Sony Xperia XZ3 review

Synthetic benchmarks

The Xperia XZ3 borrows its internals pretty much entirely from the XZ2. Frankly, this should come as no surprise, since Qualcomm's next flagship chipset is still not in circulation. Plus, the two devices were released only a few short months apart. Sony will be selling the XZ3 alongside the XZ2 lineup, at least for the time being. But, we digress.

So, for raw computational power, we are looking at a Snapdragon 845, along with 4GB of RAM - a very familiar setup. Hence, it should be entirely predictable as well? Well, for the most part.

Starting with GeekBench, which gauges CPU power, the XZ3 tends to lead the pack of Snapdragon 845 devices when it comes to single-core numbers. The Exynos Galaxies and the iPhones (which were just superseded) are out of reach, by design.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone X
  4256
• Apple iPhone 8 Plus
  4232
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  2486
• HTC U12+
  2456
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  2454
• OnePlus 6
  2450
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  2431
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  2419
• LG G7 ThinQ
  2395
• Oppo Find X
  2322
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  1934
• Motorola Moto Z3
  1924
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  1915
• Huawei P20 Pro
  1907
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  1902
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  1807

When it comes to multi-core performance, a few of the current S845 flagships pull ahead of the XZ3, but not by all that much. The iPhones remain in a different league, and that's even before the A12 chip, which was announced yesterday.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone X
  10215
• Apple iPhone 8 Plus
  10037
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• OnePlus 6
  9011
• HTC U12+
  9001
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• LG G7 ThinQ
  8865
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  8607
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  8509
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  8494
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  8466
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349
• Oppo Find X
  8018
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  6783
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  6725
• Huawei P20 Pro
  6679
• Motorola Moto Z3
  6614
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  6428
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  6055

In graphics-focused GFXBench's 3.1 Car scene, one of the benchmark's more demanding tests, the XZ3 posts the same score as virtually all S845 devices in the offscreen part, rendered at 1080p. The 1080p competition gets an edge in fps numbers in the on-screen tests, but the Xperia is on par with the 1440p rival, give or take a frame a second. There's a bit more variation in the lighter 3.1 Manhattan test, with the XZ3 within 10% of the chart-topping Galaxy S9+ in both the offscreen and onscreen tests.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  35
• Oppo Find X
  35
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• HTC U12+
  35
• LG G7 ThinQ
  35
• OnePlus 6
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  25
• Motorola Moto Z3
  25
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  25
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  24
• Huawei P20 Pro
  23
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  22

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  37
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  33
• OnePlus 6
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  33
• Oppo Find X
  28
• Motorola Moto Z3
  23
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  21
• Huawei P20 Pro
  21
• HTC U12+
  20
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  19
• LG G7 ThinQ
  18
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  13
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  13

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  61
• Oppo Find X
  60
• HTC U12+
  60
• OnePlus 6
  58
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  58
• LG G7 ThinQ
  57
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  56
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  55
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  53
• Apple iPhone X
  51
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45
• Motorola Moto Z3
  42
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  42
• Huawei P20 Pro
  40
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  38
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  34
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  30

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  57
• OnePlus 6
  55
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  51
• Oppo Find X
  50
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  50
• Apple iPhone X
  44
• Motorola Moto Z3
  37
• Huawei P20 Pro
  37
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  35
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  34
• HTC U12+
  33
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  31
• LG G7 ThinQ
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  21
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  18
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  15

In Antutu, the Xperia XZ3 posts top scores, just short of the Oppo Find X, and comfortably ahead of the XZ2 and XZ2 Premium.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X
  291218
• Sony Xperia XZ3
  284555
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium
  264734
• OnePlus 6
  264200
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  264044
• HTC U12+
  263696
• LG G7 ThinQ
  259393
• Sony Xperia XZ2
  259244
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660
• Xiaomi Mi 8
  217298
• Huawei P20 Pro
  209884
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  209577
• Motorola Moto Z3
  207903
• Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 9)
  206711
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  203119

It is, however, important to point out that the numbers in these charts represent the Xperia XZ3's performance in initial runs of the benchmarks. Repeated runs resulted in progressively lower scores, particularly in Antutu where it dipped to about 255K, and to a degree in GFXBench, but not so much in GeekBench. That's not uncommon, and we rarely see sustained benchmark performance on any phone. In any case, the Xperia XZ3 does perform to a flagship standard.