Sony has officially announced the Xperia 5 IV, its latest compact flagship smartphone.
We were fans of last year’s Sony Xperia 5 III, which offered flagship specs in a smaller-than-usual form factor. However, it was undoubtedly lacking a few key features, especially for its relatively high asking price.
Sony’s latest compact flagship might just address a couple of our concerns. The Xperia 5 IV packs in a familiar 6.1-inch 21:9 FHD+ HDR OLED display, but this time around Sony claims that it’s 50% brighter than before.
There’s been an expected performance bump, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 matching the Sony Xperia 1 IV from earlier in the year. This is where Sony’s timing with the Xperia 5 IV could prove a little off, with premium compacted rival the Asus Zenfone 9 both beating it to market and packing the superior Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1.
We were impressed with the Xperia 5 III’s battery life last year, but Sony has doubled down with a significantly larger 5,000mAh battery, up from 4,500mAh in the Xperia 5 III. This one could be a stamina champ.
More notable than that bigger battery, however, is the inclusion of wireless charging. The omission of this feature in such a premium-priced phone was a bit of a sticking point in the Xperia 5 III, so this is a welcome addition.
The headline feature with all of Sony’s flagship phones tends to be the camera system, which is invariably one of the fastest-firing and most locked on around. Once again you’re getting a triple-12MP rear set-up, but this time all three cameras get the company’s superb Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking. A key difference to the Xperia 1 IV is that the telephoto isn’t variable.
You also get a new and improved 12MP front camera (up from 8MP), which is capable of improved low-light shots and capturing 4K HDR video.
Alongside these stand-out specs, you get the usual stand-out Sony features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and an extensive IP68 / IP65 rating.
One thing remains a potential sticking point from last year’s model: the hefty price. The Sony Xperia 5 IV is set to retail for £949 / $999 / €1049 when it goes on sale in late-September 2022, which is £50 / $50 more expensive than the Xperia 5 III.
Max has already had some hands-on time with the Sony Xperia 5 IV, so check out his initial thoughts here.
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