Sony Xperia 5 V review

Low-light photo quality

Sony's low-light photography has been improved this year via the new sensor and newly developed Night View mode.

So, the new sensor captures double the light and reduces noise. Then there is the Night View, or Night Mode, which is Apple-like - an automatic trigger that usually fires only in the darkest environments.

The Night View, if triggered, adds additional 1s or 2s to the 4s needed to capture a regular photo. Yes, no matter if there is a Night View or not, the Xperia 5 V needs about 4s to capture a photo. The only indication for the Night View you will see in the Basic mode is the change of color (from white to orange) of the Moon button on the viewfinder.

We shot all scenes with the Night View set on Auto. Then, if it triggered, we proceeded to shoot the same scene without Night View for the sake of comparison.

The photos taken with the fully automatic mode are superb. They are incredibly detailed, with outstanding color saturation and a nicely wide dynamic range, and most of them are free of noise. The balanced rendition makes those some of the best we've taken on a smartphone.

The samples where the Night View decided to trigger are generally a bit brighter, especially in the sky.

Main camera, Night Auto

The scenes without Night View are equally great and usually look a bit more natural than their Night View counterparts because of the more realistic exposure and higher contrast.

Main camera, Night OFF

And here is a quick comparison between the Night View and non-Night photos. This is probably the biggest difference we were able to capture, and that's because there was simply no nearby light source.

Night ON • Night OFF

The 2x zoomed photos taken with the Auto Night View are excellent and somewhat better than the Xperia 5 IV's samples from the real telephoto camera. They are bright and detailed, with low noise, good dynamic range and excellent color saturation.

Their per-pixel quality is not on par with the non-zoomed photos, quite expectedly, but nobody expected that, really. There are plenty of phones that cannot offer lossless zoom at night, but this Xperia can do it hassle-free, so kudos for that.

2x zoom, Night Auto

The 2x zoomed photos without Night View are darker but still impressive. They are clean of noise and still detailed, with good colors and realistic exposure. And while they are darker than the Night View ones, they are still brighter than Xperia 5 IV's tele output.

2x zoom, Night OFF

Finally, the ultrawide camera also captures very good photos at night - they are well-exposed, detailed and sharp, with impressively low noise, realistic colors, and restored blown highlights where it mattered.

Where the Night View has decided to fire, we observed a spike in the noise, most noticeable in the sky, but it's a trade we are willing to make.

Ultrawide camera, Night Auto

And here are the scenes with Night View OFF. They look more realistic, sharper even, with lower noise and higher contrast.

Ultrawide camera, Night OFF

And here's how the main camera stacks up against the competition in our extensive Photo compare database.

Sony Xperia 5 V against the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S23 in our Photo compare tool

Video recording

The Xperia 5 V records video up to 4K60 with all three cameras via the default Auto Video mode within the Photo app and up to 4K120 with the two rear cameras. If you need less conventional frame rates and aspect ratio, you can switch apps.

SteadyShot stabilization is available for all cameras, combining optical (where available) and electronic stabilization. It can be High Quality, Standard Quality, and OFF.

We noticed that even when set at High Quality, stabilization doesn't affect the video quality, which is an incredibly rare occurrence.

The 4K@30fps footage has a video bit rate of about 55Mbps, while audio is captured stereo with 156 kbps bit rate. You can enable Intelligent Wind Reduction, a real-time filter that eliminates wind noise if present. And all clips we shot have outstanding audio quality with rich and deep sound.

The option for Wide Dynamic Range is here to stay. This is done by combining multiple frames, but it's not your default setting for a reason - 60fps capturing is not available. Unlike on previous Sony models, though, WDR capturing supports SteadyShot stabilization even if only the Standard version, the High Quality one, is not present.

The WDR video is available on all cameras. Just like on previous Sony models, it widens the dynamic range by keeping the highlights from clipping. It also deepens the shadows and increases the contrast. It may also be responsible for somewhat sharper footage and a slight drop in the color saturation (to a more natural one).

All videos you are about to see were shot with the default Photo app and the default Auto Video mode. You can achieve better video quality by using the other camera apps, but you need to be familiar with their advanced options and terminology.

Daylight videos

The daylight 4K videos from the main camera are good - the colors are lively, the dynamic range is wide enough, and the contrast is good, too. The most notable praise here is Sony's processing, which is responsible for the natural look of everything. The resolved detail, on the other hand, is somewhat subpar, especially in areas of high intricacy such as foliage that got smeared.

The Wide Dynamic Version, on the other hand, has more pleasing colors, higher contrast and better-controlled highlights; it is more detailed and sharper. We'd say in broad daylight, it's better to use Wide Dynamic Range now that it supports SteadyShot stabilization.

You can compare the quality by using these video screenshots.

Main SDR • Main WDR

The 2x zoom is available only for the Standard Dynamic Range, and it's rather good - it has low noise, good colors and dynamic range, while the detail remains subpar as on the 1x videos, a bit lower even because of the Quad-Bayer nature of the sensor. Those are still pretty usable videos and much better than any digital zoom.

The ultrawide camera offers pretty much the same quality as the main one, both SDR and WDR, with a much wider field of view, obviously. The standard clip is likable but not as detailed and contrasty as the WDR one. Once again, WRD offers excellent detail and sharpness and better processing, and we do recommend it over SDR.

And these are screen captures from the two videos.

UW SDR • UW WDR

The 4K videos from the selfie camera are detailed and sharp, with realistic exposure and colors. The subject is kept well-exposed, while the background is often blown if shot on a sunny day.

Low-light video quality

The 4K videos from the main camera are good - they offer realistic exposure, enough detail with tolerable noise, excellent color saturation and good contrast. We'd expected a bit wider dynamic range, though.

The WDR videos at night are also preferable if you value sharper and more detailed picture, with more realistic contrasty look and a bit lower noise. The videos are a bit darker, and the dynamic range gets a barely noticeable boost.

We also prepared a few screengrabs from the videos for you.

SDR • WDR

The 2x zoomed videos (SDR only) is alright and usable - it is soft, sure, but still better than digital zoom as far as detailed is concerned, and it keeps the good properties we've observed on the default zoom level.

The ultrawide camera is not that good at night - while the SDR videos are bright and colorful, they are also low in detail, soft and with a ton of smeared noise.

The 4K WDR ultrawide videos are of no use at night as they are just too dark.

And here are some screen grabs for easier comparison.

SDR • WDR

Stabilization

The SteadyShot stabilization does an excellent job of stabilizing the videos shot on the main, ultrawide and selfie cameras. The difference between High Quality (only for SDR videos) and Standard (for both SDR and WRD videos) is minor, which means you'd be happy with either, just as we were.

Sony Xperia 5 V against the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S23 in our Video compare tool