Sony Xperia X review

Sony’s Xperia X has good battery life, but it needs more to really stand out in the crowded midrange Android space.

The Sony Xperia X is the difficult "middle child" of Sony’s Xperia X series. It’s not quite as premium, or as premium-priced as the Sony Xperia X Performance, but it’s not quite as budget-friendly as the Xperia XA either. Priced at $899, the Xperia X is meant to be the bedrock of the Xperia X family which essentially replaces the older Xperia Z family in Sony’s Android lineup. But does it live up to that billing?

Upsides: Why you’d want the Sony Xperia X

• Clean design: The Xperia X isn’t quite the looker that the Xperia X Performance is, but it’s equally not quite as cheap-looking as the Xperia XA. The design is smooth although some of the colour choices are, depending on your tastes, questionable. More on that below.
• Good battery life: We were notably disappointed in the battery life of the Xperia X Performance, but the slight step down in processors has made the Xperia X a true contender in this space. Anecdotally it’s easy to get a day’s worth of battery life out of it, and in the Geekbench 3 battery test, with screen dimming enabled the Xperia X shines:
  

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Battery Test Duration	Geekbench 3 Battery Score
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	11:55:00	7150
  Huawei Mate 8	11:14:40	6659
  Sony Xperia X	10:40:40	6406
  Samsung Galaxy S7	10:01:20	6013
  Samsung Galaxy Note 5	9:18:00	5580
  Huawei P9	8:26:30	4948
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+	8:24:10	5041
  Apple iPhone 6S Plus	7:48:10	4681
  LG G5	7:36:10	4561
  iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case	7:21:10	4407
  HTC 10	6:54:30	4145
  Sony Xperia X Performance	6:46:51	4068
  Google Nexus 6P	6:39:20	3754

• Integrated side fingerprint scanner: Sony continues its trend of side-mounted fingerprint scanners. It’s a really sensible spot for a fingerprint scanner for verification and unlocking purposes, and it works well on the Xperia X.
• Good camera optics: Sony makes the vast majority of camera optics for smartphones you’re likely to buy, excluding a few outliers such as the Huawei P9. It shouldn’t be a shock then that it saves the good stuff for its own phones. The Xperia X’s autofocus is fast, and the inclusion of a dedicated shutter button makes it easier to eliminate camera shake while taking shots.

Downsides: Why you might not want the Sony Xperia X

• No waterproofing: Waterproofing was a feature of the Z series phones, but in 2016 Sony’s decided it’s a feature that you’ll only find in the Xperia X performance.
• Performance isn’t its strong suit: The Snapdragon 650 processor in the Xperia X is a step below the Snapdragon 820 found in the Xperia X Performance, and that’s fair enough; the Xperia X Performance is meant to be the pinnacle of Sony’s flagship range. The issue is that, for an $899 smartphone, the Xperia X just isn’t that nippy. We hit instances of application lag in real life, and this was backed up by the Xperia X’s benchmark performance in Geekbench 3:
  

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 3 Multi Core (higher is better)
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	2169	6446
  Huawei P9	1736	6357
  Samsung Galaxy S7	2156	6240
  Huawei Mate 8	1738	6092
  LG G5	2305	5243
  Sony Xperia X Performance	1988	5198
  Sony Xperia Z5	2076	5165
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+	1492	4893
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge	1324	4626
  Google Nexus 6P	1251	4597
  Samsung Galaxy S6	1347	4569
  HTC One X9	892	4558
  Apple iPhone SE	2538	4455
  Apple iPhone 6S	2540	4410
  Apple iPhone 6S Plus	2491	4391
  HTC 10	1942	4191
  Sony Xperia Z5	1358	4134
  Samsung Galaxy Note 5	1111	3686
  Sony Xperia X	1452	3499

  The Xperia Z5 – last year’s phone – outpaces the Xperia X, and that’s not a good thing.

  The same issue is present in gaming benchmarks, with the Xperia X being outperformed, often by quite a margin, by the rest of the premium or high mid-range smartphone pack:

  Handset	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result
  LG G5	29597
  Apple iPhone SE	29276
  Samsung Galaxy S7	28903
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	28402
  Apple iPhone 6s	28171
  HTC 10	27392
  Sony Xperia X Performance	26125
  Google Nexus 6P	24703
  Sony Xperia Z5	19197
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus	17981
  Huawei Mate 8	17947
  HTC One X9	16877
  Sony Xperia X	16648

• Front-mounted NFC: Like the Xperia X Performance and Xperia XA, Sony's opted to put the NFC chip on the front of the Xperia X. It points this out with a sticker, so you can't miss that it's there, but the problem with this is that for contactless payments such as Android Pay, it means you can't see the screen when you make a payment.
• Not quite mid-range pricing: The Xperia X sits between the Xperia X Performance and the Xperia XA, but its pricing suggests a much stronger lean towards the performance side of the equation. That’s a hard sell at this particular price point. Many of the competing flagships can be had outright at these kinds of prices, offering superior performance than the Xperia X can afford.

Who is it best suited for? What are my other options?

Sony has tried for a three tier strategy for the Xperia X series, with the Xperia XA as the budget alternative and the Xperia X Performance as the true "premium" phone. Unfortunately for the Xperia X that really does make it the difficult middle child, especially considering that $899 price tag. That kind of money could relatively easily pick you up the LG G5, HTC 10 or even appreciably close to the excellent Samsung Galaxy S7 if you can find a good deal.

There’s nothing hugely "wrong" with the Xperia X, but at $899 we’d want more for our money than the Xperia X can deliver. Sony’s nicely evolved its visual design processes with the X series phones, but beyond looking nice in the hand there just isn’t enough there in day to day use to get excited about.

Specs