Regular readers of The Verge will no doubt be familiar with the argument that there's only so many ways to design a tablet, smartphone, or ultrabook, but none of that makes the RX100 look any less like Canon's S100. And why not? Ever since the S90 was introduced back in 2009 Canon itself has barely iterated on its excellent premium compact design — 2010's S95 and last year's S100 refreshes were virtually identical. The basic idea of a simple, compact black box with a control ring surrounding the lens is present and correct here on the RX100, though Sony has added a few flourishes of its own. There's a line running between the strap loops that lends a distinguished design, along with a blue Zeiss logo (just a sticker, unfortunately) placed to the bottom right of the lens. The RX100 is slightly thicker than the S100 at 36mm thick and the lens protrudes a little more when closed, but it's no less pocketable at 240g and just 102mm on the longest edge. Build quality is excellent, with an aluminum body that almost feels like it was carved right out of a single block of metal, though the form is broken up slightly by a ledge that runs along the top on the back of the unit. This makes it easier to access the mode dial, which is a little stiff otherwise.

Sony RX100 photos

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The RX100 is a completely self-contained unit, with almost no options for expansion. There's no flash hotshoe here, nor will you find a NEX-style proprietary expansion port. This is a fairly major limitation for anyone considering using the RX100 as their primary camera — you'll never be able to boost flash power, attach a viewfinder, or even use an external microphone.

With that in mind, it's at least reassuring that the onboard options are pretty good. The tiny pop-up flash is surprisingly powerful across the zoom range, and can be tilted back for effective light bouncing. The 1,229,000-dot LCD screen is also really good, and uses Sony's WhiteMagic technology for better outdoor visibility. We've seen this before on phones like the Xperia P — it adds a white subpixel to the standard RGB arrangement, which really does make a difference in brightness and, Sony claims, power efficiency. I do wish the LCD was tiltable, but it's understandable that it wouldn't be on such a diminutive camera.

Since you can't change lenses on the RX100, it's important that Sony include a good one. You shouldn't have too many complaints about this Zeiss effort, though — while it can get a little soft in the corners, it's fast, bright, and generally resolves a lot of detail. Distortion is a little strong at the wide end, though you'll only notice when shooting in RAW as the camera corrects everything for you in JPEG. I'd also have liked a little more flexibility in the zoom range; starting at 28mm isn't wide enough for a lot of shots, and the 100mm telephoto reach only offers 3.6x zoom from there. Canon's S90 and S95 had similar (albeit slower) lenses, but the S100 moved to a more versatile 24-120mm equivalent and it'd be good to see Sony do the same in future. It's also worth pointing out that you only get the f/1.8 aperture at the RX100's widest setting — it drops to f/2.0 at 29mm and by 50mm you're limited to f/3.2. Really, though, the lens is a pretty impressive achievement when you consider that it's faster than any of the considerably larger offerings for Nikon's 1 system.

To get a better idea of what Sony has achieved with the RX100's hardware design, take a look at this chart of various competing camera sensor sizes:

If you've ever used a Sony Alpha DSLR or SLT, you'll be right at home with the RX100. It uses essentially the same menu system, and it's a pretty sensible and logical one. The best thing about it, though, is that you won't have to use it much — the RX100's buttons and dials are customizable to the extent that you can usually just keep on shooting. It's all down to that S100-style control ring surrounding the lens, which has to go down as one of Canon's better innovations in the past few years. This ring can be programmed to do just about anything, from zoom to manual focus to aperture to ISO, and a Function button lets you quickly switch between these features.

It works on the RX100 the same way it does on the S100, which is to say very well barring a couple of quirks. When zooming, for example, it requires at least two full turns to move from wide to telephoto, which seems a bit much. The action is very smooth, too, which is great for manual focus but may disappoint those expecting it to function like a stepped aperture ring — you'll have to watch the screen to be exactly sure of what you're doing, whereas the S100's ring has clicking detents. By default, the center button switches between auto and manual focus, with the latter overriding any previous lens ring settings. That's a good call on Sony's part, especially as the RX100 uses the NEX series' excellent focus 'peaking' feature to highlight sharp areas of the image. Manual focus is usually a pain on compact cameras, but it's a joy on the RX100.

There's a traditional PASM dial up top, too, and in these modes the RX100 prioritizes the wheel surrounding the directional buttons on the back — so in A mode, for example, the wheel will control your aperture, and you're free to use the ring surrounding the lens for other functions. The twin wheels mean the RX100 is actually easier to use in full manual mode than many entry-level DSLRs. I often used it in M mode with the lens ring set to aperture, the rear wheel set to shutter speed, the drive mode button assigned to ISO, and the center button for switching between manual and automatic focus. P mode is another useful option as it works with program shift — you're free to select reciprocal combinations of aperture and shutter speed while the camera handles the rest of the exposure calculations. Brilliantly, you're able to set upper and lower limits in auto ISO mode, so for example telling the camera not to go below 1600 in low light should leave you with less blurry images. This is a feature often left out of even high-end cameras, including Sony's own, so it's a hugely pleasant surprise to see it included here. Another uncommonly pro-level feature is the Memory Recall position on the mode dial, which lets you choose up to three exposure presets that can be quickly accessed at any time.

Otherwise, the button layout is conventional. The shutter button is surrounded by a zoom rocker, there's a power button up top, and the back of the camera features five separate buttons (movie, function, menu, playback, help / delete) in addition to the five-way combination dial. The help button brings up advice in shooting modes to assist those who may not be au fait with the ins and outs of an advanced camera, and to that end the RX100 also features a couple of point-and-shoot-style automatic modes as well as scene selection. These work well enough, but if you're buying this camera you're probably not going to want to use them.

Sony typically has included some useful software features in its cameras, and the RX100 is no different. It has the same trademark Sweep Panorama and Handheld Twilight modes found in its Alpha DSLRs and NEX mirrorless cameras, both of which I've found genuinely useful in the past and honestly consider a major selling point. Less convincing, however, is the Auto Portrait Framing feature introduced with the A57 and NEX-F3. I'm happy for my camera to automatically bracket or stitch photos together, but having the "best" composition selected for me is a bit much. Elsewhere, you'll find the same picture effects as on the NEX-7, including a pretty fun tiltshift mode that lets you select the in-focus areas Instagram-style, and the camera also has fairly robust options for automatic dynamic range optimization and HDR shooting.