Both Sony S980 and Pentax Q-S1 have 12.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony S980's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ) and Pentax Q-S1's sensor is 1/1.7" (7.44 x 5.58 mm ).
Since Pentax Q-S1'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 S980.
Below you can see the S980 and Q-S1 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Pentax Q-S1 has a 1.5x Larger sensor area than Sony S980. 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.