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Camera
- Powerful 23MP rear camera offers a host of features
- Camera app can be sluggish, but results are good
Sony phones have a bad reputation for photography, but this time Sony has upgraded the cameras across the entire Xperia Z range.
At 23MP, the Xperia Z Compact has one of the highest pixel counts on the market next to the Moto X Style. It also gets a new autofocus feature and stronger zoom, plus all the other features we've seen on previous Xperia cameras.
And it's paid off, although the Xperia Z5 Compact is an improvement for Sony rather than a market-leading photography device: during testing, some of the low-light shots I took in the British Museum would definitely have come out better with another handset.
If you still have issues with the camera, you can make manual adjustments, although that's as likely to make your pictures overexposed as it is to improve them.
Autofocus on the Xperia Z5 Compact is the big selling point of the camera. According to Sony it reacts within 0.03 seconds, meaning it'll come out with the shot you wanted anyway even if you're having an attack of shaky hands.
It worked well with still subjects: I could whip my phone out of my pocket, boot up the camera app and start taking the picture while still moving.
It's a great new development, but it doesn't work as well when the subject is moving. Take this photo of the London Underground: I'd estimate that the train was moving at about 10mph, but the Xperia Z5 Compact didn't manage to get the quick shutter shot I was hoping for – although this is still the kind of feature you'd look for in a proper camera rather than the average cameraphone.
The camera app itself didn't prove particularly fast either. Jumping into the features section took a while to boot up, and that's not ideal when the difference between catching or missing the perfect shot is a split second.
Then trying to go back to the gallery using the shortcut on the right hand side was also slow. I just want it boot up quickly so I can look at the last photo I took, make sure it's all OK, and move along.
On the front of the phone is a 5.1MP selfie shooter to make your face snaps all the more spectacular – it's quite an upgrade on the 2.1MP sensor on last year's Xperia Z3 Compact.
The selfie camera is similar to what the rest of the market is offering – it's not remarkable but you're not going to have any complaints either.
I personally find the selfie camera brings in a lot more light than the back camera on the Xperia series and the same goes here.
Camera samples
