Sony Xperia Z3 vs HTC One (M8): Specs comparison

Sony has just announced the Xperia Z3 smartphone, which replaces the less-than-a-year-old Xperia Z2 with a slimmer, lighter and more powerful handset. But is the Xperia Z3 any match for the HTC One (M8)? Should you buy the Xperia Z3 or the HTC One (M8)? Let's break down the specs differences and take a look.

Display

Display-wise, the Xperia Z3 has an extra 0.2 inches to play with here, but in terms of ppi the HTC One packs more into its 5in screen, suggesting a superior image quality. What with both smartphones boasting a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, the ultimate difference in quality may come down to the display type - TRILUMINOS for the Z3, and Super LCD-3 for the HTC One (M8). The Z3's "crisp" TRILUMINOS technology claims to display high-definition colours in their most natural tones, while the Super LCD-3 is known for adeptly displaying natural colours with enhanced brightness in outdoor environments.

Size and weight

These two smartphones are pretty similar in terms of size and dimensions, except for one thing - thickness. Sony have managed to create a device that is both 8g lighter and 2 mm slimmer than the HTC One (M8). The HTC is a little wider and fractionally longer than the svelte Sony.

Battery

With a 3,100 mAh battery, the Z3 packs 500 more mAh than the HTC One (M8). It's 14 hours of 3G talktime is much lower than the 20 hours offered by the HTC model, which suggests that the larger battery goes to powering the screen and high-spec camera.

Cameras

What would you prefer? One 20.7-megapixel camera, or two 4-ultrapixel cameras? The idea of the ultrapixel camera is that, despite having a lower resolution than other lenses out there, it uses larger sensor pixels for improved low-light performance, and with a second lens grabbing depth information, the HTC One (M8) can perform some interesting focus switches and filter tricks (opens in new tab). The Xperia Z3 offers an impressive resolution though and can shoot video in 4K. Selfie lovers who want to be pictured warts-and-all though, will prefer the 5MP front facing camera on the HTC handset.

Conclusion

On paper, it looks like the One (M8) might just top the Z3 in terms of display quality, but the Sony model offers marginally higher processing speeds with more RAM. Slightly lighter and a fair bit slimmer, the Z3 offers a whopping great camera and 4K video, but may fall a little short on battery life.

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Specification