Sony announces Xperia 5 IV, probably the best equipped compact flagship

Sony has officially announced the new Xperia 5 IV, its high-end phone with a compact design. It’s almost identical on the outside to its predecessor, last year’s Mark III, but comes with significant improvements on the inside. We’re talking bigger battery, a brighter screen and faster charging, with a tweaked camera system. Of course, on the inside we’re dealing with a top-notch processor, but also other features we don’t see on modern smartphones.

Xperia 5 IV offers many features not found anywhere else

Sony’s Xperia 5 IV is one of the few compact flagships on the market. Sure, the Zenfone 9 goes in the same direction, but Sony integrates everything you’d need from a high-end smartphone and even a few things you wouldn’t expect, without compromise.

The phone is built around a 6.1″ screen with a very high aspect ratio of 21:9. So we’re dealing with a narrow screen that’s easy to use with one hand, but large enough to accommodate cinema format movies. Resolution remains ultrawide Full HD (2,520 x 1,080 pixels), on a 120Hz OLED panel with 50% higher brightness than last year’s 5 III.

The hardware configuration is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset (not the plus model) and benefits from 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. The Xperia 5 IV does, however, come with a microSD card slot as well as a 3.5mm jack, features that have started to disappear even from mid-range phones after years of absence from high-end phones. The phone also includes stereo speakers compatible with technologies such as Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio, DSEE Ultimate and 360 Reality Audio. The latter are also available on Sony’s high-end headphones, such as the WH-1000XM5.

Construction remains premium, with Gorilla Glass Victus glass on both sides and IP68 water resistance. Unlike last year’s model, the Xperia 5 IV also comes with wireless charging, and the battery increases to 5,000 mAh in such a small phone. Using a 30W wired charger with USB Power Delivery, Sony says this large battery can be charged in just 30 minutes to 50%.

Cameras get both an upgrade and a small downgrade

On the camera front, the Xperia 5 IV looks like it’s received both an upgrade and a downgrade. We once again have a three camera system, wide, ultra wide and tele. All are capable of shooting in 4K at up to 120 frames per second, something most manufacturers don’t offer on either camera. The downgrade, however, is in the zoom department. Instead of a variable 3-4.4x zoom, like last year, Sony has integrated only a 2.5x zoom on the Xperia 5 IV. It and the main sensor are stabilized, however, and the ultra-wide camera has an f/2.2 aperture, when most competitors use f/2.4 lenses.

This being Sony, we can expect advanced shooting and filming technologies, such as Real-time Eye AF and Real-time tracking for precise focusing in any situation.

All this comes at a high price, however, as you’d expect. The Sony Xperia 5 IV will cost €1,049 and will come in three colour options: white, black and green.