Many people believed that the Xperia Z1 Compact was made of glass on the back. In fact, the company even told us that the beast was made of “durable tempered glass”. However, Sony has come out and stated that only the front is made of durable glass, while the back is actually made of plastic. According to Sony, the back is made of “high rigid plastic”, so it should be pretty durable. And probably better than it being made of glass.
So there’s yet another difference between the Xperia Z1/Z1S and the Xperia Z1 Compact. The backs are made of different material, and the sizes are different. Other than that, they are virtually the same phone. The Xperia Z1 Compact has a 4.3-inch display, versus the 5-inch on the Xperia Z1. The Xperia Z1 Compact also has a 720p display which is IPS, versus the 1080p Triluminos display on the Z1. The other difference in specs is a 2300mAh battery in the Xperia Z1 Compact versus the Xperia Z1’s 3000mAh battery. Otherwise, both phones are running on Android 4.3, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and all that good stuff. They are both also water and dust resistant. Which is a nice trademark of Sony’s Xperia devices lately.
Personally, I’m pretty happy to see the Xperia Z1 Compact come with a plastic back rather than a glass one. The Glass back on the Xperia Z1S was pretty bad. My review unit picked up all kinds of scratches just from it sitting on a table or my desk. Which was rather disappointing. I think the Xperia Z1 Compact will fair a bit better with those easy scratches. At leas I hope it does.
But what do the rest of you think? Is it good to see a plastic back on the Xperia Z1 Compact, or would you rather have a glass back? Let us know in the comments below.