44 MAY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE387
SONY’S‘COMPACT’SMARTPHONES
used to offer flagship-grade features, more
palatable prices and dinkier sizes. However,
following the launch of the Xperia 1(Shopper
380), it looked like Sony had ditched these
smaller handsets in favour of pricier big-
screened behemoths.
The Xperia 5, thankfully,partially
resembles the Compact models of old;sure,
it isn’t much smaller than Sony’s top-shelf
handsets, but the Xperia 5ischeaper while
offering similar functionality.
The 6.1in screen, forinstance,isanother
HDR OLED displaythat benefits from Sony’s
Bravia X1 enhancement tech; this gives a
colour and brightness boost to SDR content.
The resolution doesn’t match the Xperia 1’s
4K, but 2,520x1,080 is still nice and sharp.
What’s more,inits standard profile it can
cover 99.1%ofthe SRGB colour gamut, not to
mention 95.4% of the wider DCI-P3 gamut, so
it’s wonderfully vivid. Contrast is aperfect
Infinity:1 too, although peak brightness could
be better at 345cd/m^2.
That’s measured using anon-HDR white,
but even when HDR content is playing,
brightness still seems lower than on many
other HDR-enabled smartphones.
STRONG,SILENTTYPE
There’s plenty of power under the bonnet –
at least as much as current generation
hardware permits. The Xperia 5isfittedwith
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855mobile chipset,
which is clocked at 2.84GHz and works with
6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable
storage.That’s exactly the same setup as
the Xperia 1.
Performance is thus
identical as well. The
Xperia 5’s Geekbench 4
scores –3,450 in the
single-core and 11,490 in
the multicore test–don’t
deviatefrom the Xperia
1’s in any meaningful way,
and the Adreno 640 is
just as capable of playing
high-fidelity games. With
59fps in the GFXBench
Manhattan onscreen test
and 101fps in the
offscreen test, nothing on
the PlayStore should give
this phone trouble.
Usually,the biggest
causefor concern with
SONY Xperia5
★★★★★
£700•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
The Xperia 5reproduces the Xperia 1’s features for
alower price,and for the most part it succeeds
ANDROID9.0SMARTPHONE
such alarge screen is
the phone’s stamina.
Thankfully,indropping
the resolution down to
FHD+ and slightly
reducing the screen size,
Sony has managed to
squeeze out an extra
38% of use on asingle
charge according to our
in-house battery
rundown test, finally
reaching an admirable
17h 55m before needing
to recharge.
Another shared
feature with the Xperia 1
is the triple-lens camera
array, which is also
arranged vertically in the
centre of the back panel.
This incorporates a
collection of three
12-megapixel camera
sensors: one is aregular
lens with an f/1.6
aperture,the one below
it is a2xtelephotozoomsensor,and the
final one is awide-angle sensor.
Triple-camera arrangements aren’t new,of
course,but what’s particularly special about
the Xperia 5isthe co-development with
Sony’s Alpha camera team. The rather
effective eye-autofocus returns, allowing
you to keep your subject in focuswithout
toomucheffort on your part, and there’s
also the 10fps burst shooting mode,aswell
as more advanced
noise reduction.
DIRECTOR’S CUT
Sony’s CineAlta video-
editing app also returns,
which enables you to edit
your footageonthe fly
and apply cinema-grade
colour profiles to your
videos. Like the Xperia 1,
you can record in 4K, but
you’re restricted to 30fps
and 24fps frame rates.
It’s obvious that the
Xperia 5ispractically
bloated with features, but
how does the camera
perform? The short
answer is very well:
there’s plenty of fine
detail in images captured
in bright environments,
and in some instances, it
significantly outperforms
the OnePlus 7T Pro’s
(Shopper384) somewhat
soft-looking images.
Colours don’t look
muted, even in gloomy
weather,and aren’t
oversaturated and
candy-coloured, either.
We didn’t spot much
evidence of visual noise,
even in low-light
environments, with the
Xperia 5’s cameras doing
amighty fine job at
brightening up the scene
as the light dims.
In fact, the only
issue with the camera is
that object definition
isn’t particularly crisp.
Some of the building
outlines in our test
shots didn’t look particularly well defined,
and we spotted afew issues with the video
stabilisation. As you slowly pan across the
scene,the Xperia 5’s footagelooked abit too
juddery,which is unfortunate, as theimage
quality is actually very good.
ADIFFERENTANGLE
With an (almost) identical feature list as its
bigger brother,it’s certainly asmart move on
Sony’s parttobring the price of the Xperia 5
down apeg or two.You might be seeing
double,but considering you can get asimilar
sort of experience as the Xperia 1for just
alittle bit less,then the Xperia 5isafine
choice foranyone looking to upgrade.
NathanSpendelow
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 88 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2.84GHzQualcomm Snapdragon 855•
SCREENSIZE6.1in•SCREEN RESOLUTION2,520x1,080•
REAR CAMERAS13 megapixels,13megapixels,13megapixels•
STORAGE128GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•
DIMENSIONS156x73x8.6mm•WEIGHT164g•OPERATING
SYSTEMAndroid 9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.sonymobile.com•PART CODE1320-4897
SPECIFICATIONS
17h55m
