We like the colour and available detail, as well as the options for boosting and tweaking, but suspect in the resolution race that the next Compact model will gain a bump in resolution. Overall, at this size the Z3 Compact's display is decent, despite not being a resolution jump over its predecessor. Not that we wear sunglasses all the time but, you know, it's still a potential annoyance. Turn the display into landscape mode and it's entirely invisible in that orientation when wearing such glasses. However, in some situations the viewing angles can be a problem, such as when wearing polarised sunglasses. By default the whites are white enough and the blacks are pretty good too. It's also possible to adjust the screen's white balance, although the option to make your display have a red, green or blue hue really isn't of that much use. Sony says the Z3 Compact has the brightest display it's ever used in a smartphone and we've had no problems viewing it in bright conditions, apart from those irksome fingerprints. Below is a comparison of the three settings on the same image. X-Reality does a good job and we'd say stick to that for phone use, as it adds saturation and contrast to images. There's the option for super-vivid colour boost, for example, but we'd advise against that as it tends to boost to the detriment of detail. It's an IPS LCD display which is important for wide viewing angles, while Sony's Triluminos and Live Colour LED labels and X-Reality Engine are the processing means to those vivid colours.Īs we've said before now, sometimes those enhancements can push things a little too far, but there's always the option to switch them off. The display is somewhat prone to fingerprints, but look beyond those and you'll see ample details and lots of punch to colours. Smartphone fans will know that this isn't the highest resolution around at this size - the 4.7-inch HTC One M7 had a 1920 x 1080 resolution, for example - but at 4.6-inches the Sony gives a good showing for itself.
The resolution means a 319ppi pixel density, putting it in the same sort of territory as the iPhone 6 or the Samsung Galaxy Alpha.