Sony has announced its latest flagship smartphone in the form of the Xperia 5 (J8210, J8270, J9210). As the name suggests, this sits in the middle of its 2019 flagship Xperia 1, and the mid-range Xperia 10 devices. The Sony Xperia 5 is smaller than the Xperia 1, with a 6.1-inch 21:9 CinemaWide OLED HDR display with Full HD+ (1080 x 2520) resolution, compared to the Xperia 1 which has a 6.5-inch 21:9 OLED 4K HDR display.
Sony has been careful not to use the ‘Compact’ moniker with the Xperia 5, after all when you compare it to the 4.6-inch displays of most of Sony’s older Compact models (or even the 5-inch display of the Xperia XZ2 Compact), it’s hard to justify calling a model with 6.1-inch display as ‘Compact’. However, that hasn’t stopped Sony referring to the handset as “sleek and compact” and having a “pocket friendly design” in numerous places in its press release. We’d guess that the previous ‘Compact’ form factors aren’t making a return at any time soon – this is as close as we’ll get going forward unfortunately.
Sony is using the same triple lens camera system, as found in the Xperia 1. This includes a 3 x 12MP rear camera array including a 26mm main lens, 16mm wide lens and 52mm portrait and tele lens for 2x optical zoom. Other technology includes Eye AutoFocus technology, continuous burst shooting at up to 10 frames per second (fps) Auto Focus and Auto Exposure tracking. Sony says the Xperia 5 has increased calculations at up to 30 fps allowing you to capture moving subjects better.
Sony will also include its Cinema Pro “powered by CineAlta” cinematography app, as well as a new feature called ‘Photography advice’ helping you to capture great photos by offering tips such as when you have your finger in front of the lens. Optical Steadyshot will also feature for shake-free videos.
The display has 10-bit tonal gradation (8 bit display with 2 bit software smoothing), much like the Xperia 1, supporting the wide colour space ITU-R BT.2020 as well as DCI-P3 with Illuminant D65. It also has Creator mode “powered by CineAlta”, bringing precise colour reproduction on the go.
The Xperia 5 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB RAM and will come with 128GB internal storage and microSD memory card support. The Xperia 5 will come with a 3140mAh battery, supporting USB PD fast charging and Smart Stamina.
Other features include Dolby Atmos sound, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and back, IP65/68 dust and water resistance, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB Type-C and stereo speakers. Unfortunately, there is no return of the 3.5mm headphone jack, which was similarly absent on the Xperia 1. The Xperia 5 has dimensions of 158 x 68 x 8.2mm and weighs 164 grams.
Sony will commence Xperia 5 pre-orders from next week, which will be bundled with the Sony WF-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling headphones (well, earphones really). The Xperia 5 will launch in October 2019 in “select markets across Europe” with Android 9 Pie, and come in four colours (Blue, Red, Black and Grey).
Via Sony Mobile Blog.
