SPLICED Issue 04\r\n\r\nSONY XPERIA Z1 COMPACT VS. SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 MINI\r\n\r\nISSUE 04\r\n\r\nby Pippa Tshabalala\r\n\r\nSMARTPHONE COMPARISON\r\n\r\nSony Xperia Z1 Compact vs.\r\nSamsung Galaxy S4 Mini\r\nRound 1… FIGHT!\r\nRRP / Sony Xperia Z1 Compact - R9,000 / Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini - R5,699 \r\n\r\nWe’re all aware of the latest\r\ntrend for smartphone\r\nmanufacturers to release a\r\n“mini” version of their flagship phone.\r\nI’ll be honest, when I first saw the Sony\r\nXperia Z1 Compact, I thought this\r\nwas exactly that – a mini version of\r\nthe Xperia Z1. The Compact however,\r\nhas almost exactly the same specs as\r\nits big brother, unlike the Samsung\r\nGalaxy S4 Mini which is a scaled down\r\nversion of the S4. It’s natural of course\r\nthat we compare these phones with\r\neach other, but how does the newer\r\nZ1 Compact stack up against the more\r\nestablished and popular S4 Mini?\r\nParticularly well actually.\r\nThe S4 Mini is one of the\r\n“compact” Android phones that\r\nhas done particularly well in the\r\nsmartphone market. More portable\r\nand easier for one handed access\r\nthan the S4, but on the downside, not\r\nquite as high powered.\r\n\r\n12\r\n\r\nPhysically the Sony and the\r\nSamsung are the same size, but\r\nthe Sony has an increased screen\r\nresolution of 720 x 1280 as opposed\r\nto the Samsung’s 540 x 960 resolution.\r\nFor those of us who predominantly\r\nuse their phones for taking photos, the\r\nbiggest draw card of the Xperia is the\r\nwhopping 20.7MP (yes you read that\r\ncorrectly) camera, which puts the S4\r\nMini’s 8MP camera to shame.\r\nFrom a hardware perspective,\r\nagain the Xperia comes out tops.\r\nThe Compact features a quad-core\r\nprocessor in comparison to the Mini’s\r\ndual core and 2048MB RAM as\r\nopposed to the Mini’s 1536MB which\r\nshows up most noticeably when it\r\ncomes to background processes.\r\n\r\n