The cheap chinese brands are never going to be on price point with Japanese or Korean. So you first compared the "stingy" Sony with a far more expensive Samsung Note... when the more comparable yet still more expensive Galaxy S8 is also 4gb ram for it's 64GB model & when you agree that was not fair you decide to compare it to a cheaper brand (with it's own short comings ignored)
As for that cheap Chinese brand... why with all that power have they been reported to use a VW-esque benchmark detector to alter performance? Something that is true about the "real world" to playing "Top Trumps" with specs is how the components are actually made to work with each other & to be usable by a human interacting with it (things are often slowed down so we can use them)... a lot of efficiency can be made or lost that way, and lugging around things that are not optiminsed can make the lesser spec'd one outperform the one that should be better.
I wish I could say I trust Sony to do that better but I don't think anyone can say the Camera app does their components the best job when you think Apple and others use it's sister and seem to get better reviews in some circumstances. Which again is a factor... Phones are still tuned for their expected target audience not a benchmark that is the same for all users.
I have pre-ordered a XZ1 to replace my Z5 (replaced Z1 - S - X10) because it offers the mix of things I want from a phone (Audio & camera 1st) in the premium brand, design / price compromise.
