Sony Xperia 5 review

Competition

So what are your options if you're after a phone that can sort of almost go unnoticed in your pocket? One of them is yet to be announced, so let's get it out of the way first - the Pixel 4 will likely be missing an ultra wide angle camera, so the Xperia starts off well in this battle. We can't see the Pixel match the Xperia in battery life either (an educated guess on our end here). On the other hand, the Pixel will have all the Pixel goodies like the speediest of updates, free cloud storage, and amazing image quality, plus the Soli front camera gestures if that's your thing.

Samsung Galaxy S10e • Galaxy S10 • Galaxy Note10 • Apple iPhone 11 Pro • Xiaomi Mi 9 SE

Back to the here and now. Compact Galaxies can be had for as much as an Xperia 5, and there are even three of them, depending on how compact is compact enough for you. The S10e is the smallest one you can have and it's a good 16mm shorter, but you'd be sacrificing the telephoto camera. An S10 will match the X5's camera setup, but loses the endurance race by a lot. The Note10's battery life and camera count equal the Xperia's and it's got an S Pen, but it's the furthest from 'compact' in this bunch.

The iPhone 11 Pro is worth a look too. Triple camera, great display, (promised) awesome battery life, reasonably sized (if very heavy) - there's a lot going for it. There's the tiny caveat that the 11 Pro will be some 25% more expensive.

So here's a much cheaper alternative then, going for about a third of the Xperia's price - the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE. Yes, it's got a midrange chipset, but the Snapdragon 712 is still plenty powerful and a ton of users wouldn't know where to look for the difference. There's a very capable triple camera on the Mi 9 SE, one of the most well rounded setups you can find for the money. Battery life may not be Xperia level, but it's easily good enough. The Xiaomi compact is also compacter than the Sony one, and let's reiterate the best bit about it - you can have three Mi 9 SEs for the price of an Xperia 5.

Verdict

The Compact lives on in the Xperia 5! Sony's created another pocketable (at least by the standards of the day) high-end phone that isn't really missing any of the true flagship's features and, as an added bonus, even outlasts it in the endurance race. The Xperia 5 is then easy to recommend if you're a Sony fan, a Sony Compact fan, or just out for a small top-tier handset.

The Pixel 4 might prove to be your thing when it arrives, an iPhone 11 Pro could make sense if you're fruitily inclined, and a selection of reasonably-sized Galaxies exist that may tempt you as well. Esteemed rivals these, and ones that the Xperia 5 can easily take on, so be sure то keep the small(-ish) Sony towards the top of your shortlist.

Pros

• Bright and HDR-capable notchless cinematic display.
• Class-leading battery life.
• Flagship-grade Snapdragon 855 chipset.
• Classy design with IP68-certification.
• Excellent stereo speakers setup.
• Top notch camera experience, photo and video.
• Night-time shots are Sony's best yet.
• Eye tracking auto focus and super fast Face tracking make the camera stand out.
• The Xperia UI is clean and snappy and integrates nicely with Sony's ecosystem.

Cons

• No audio jack.
• No 4K@60fps video recording.
• No night mode (though regular low-light photos are superb already).
• We wish the ultra wide cam had autofocus.
• Audio output quality is not on the level of competition.
• No Wireless charging.
• No Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) support even though the chipset supports it.