Sony’s latest smartphone continues its trend of AV excellence
Smartphone | £849| whf.cm/Xperia5_V
We are reluctant to call the Xperia 5 V a mid-range phone, because its price and feature set are on par with most flagship models. However, it is literally in the middle of the current Sony range, meaning it isn’t quite as high spec as the Xperia 1, but it’s got more to offer than the Xperia 10 V.
That being said, it shares a lot of screen specifications with its smaller and cheaper sibling. Identically to the 10 V, it uses an OLED panel, with a resolution of 1080 x 2520 and pixel density of 449ppi. It does feature a higher refresh rate, at 120Hz, and it has access to Sony’s excellent Creator Mode screen setting which uses image processing and colour tuning to allow for content with “faithful reproduction of the creator’s intended vision”. The display also supports HDR via the HDR10 standard.
There are front-facing stereo speakers, hi-res wired audio and Bluetooth 5.3 audio codecs including A2DP, LE Audio, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive, as well as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive audio formats.
The Xperia 5 V shares the same powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor as the flagship 1 V, which ensures it is buttery smooth in daily operation. Pair that with 8GB of RAM and 128GB and we have near-enough-flagship specs. It also has the same 5000mAh battery as its more expensive sibling.
Striking and clear
While we prefer the bigger screen of the 1 V for watching movies, the 5 V gains most of the best picture qualities from its more expensive counterpart.
Starting with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on Disney Plus, the opening shot of pitch black space perforated by hundreds of miniature stars and the planet Lah’mu looks striking and clear, with each star bursting with plenty of brightness against the expanse of space, which looks convincingly deep black thanks to the OLED display.
As the shot transitions to the Imperial shuttle entering the planet’s atmosphere, we do notice a slight wobble in the motion, although this seems to resolve itself in the next tracking shot of the spaceship soaring over the beach. Not only this, we are quickly distracted by the solidity and depth of the image, which ensures even the mountains in the background of the shot appear structured and three-dimensional.
Moving onto John Wick: Chapter 4 on Amazon Prime Video, it’s a visual feast with punchy, dramatic red neon l
