The Xperia 5 IV is official and with it, Sony's 2022 phone lineup is complete. Sony kept the small stature of the Xperia 5 series, but added some big-phone features and a big-phone price. Physically, the Xperia 5 IV is almost the same size as the Xperia 5 III - the IV is even 1mm shorter and narrower, but 4g heavier. The centerpiece remains the 6.1-inch 1080x2520px OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate and the display has gotten 50% brighter than the old panel.
Despite the unchanged size Sony managed to
fit in a 10% larger battery, bringing the Xperia 5 IV to 5,000mAh, on par with
the Xperia 1 IV and Xperia 10 IV. This should help it achieve class-leading
battery life. As for charging Sony promises the Xperia 5 IV can go up to 50% on
a 30-minute charge with a 30W PD charger. The company also claims the phone
will retain its battery health up to 3 years.
However, you'd need to get your own
charger, and even your own USB cable as Sony has removed all plastics from the
now very compact retail box. On a positive note, the Xperia 5 IV has wireless
charging in a first for the 5 series. Sony went conventional with the Xperia 5
IV's camera setup. There's a 12MP triple setup with a 16mm 1/2.5"
ultrawide, a 24mm 1/1.7" wide with 1.8um pixels, and a 60mm 1/3.5"
telephoto. Gone is the variable 3x-4.4x periscope, instead you get 2.5x this
year.
All three lenses feature autofocus, while
the wide and tele both have optical stabilization. All three sensors have fast
120fps readout, and thanks to the addition of distance analysis with AI, Sony
has brought its Real-time Eye AF and Real-time tracking from its camera lineup
to the Xperia 5 IV's main shooters. The selfie camera has been bumped up to the
larger 12MP 1/2.9" sensor from the Xperia 1 IV - with a fixed-focus 24mm
f/2.0 lens.
Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
with 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. There's a microSD card slot for
further expansion and combined with the 3.5mm headphones jack - Sony is the
last phone maker to keep these features for its premium smartphones. There are
new full-stage stereo speakers, as well as some audio magic under the hood -
Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio, DSEE Ultimate, and 360 Reality Audio.
The Xperia 5 IV is IP68 water-resistant
and dustproof and comes clad in Gorilla Glass Victus on both sides. The Xperia
5 IV is coming in mid-September for € 1,049 in the EU, £ 949 in the UK, and US$ 999
in the US. There are three color choices - Green, Black, and Ecru White.
