZ
  32
• Huawei P10
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  23
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  22
• HTC U11
  19
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  18
• Nokia 8
  18
• LG G6
  12

OpenGL ES tests paint a similar picture - the Xperia XZ1 is well prepared to handle your gaming needs.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Nokia 8
  32
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  25
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  25
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• HTC U11
  24
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  23
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ
  20
• Sony Xperia XZs
  20
• LG G6
  16
• Huawei P10
  14

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Sony Xperia XZs
  21
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ
  19
• Huawei P10
  16
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  13
• HTC U11
  13
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  12
• Nokia 8
  12
• LG G6
  8.5

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1111
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  867
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  861
• Nokia 8
  855
• Sony Xperia XZ1
  853
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  842
• HTC U11
  836
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  817
• OnePlus 5
  796
• Huawei P10
  716
• Google Pixel (5.0)
  626
• Sony Xperia XZs
  623
• Sony Xperia XZ
  577
• LG G6
  541

The Xperia XZ1 really does live up to flagship standards. This might come off the wrong way, but the thing is, we anticipated a lot more "growing pains" associated with the Android 8 integration. Sony's mobile division deserves plenty of praise for getting things right on the first try. Some of the benchmark scores might be a bit behind the Snpadragon 835 competition, but margins are small and the real-life performance is as snappy as we've come to expect.