Sony Xperia 5

Review

Xperia 5 refers to its predecessor, Xperia 1. It is a smaller version, maintaining the best features of the original. It astonishes us with the quality of construction and the display, it provides a great sound and good cameras – and even though it has its flaws, I really think that this is a successful model.

The smartphone is slightly smaller than Xperia 1, but it keeps all the best features of the predecessor. It has a 6.1-inch Full HD+ OLED display, with a 21:9 CinemaWide ratio, along with Dolby Atmos sound and the Game Enhancer mode. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 6, both at the front and at the back of the housing. The device can boast with the IP68 certificate. A camera with three lenses is responsible for the photography, it has the Eye AF technology, known from Sony Alpha cameras. The phone has a Snapdragon 855 CPU, the presence of the Stamina mode, quick charging USB PD and a 3140 mAh battery, which surprises us with relatively long lifespans, deserve our commendation. The whole works under Android 9 Pie. In short, this is Sony Xperia 5. And you can have it for 699 euro.

Contents

• Packaging and accessories. Housing and display
• System and applications
• Sound. Photos and video
• Communication. Voice calls. Efficiency (benchmarks)
• Battery. Summary. Advantages and disadvantages

Packaging and accessories

In the white box we can find the smartphone, the charger (5V-3A/9V-2A/12C-1,5A), USB cable (with two USB-C plugs), in-ear earphones with a remote for calls and a microphone, USB-C to 3.5mm minijack adapter and some papers.

Housing and display

In the age of smartphones, which diagonal exceeds 6.5 inches, Xperia 5 is a nice change. It is smaller than its predecessor, which is Xperia 1 and it has a 6.1-inch display. With a prolonged screen ratio (21:9) the device looks like a really compact one, and it is narrow at the same time – which translates into a handiness. Its dimensions are 158x68x8.2 mm – the smartphone is even taller than Galaxy S10+, but narrower than most models on the market. It lies in hands perfectly, but if you are accustomed to carrying a phone in your pocket, in the case of Xperia 5 you really need to have a deep one.

Xperia 5 has a minimalistic and an elegant design and it impresses us with the quality of construction. We received a black colour version – it might be a common one, but it is really elegant. The device is relatively light – it weighs 164 grams. It is worth adding that it ensures a high level of resistance to dust and water (IP68) and it survived a few accidental falls without any damage. There is no protective foil on the display, but it is worth adding that both the front and the back are protected by Gorilla Glass 6.

Not everyone will like the shape of the Sony flagship – some will prefer other proportions, like a wider display. Personally, I like this solution, which was used in other models of this manufacturer and smartphones of other companies, like in Motorola One Action and One Vision.

The display itself was created in the OLED technology, which ensures a deep level of black and fantastically saturated colours. The display has a 1080x2520 pixels resolution, which translates into 449ppi – this value ensures a sharp and a clear image. It is worth adding that the phone can be easily used while wearing glasses with polarizing filters. Sony added a support for HDR and the Triluminos and X-Reality Engine technologies, which enhance the quality of the image. The smartphone supports the Widevine L1 standard, thanks to which we can stream videos from services like Netflix or Amazon Prime in a high resolution.

I definitely like the fact that Sony did not disfigured the display with any notches or holes – instead there is a classic solution – a slightly thicker bezel in its upper part, in which there is the speaker and the camera lens, as well as the notifications LED in the left corner. The lower bezel is slightly thicker as well. Big bezels in the upper and lower parts of smartphones produced by Sony were its characteristic feature (they were called landing fields or other nice epithets). Those in Xperia 5 are not bothersome in an everyday work, they provide a display with a relatively not rounded corners and they do not ruin its symmetry.

On the back, shiny panel made out of glass there is a triple camera with a LED flash and the IR sensor, Sony’s logo and the NFC marking, which indicates the location of the antenna. It is worth adding that Xperia 5 is a magnet for fingerprints, which are clearly visible on the glass. The biggest problem is something else – the glass housing is extremely slick. The phone slides on every not entirely flat surface and it can slip out of our hands easily, especially when we are wearing gloves during the winter.

The frame of the device is made out of metal, it is nicely profiled and it is perfectly fitted with glass panels. There is a lot going on the right side. The manufacturer placed a small button for the volume control, a power/lock button and a physical trigger for the camera. Buttons are relatively small and they are not placed high above the housing level, but they have a good and a clear “click”. There is a small cavity between them, in which there is a fingerprint scanner – it is placed exactly where our right thumb or the index finger usually reach. The scanner is fast, but it is moderately precise – sometimes it took two or three times to unlock the display. Its efficiency is one thing, but it could have been integrated with the power button – it would have more sense. It is done in smartphones, which cost half of what we need to pay for Xperia 5 (like Honor 20 Pro or Huawei P Smart Pro). However, like I said, the power button is a separate one. Still, for the price we need to pay, which is around 700 pounds, we could expect the newest solutions, like a scanner built into the display. I will add that within the Smart Lock function there is another biometrical security, which is Trusted Face- we just need to look at the display in order to unlock it.

I will add that Sony is probably the last manufacturer who still adds a separate button for the camera. And this is a solution that works in numerous situations. The button has two steps, it can be used to run the camera when the display is locked (we just need to hold it a bit longer) and it basically works without any problems. Though the fact that we are accustomed to the virtual trigger means that we often forget about its presence.

On the lower edge there is a USB-C socket, one of the speakers and the microphone’s hole, while on the upper one we can notice only a single element – a hole of the additional microphone. There is only the left side left, on which we can see a rather large flap – after prying it with our fingernail we can remove the tray, in which we can place either two SIM cards or one nanoSIM and one microSD cards.

System and applications

Xperia 5 has Android 9 Pie, and the last security updates are dated on the 1st of October 2019. Sony has already released Android 10 for Xperia 1 and Xperia 5, so a software update is only a matter of time. Sony has its own add-on (Sony UI Android 9), which in some aspects has some traces of the manufacturer’s modifications (icons, colours, apps menu and others), but basically it is a relatively pure system. However, it has a lot of preinstalled apps and additions. The whole works fast and smoothly, but not without errors – there are some unexpected apps close downs or problems with the camera app.

Some of preinstalled apps are definitely worthy of our attention and they enhance the basic package of the system’s capabilities (like great replacements of Google apps for playing music and browsing photos). There is a software which is supposed to enhance cameras’ capabilities, like 3D Creator, Cinema Pro and Movie Creator. Gaming enhancer can be useful as well. But there is a lot of software that most users could live without (or they could install it on their own), like Prime Video, Netflix, Fortinte installer, Booking.com, Amazon Shopping or Apshalt 9. After turning the phone for the first time and going through configuration steps it is worth noticing what it says in pop up boxes – in one of them the manufacturer can force you to install an even higher number of additional apps, which will install even more bloatware.

Due to the size of the phone we basically cannot use it with one hand. Which is why we can find here a one hand usage mode and the notifications bar can be dropped down if we swipe our finger down anywhere on the screen. Many apps have no problems with the screen ratio, but we must be aware of the fact that many of those, which we can install from the Google store will show black bars.

And what does the add-on from the manufacturer offer? We can find different ways of navigating through the system, we can divide the screen (it works great on the long display) and we can use the additional menu by touching the edge (Side Sense). The latter solution is supposed to enhance and speed up the work of the phone, showing shortcuts for the most often used apps and options. But it is basically more bothersome, especially when we draw it out by accident. And actions, to which it is supposed to create shortcuts, can be done faster in a traditional way. Sony Xperia 5 offers a smart backlight – as long as the user looks at it, it will remain turned on, there is a support for smart calls as well, for example when it comes to muting a ringtone or receiving a call.

Sound

Sony Xperia 5 will not let down fans of smartphone sounds. Not only does it provide powerful and loud stereo speakers, it has the Dolby Atmos technology as well. The main speaker is on the lower edge, and the second one – on the upper frame, above the display, and it is used as a receiver by default. If you like to listen to music through wireless earphones you will be definitely interested in the fact that the smartphone supports Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD and LDAC (a codec developed by Sony, which transfers a high resolution audio through Bluetooth). And the sound is really perfect. The only thing that is missing is a minijack – as a consolation, Sony adds a 3.5mm minijack to USB-C adapter and rather simple earphones, which (what is weird) have a minijack. Provided that the phone does not have such a socket it would be logical to add earphones with a USB-C plug.

Sony had another feature connected with the sound – Dynamic Vibrations. It provides vibrations harmonized with the played sound, which is supposed to provide better “feelings when consuming multimedia”. That is the theory. This solution will have its fans of course, but I will not be one of them. For me they were more bothersome than anything else, so I quickly turned this option off.

Photos and video

Sony has a long history when it comes to cameras, and it is one of the most popular manufacturer of cameras for smartphones. But I always had a feeling that Sony’s sensors always work better in its competition than in its own smartphones with the Sony logo. So now it is a great occasion to verify this. The triple camera in Sony Xperia 5 has these units:

• 12-megapixel main camera, f/1.6, PDAF, OIS
• 12-megapixel camera, 2x optical zoom, f/2.4, PDAF, OIS
• wide-angle – 12-megapixel, f/2.4, 137 degrees, fixed focus

In practice, this is the same set of cameras as in Sony Xperia 1.

And how does photos from Xperia 5 look like? Subjectively speaking, I would rate them as weaker than those offered by flagships from Huawei, Samsung or Apple. The default work mode slightly enhances photos when it comes to the contrast, colours, HDR and other features. It chooses an appropriate scenery to conditions and it adjusts particular parameters based on this. And it usually does so in a natural way, it does not use HDR too much, it does not artificially sharpen the photo, it does not expose them and it does not saturate colours too much, which happens all too often in smartphones from the competition. We can adjust photos after switching into the professional mode, in which we can set the white balance, ISO or the exposition. Eye AF works nice, which is an option that focuses on eyes of the photographed person – thanks to this in every photo with a photographed person its face was appropriately focused on.

There is no dedicated night mode that can be turned on manually, but it runs thanks to the AI when conditions are appropriate. There is a wide-angle lens (137 degrees), which is a lot, but it provides a clearly noticeable fish eye effect (even if we will select the priority of correcting distortions over of the image quality in options). It is pointless to use it during the night – photos are dark, full of noises and just bad.

Here is the comparison of particular work modes of the camera:

Here are photography results:

The camera app offers a high functionality, but it could have been more user friendly. Especially when it comes to switching between cameras – we can do this through a small icon on the screen, there is no direct access to particular lenses in order to compare shots. In order to go to the wide angle, we need to go through the telephoto lens. The panel itself is not overloaded – we have two main modes – photos and videos – and additional ones after we will tap the MODE icon. In addition, there are icons of the LED flash, adding a bokeh effects, changing photo’s ratio, modifying the white balance and exposition, there is an icon of switching between the main and the front camera (we can just swipe our finger through the screen) and settings. Additional modes cover self-portrait, Google Lens, Slow motion, Manual, Creative effect and Panorama.

Xperia 5 can record videos in the maximum quality of 4K with 30 frames per second or in 1080p with 60 frames per second. There is a slow motion mode (120 fps). Among the preinstalled soft there is the Cinema Pro app, thanks to which we can record in 21:9 ratio, we can adjust the shutter speed, ISO, focus and colours. This is basically a pro mode for recording videos in the 21:9 ratio. There is even a possibility to view the volume level in the stereo mode, information whether HDR is on or not and the amount of the memory left.

Here are video recording results:

The front camera has 8 megapixels, an f/2.0 brightness lens, fixed focus and digital image stabilization. The photo quality is satisfactory, though sometimes it is difficult to hit the focus. Details drop down quickly in worse lighting conditions. It is obvious that the smartphone likes to smoothen the user’s skin – in the self-portrait mode we can tone down this process. The photos’ quality is rather appropriate and average – selfies are neither bad, nor particularly good.

Communication

As we can expect from a flagship, Xperia 5 offers a full package of the quickest and the most efficient communication options. There is a dual-channel Wi-Fi that works in the 802.11 ac standard, Bluetooth 5.0 that supports aptX HD nad LDAC codecs, there is a dual SIM usage (including LTE, VoLTE and VoWi-Fi), NFC and USB-C 3.1 (with the OTG support). In addition, there is a large set of the most important sensors. The smartphone offers the navigation based on GPS and GLONASS – when I was indoors I did not manage to get a fix and pinpoint my location, but I managed to do this without any problems and delays outside. It showed my location and the route precisely, both while walking and while driving a car.

Voice calls

The reviewed model supports two SIM cards in the hybrid solution (one of slots is shared with a microSD card). I have no concerns towards the quality of calls – I heard my interlocutors loud and clearly, even in a noisy surrounding. The microphone catches the sound nicely, and the additional microphone works great with reducing noises, like those from the traffic.

Memory and efficiency

The smartphone provides 128GB of internal memory (UFS 2.1), out of which, after turning the phone for the first time, the user is left with 111GB. In addition, we can place a microSD card - Xperia 5 supports drives of up to 512GB.

One of the strongest CPUs available on the market is responsible for the smoothness and the speed of work – Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. The octa-core unit is supported by Adreno 640 GPU and 6GB of RAM. In this configuration it is really difficult to complain about anything. Everything works fast and smoothly, though during the most intensive usage the device heats up noticeably. There are no problems with running apps or switching between them, it handles multitasking, using all multimedia or playing the most demanding games in the highest graphics settings.

Battery

I expected drastically short lifespans from a 3140 mAh battery , but Xperia 5 does not stand out from a typical standard. Not that they are impressive – they are just decent. This is thanks to the great optimization and a Full HD+ resolution display (let me remind you that in Xperia 1 we had a 4K resolution screen) – from the point of view of the user it is important that during even the most intensive work it will survive a 1.5 day. And even longer, if we use the Stamina mode.

The charging itself takes around 100-110 minutes from zero to 100%. After 30 minutes the battery achieves 50%, but then the speed of charging drops down and only after almost 2 hours we can enjoy the full battery. I was surprised with the lack of a wireless charging – I expected this technology from a smartphone from the highest shelf.

• lifespan with the display on (YouTube, 1 SIM card, active Wi-Fi module, 50% screen brightness, minimum sound level) – 15 hours and 41 minutes,
• PC Mark battery test score – I did not manage to finish the benchmark,
• Geekbench score (full discharge) – 5538 points, discharge after 9 hours and 16 minutes,
• an hour of video streaming (Chrome, 1 SIM card, active Wi-Fi module, 50% screen brightness) - 10% of the battery lost,
• an hour of playing videos from the phone’s memory (airplane mode, 50% screen brightness) - 8%,
• half an hour of using online navigation - 6%,
• half an hour of playing Real Racing 3 - 8%,
• 8 hours in the standby mode - 6-7%.

Summary

Sony Xperia 5 is a successful smartphone, which has numerous advantages – most of all, the quality of construction, display’s parameters, great speakers and a high efficiency. However, it gives way to the competition, when it comes to ergonomics, which will not please everyone, cameras, which are weaker than in the competition or the fingerprint scanner that does not use its full potential.

Sony Xperia 5 is a successful continuation of the road that the manufacturer took along with Xperia 1. It did not fall for the trend of bezel-less devices, rounded displays or hundreds of megapixels in cameras – the five does not introduce revolutionary changes, and in some cases it can even be a weaker version of its predecessor. Thanks to this it is slightly cheaper and handier. It will appeal to those who are looking for smaller (or narrower) flagships – here they have a limited choice, and its main competition are Samsung Galaxy S10e or iPhone 11. If the size is not a problem, we can look at slightly bigger devices like Honor 20 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, Asus ZenFone 6 or OnePlus 7T lub 7 Pro.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

• handy shape
• high efficiency
• parameters and the display’s quality
• classic design – no notches or holes in the display
• we do not need a tool to open the tray for SIM/microSD cards
• sound quality and stereo speakers
• Dolby Atmos and vibration system
• physical trigger of the shutter
• notifications LED
• good photos quality, especially from the main camera
• great quality of construction
• IP68 dust and waterproofness
• Gorilla Glass 6 at the front and at the back
• adapter from mini-jack to USB-C in the set

Disadvantages

• extremely slick housing, which attracts fingerprints and can be used as a mirror
• smartphone resets after replacing SIM cards
• lack of a minijack
• the phone might be too tall or too long for some
• bloatware, seldom errors
• fingerprint scanner integrated with the power/lock button
• photos are not on the same level as in the flagship competition
• no autofocus in the wide-angle lens
• fingerprint scanner is not precise
• lack of a wireless charging
• high price

Source: GSMchoice.com

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