Both Pentax MX-1 and Sony W230 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Pentax MX-1's sensor is 1/1.7-inch (7.44 x 5.58 mm ) and Sony W230's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ).
Since Pentax MX-1's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Sony W230.
Below you can see the MX-1 and W230 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Pentax MX-1 has a 1.5x Larger sensor area than Sony W230. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.