Verdict
The Xperia 5 vanadium is a sack - favorable and powerful phone with unusual feature of speech like a earphone diddlysquat and expandable memory . It ’s not gross , but it is very prosperous to live with .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Sony Xperia 5 V model one footstep down from Sony ’s mainstream top - tier up phone , theXperia 1 V.
This one is cheaper , small , that bit more approachable . And I ’d find it easier to recommend it to more masses as a effect .
As with most Sony phones these daytime , it ’s not that competitive for economic value , though . Here ’s the Crux Australis : the Sony Xperia 5 V does n’t have a rapid growth camera . TheSamsung Galaxy S23,Google Pixel 8 ProandOnePlus 11have one of these zooms for similar money , or significantly less .
However , I ca n’t deny I ’ve enjoyed using the Sony Xperia 5 fivesome , particularly for its strong battery life , petite size of it and strong-arm earphone jack .
Design
Sony ’s phone design is the cockroach of the headphone world . dynasty rise and fall , but the Sony monolith design stay .
I ’m not generally a Brobdingnagian lover of this style in Sony ’s biggest phones . The box-shaped frame take the body feel larger than they are . But the Sony Xperia 5 pentad is tiny , letting this design radiance .
It ’s a minimal - compromise style too . The Sony Xperia 5 V sides are aluminium , the front glass is Corning ’s superb Gorilla Glass Victus 2 . Its back is a frosted deoxyephedrine , but does n’t use Victus 2 .
I ’ve found it quite easy to scratch , having put a abrasion in the ass despite keeping it off from sand or grit . It demo up like a silver line when it catches the twinkle . A case might be an idea here ( one is not include ) .
The raised rear of the Sony Xperia 1 vanadium seems a lot more forgiving . That phone ’s aim has a act more going on too , with a sort - of corrugated effect to the metal side as well as the funky rear .
Is that deserving yield an special £ 450 for ? Obviously not , and plenty of the other Sony design quirks are here too .
The Sony 5 Xperia V has the rare of rare thing in a high - end sound : a earphone seaman . I ’ve used it to mostly dump wireless earpiece during testing . It also has a side - mounted fingerprint scanner . As in the Sony Xperia 1 V , it ’s not the quickest around and engage a beat to get you to the domicile screen from standby .
Screen
The Sony Xperia 5 V ’s presentation sizing is the most interesting matter about this blind . It ’s 6.1 column inch across , making it fairly small for its social class .
Like other Xperia phones , the bod is unusually tall too , with a 21:9 aspect ratio . It does n’t have a notch or perforate hole either , rather cramming the front photographic camera into a piffling black streak above the screen door .
Much like admit a headphone sea dog , Sony like to bear witness it does n’t just follow tendency . You may remark the bezel wait a moment larger than some here , though .
Fresh out of the box , I found the color temperature a bit too blue and nerveless , and the tone too saturated . As when you buy a TV , the nonremittal mode is designed to make it appear bright , poppier .
However , Sony does include a heavy preset that warm up the tone , while toning down the colour saturation a bit . Switch to this Creator modality and you ’re gold .
This is an OLED jury , netting you excellent viewing slant and ultra - deep blacks . Peak brightness is square too , if nothing all that notable whenmid - range phonescan often get stuffy to 1000 nits , just like the Sony Xperia 5 V. A 120Hz refresh is too common to be interesting these days , but may well make scrolling appear super - smooth if you ’re upgrading from a telephone a few eld former ( one more probable to use a 60Hz screenland ) .
I think the Xperia ’s showing is perhaps a little too little to be ideal for watching moving-picture show . But I have catch a t of YouTube videos on this minuscule matter , no problem . Speaker quality is fair , with a stereo driver regalia , but it does n’t have the small - frequency beefiness of the right .
Cameras
There ’s good and risky news in the Sony Xperia 5 Little Phoebe television camera . It has the same 48MP Sony IMX 888 detector as the more expensive Sony Xperia 1 V , which is great .
We do n’t get any shape of ironware zoom , though . While there is a 2x rapid growth release in the television camera app , it employ a digital craw of the standard view .
The second camera is a 12MP ultra - wide , which again appears to use the same hardware as the Xperia 1 V.
Sony ’s primary photographic camera performs well in just about all scenario . Day time , Nox time , backlit ? No problem . The jazz band of big sensor , ocular stabilisation and solid enough computational photography for decent night - prison term images is a success .
front back over the pictures I took with the Sony 5 V , its impinge on rate of technically solid shots is high .
There are just a few surface area in which the experience does n’t play off the best - in - course performer .
First , at times I find the Sony ’s HDR optimisation does not go quite as far as it could , or at least fail to in full kick in . This results in the casual too - bright sky or fumble highlight .
The Sony Xperia 5 volt is also only barn - grade in more taxing low - light conditions . I compared it to theHonor Magic 5 Pro , one of this year ’s somewhat under - appreciated television camera monstrosity , and the Honor was far better at pick out clean , well-defined detail from the extreme shadows .
Those area are a bit muddier and mirky through the Xperia 5 quintuplet ’s eye , basically pit what I consider in the Sony Xperia 1 V. Here ’s a scene comparison :
In a few shot I ’ve noticed some purple colour noise and , as in other Sony phones , I do n’t always know the manner the Xperia 5 V handle its honey oil . mess of images have , to my eyes , profit from warming up the mid - tones in Photoshop afterwards . This may just be my taste butting head with Sony ’s house manner on colour .
Mostly , though , I was just leave alone wish the sound had a zoom photographic camera a few time . 2X digital crops look perfectly good , but when you channelise towards the maximum 6x , everything takes a turn for the questionable .
lowly text becomes garbled like that of a knavish AI - generated image . You know what earphone had a telephoto photographic camera ? The Sony Xperia 5 IV from a yr earlier .
Still , I have to admit I ’m quite impressed by the sense of point the Sony Xperia 5 V Foster at 6x zoom given it ’s a digital concoction .
I ’m quite happy with the detail handling throughout . Zoom into stock 1x shots and there ’s none of that “ digitally painted ” character seen when disturbance reduction algorithms go haywire and start turning glass into painterly patterns .
Even the 12MP ultrawide produces respectable detail , although in some shots , I see quite a noticeable fall in sharpness and clearness at the very corner of the frame — with both standard and ultra - wide lenses .
You also get Sony ’s singular raiment of exposure / video apps in the Xperia 5 V. The Photo Pro stills apps have advanced manual and semi - manual musical mode that emulate what you get in Sony ’s mirrorless cameras .
It ’s great for creative shots where you require exculpated controller over the shutter speed , but for general shot ? Stick to the default mode , which is mostly point - and - shoot . you’re able to still use the sound ’s physical shutter button if you like .
The custom apps are perhaps more utilitarian for television . These are Cinema Pro and Video Pro . They sound like they should be the same , but have dissimilar goals .
Video Pro is not mile off the standard video recording shooting experience , but with unusually proficient concentrate and zoom control . Cinema Pro expect you to place your shot parameter before you tap the shutter button , because itdoesn’tlet options switch as you shoot , to fit with changes in lighting .
This could make your video count professional , or make them all unserviceable . These apps are n’t mean for utterly everyone .
The Sony Xperia 5 V can spud video at up to 4 K solving , at up to 120 material body per second gear . At that maximum setting you lose electronic image stabilisation , but you do get it at 4K60 , which is what I require .
Video quality and versatility are good . The front 12MP photographic camera produce quality selfies too , although in a sour room you will have to lease the sieve behave as a makeshift New York minute , or images predictably become more stodgy - looking .
Performance
The Sony Xperia 5 V has a very mellow - performance processor , theQualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 .
This same SoC is used by theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultra(albeit a customs version ) and the step - up Sony Xperia 1 V. There are no specification cut here , and while its 8 GB RAM is n’t quite as high as some , it ’s enough .
you may basically do anything here that you ’d do with any otherperformance - driven Android , and hard games are going to hunt down attractively .
However , I found its operation over extended periods of strain is not great . In 3D Mark ’s extended 20 - minute of arc Wild Life Extreme test , the Xperia 5 V mislay 55 % of its peak carrying out over time due to heat soma - up .
Maximum performance was maintained for four minutes , after which it gradually collapsed to the point where effective artwork public presentation was , at best , that of a mid - range CPU rather than a top - end one .
These severe operation dips are not rare in earpiece with top - closing Qualcomm processors . It ’s a pillowcase of balance execution against heat generation , but the Sony Xperia 5 quintet is among the uncollectible showcase I ’ve seen .
It kinda make believe sense — a smaller - screen phone like this is less obviously made for play than anAsus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate . The sound getting too spicy is more likely to be noticed here than in high spirits - level thermal throttling designed to debar exactly that issue . Sony has favour not making the phone too red-hot over getting better skeleton rates in tenacious drama sessions . And maybe that ’s fine .
That say , I ’ve had no problems with the Sony Xperia 5 V ’s daylight - to - day carrying into action .
Software
The Sony Xperia 5 quint runs Android 13 and has the usual Sony interface plastered on top . It ’s a good - looking software stratum give a bit of Sony gloss with a bucketload of attractive colour - slope - infuse wallpapers .
Take them away , though , and it ’s not too far off the Android norm . We get a white - back app menu that scrolls by vertically , and the apps inside it can be do either mechanically or using your own ordering .
There ’s a serial of special apps preinstalled , but the majority of them are USPs ( unequalled selling point ) rather than sodding bloat .
For starter , there are the supererogatory camera apps mention in the photographic camera section of this review , plus a telecasting editor suite .
There ’s also a multi - track music recorder app call Music Pro . This have you treat the Sony Xperia 5 vanadium like a musical scrapbook .
Much like the other bonus apps , this one is to cue us Sony is also a big name in other areas — Sony Music is a vast medicine publisher . Is it worth carry your buying decision over ? dead not .
Battery life
The Sony Xperia 5 V has a 5000mAh battery , just like the previous role model in this series . It ’s much higher capacity than the baseSamsung Galaxy S23 , which has a 3900mAh bombardment .
It pays off , because battery life is perhaps the one thing I ’ve appreciated most about the Xperia 5 V. It ’s a phone that does n’t depart you anxious about whether it will last through the day or not , which ca n’t be said about all Androids this powerful .
While it does n’t , in my experience , match the length of service of the cheaper Sony Xperia 10 series , waving goodbye to basic stamp battery anxiousness should not be underrate .
The Sony Xperia 5 V needs it , though , because its charging speed is fairly pitiful . This phone does not come with a charger , but it does support up to 30W charging . Using a high - major power compatible charger , it take 34 hour to contact 50 % and 100 minute to arrive at 100 % .
When you’re able to get 120W phones for the same money or less , 30W is n’t cutting it anymore . It does n’t feel like fast charging in 2023 .
I ’d switch the in its more ripe charging features , wireless and reverse wireless charging , for faster cabled care .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
This phone is powerful but not too gravid , and has above - average barrage life to rush .
As with a muckle of Sony phones , the Xperia 5 V is not a leader on value , and even lack the zoom photographic camera its predecessor had .
Final Thoughts
The Sony Xperia 5 V is not the best value phone you may get at this level . It does n’t have reliable fast charging , a zoom camera , or the beefiest utterer set out around . But it does have other appealing parts .
This is a comparatively petite phone with plenty of power . It has a earpiece jack , not found anywhere else at this level . And its battery life inspire confidence and helps make up for the fact a 5 - hour guardianship does n’t go as far here as it would in most rivals .
While there are spate of piddling issue to point out , the actual experience of survive with the Sony Xperia 5 V is an entirely painless one .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every peregrine phone we review thoroughly . We use diligence - standard tests to compare features decent and we use the telephone set as our master gimmick over the review stop . We ’ll always tell you what we find oneself and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
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FAQs
It has splendid IP58 and IP58 H2O impedance , allowing for submersion at a profoundness of 1.5 chiliad for 30 minute of arc .
A 3.5 mm headphone jack sits on the top of the earphone .
The phone has a microSD time slot on the undersurface of its SIM card bearer .
Test Data
Full Specs
