Sony Xperia 5 V review

Display

The Sony Xperia 5 V seems to have borrowed its display straight from the Xperia 5 IV - it's a 6.1-inch OLED with a 21:9 aspect ratio, 10-bit color depth and 120Hz refresh rate.

The panel has an actual resolution of 1,080 x 2,560 pixels (449ppi), supports HDR10 and fully covers BT.2020 color space (Creatobr Mode is present). This is also one of the few panels on the market without any cutouts.

The display settings offer two Image Quality models - Standard and Creator (with Auto Creator mode available). You can tweak the White Balance in each of those manually or choose from three different presets (Warm, Medium, Cool). Cool White balance is the default setting in Standard mode, while Medium is used in Creator.

Let's start with our brightness measurements.

The factory default setting is Standard with Cool White Balance. Here, we measured 587 nits of manual brightness with a boost up to 875 nits in Auto brightness mode. Opting for Medium White Balance (for better color accuracy) yielded a maximum of 605 nits in manual control and 908 nits in Auto brightness. Not that much of a difference, but still.

We measured the maximum possible manual brightness of 647 nits, when using the Creator display mode with its default Medium White Balance setting.

Finally, the minimum brightness at point white was just 1.7 nits, which is excellent for use in dark environments.

Color accuracy

The Xperia 5 V offers the same color settings as on the 1 V and all other high-end Xperias in recent years. The setting for 'Image quality' lets you pick between Creator and Standard modes, while further tweaking is possible in the 'White balance' section - options include Warm/Medium/Cool presets, as well as RGB sliders for extra granular tweaking.

Color settings

Creator mode can adjust the display's colors according to the content the phone is being served - so, in theory, it should auto switch between sRGB and DCI-P3 as needed. Its quirk is that it doesn't do it for our testing software, though, so we couldn't get representative readings for DCI-P3 content. You should be alright using with any application where color accuracy is essential.

When it comes to sRGB, however, we got very accurate results with the White point set to D65 and the White Balance set to Warm (or even Medium). The default Standard mode with its Cool White Balance offers slightly bluish white and grays, which is to be expected.

Refresh rate

Just like on the Sony phones before the Xperia 5 V, there is only one high refresh rate option - enabled or disabled. When active, the display will always use a 120Hz refresh rate, even when showing a static picture. The usual exceptions like Google Maps, video playback, and the camera viewfinder apply, of course.

Sony is way behind the competition when handling the refresh rate behavior, and we are sad to see it has passed yet another year without any sort of improvement.

Game Enhancer

Games have their own way of handling the refresh rate if you have added them in the Game Enhancer. From the Game Enhancer app, you can switch the refresh rate for the display to 120Hz for titles that can go above 60fps - it's at 60Hz by default. You can also force it to 120Hz regardless of whether you know for a fact that the game itself supports a higher frame rate - just to be sure. That's done on a per-game basis.

While using Game Enhancer, you may notice there is a 240Hz option, too. Sony calls this blur reduction, and it uses frame interpolation to reduce blur when 120Hz is supported by the game.

Game Enhancer refresh rate settings

HDR and streaming

The Sony Xperia 5 V OLED has a great display for movie streaming - 21:9 aspect ratio, 1B colors, HDR10. Dolby Vision is not supported, unfortunately.

Netflix has yet to support the Xperia 5 V, and it offers 1080p SDR streaming, but don't forget the Xperia 5 V is not out just yet, so it will take some time until it's whitelisted by the service.

YouTube and Prime Video do recognize the screen as HDR10-certified.

Display enhancements

There is an option in Image Quality Settings called Video Image Enhancement (X1 for Mobile). This is enabled by default, and it improves the quality of videos via Sony's proprietary X1 engine.

There is also support for a real-time HDR drive, which analyzes HDR videos frame by frame and applies the proper tone curve.

Video quality options

Haptic feedback

We just want to dedicate a few words to the screen's haptic feedback - it's one of the best we've used, with lovely haptics you can feel at the exact spot where you've tapped.

Dynamic Vibration is supported, too, which syncs with your audio/video, and while it is cool, we've never been fans of the feature.

Battery life

Sony Xperia 5 V is powered by a 5,000mAh battery - the same capacity as the Xperia 5 IV and Xperia 1 V.

Unlike its bigger sibling, the smaller Sony Xperia 5 V earns a solid Active Use Score, outpacing its competitors even. The screen-on runtimes are particularly impressive, especially the video playback and gaming scores.

Charging speed

The Sony Xperia 5 V supports 30W fast wired charging, and there is also support for wireless and reverse wireless charging.

The Xperia 5 V, just like the most recent Xperia phones, ships without a charger and a cable. If you don't own a Power Delivery charger, Sony will happily sell you its own 30W XQZ-UC1 PD charger/cable bundle. You can also get any third-party charger that supports at least 30W USB Power Delivery, of course.

Sony is advertising 50% charge in half an hour when using a compatible 30W power adapter.

We did our battery charging test with Sony's 30W XQZ-UC1 power adapter. We got 27% charge in 15 minutes and exactly 50% in 30 minutes - just as promised.

Charging will be slower than that if the phone is even slightly toasty. That means even regular use of the device in a 25-26C room before the charging session. We were only able to achieve the charge rate above in a cooler environment.

Regardless of temperature, the charging process generally slows noticeably after the 80% mark or around 60 minutes. It took 93 minutes for a full charge, in line with the Xperia 1 V.

Sony is advertising the battery inside the Xperia 5 V as capable of lasting for three years in peak condition before you start seeing and feeling traces of deterioration in the battery life performance. This means it will retain above 80% of its usable capacity for those three years.

The Battery Care option as part of the Battery settings will allow you to extend your battery lifespan further. You can either rely on the Auto process or set the time and percentage charging limits by yourself.

And the Battery Share option is the feature that enables reverse wireless charging. You can set % for the remaining charge and time limits here, too.

Battery Care • Battery Share

Speaker loudness and quality

Sony has been known for its front-facing stereo speakers, and the Xperia 5 V continues that tradition. The two speakers appear to be of equal size and perfect balance.

There has been an improvement since the Xperia 5 IV - a new amplifier is at play here, capable of driving the speakers with voltage and less noise.

The Xperia 5 V speakers support Dolby Atmos, making for a bit louder and richer sound. We tested it both ways, and we can confirm the Dolby Atmos output is better, and it's better that you keep this feature ON.

The Sony Xperia 5 V also supports 360 Reality Audio for immersive sound. It works with headphones; you can fully personalize your experience and manually pick the apps it should be working with.

Audio options • Dolby Atmos • Dolby Atmos • 360 Reality Audio

There are other cool options like DSEE Ultimate audio uplifting - this uses AI technology to upscale your compressed music. And there is Spatial Audio support right out of the box.

More sound options

And back to the point - we have completed our loudness test, and the Xperia 5 V speakers scored a Good mark, a hair shy of Very Good. The sound is nicely loud at 100%, and the output is rich - from bass, voice, all the way to the higher frequencies. The quality is better with Dolby Atmos - while the loudness difference is minimal, the sound just seems fuller.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.