Sony has officially announced the Xperia 5 IV, its latest compact flagship smartphone.
We were fans of last year’s Sony Xperia 5 III, which offered flagship specs in a smaller-than-usual form factor. However, it was undoubtedly lacking a few key features, especially for its relatively high asking price.
Sony’s latest compact flagship might just address a couple of our concerns. The Xperia 5 IV packs in a familiar 6.1-inch 21:9 FHD+ HDR OLED display, but this time around Sony claims that it’s 50% brighter than before.
There’s been an expected performance bump, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 matching the Sony Xperia 1 IV from earlier in the year. This is where Sony’s timing with the Xperia 5 IV could prove a little off, with premium compacted rival the Asus Zenfone 9 both beating it to market and packing the superior Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1.
We were impressed with the Xperia 5 III’s battery life last year, but Sony has doubled down with a significantly larger 5,000mAh battery, up from 4,500mAh in the Xperia 5 III. This one could be a stamina champ.
More notable than that bigger battery, however, is the inclusion of wireless charging. The omission of this feature in such a premium-priced phone was a bit of a sticking point in the Xperia 5 III, so this is a welcome addition.
The headline feature with all of Sony’s flagship phones tends to be the camera system, which is invariably one of the fastest-firing and most locked on around. Once again you’re getting a triple-12MP rear set-up, but this time all three cameras get the company’s superb Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking. A key difference to the Xperia 1 IV is that the telephoto isn’t variable.
You also get a new and improved 12MP front camera (up from 8MP), which is capable of improved low-light shots and capturing 4K HDR video.
Alongside these stand-out specs, you get the usual stand-out Sony features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and an extensive IP68 / IP65 rating.
One thing remains a potential sticking point from last year’s model: the hefty price. The Sony Xperia 5 IV is set to retail for £949 / $999 / €1049 when it goes on sale in late-September 2022, which is £50 / $50 more expensive than the Xperia 5 III.
Max has already had some hands-on time with the Sony Xperia 5 IV, so check out his initial thoughts here.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
