Sony Xperia 10 V Review: All About the Battery

Value When Reviewed

Unavailable within the US

Greatest Costs Immediately: Sony Xperia 10 V

$399.00

Sony doesn’t launch many mobiles per 12 months however sticks to 3 particularly. The highest mannequin Xperia 1, the compact Xperia 5 and the equally compact mid-range mannequin Xperia 10. Now I’ve examined this 12 months’s Xperia 10, with a protracted slim OLED display screen and a really useful worth of £399. Regardless of loads of good options, I’m not completely satisfied it’s well worth the cash.

One, 5 and ten have appeared roughly the identical because the first technology of the collection in 2019, and this 12 months they’re as much as technology 5. Or V, Sony desires to make use of Roman numerals, and insists that it’s pronounced “mark 5”. They’ll argue all they need, a 5 is a 5 and I don’t see any “mark” so I received’t say.

Mark or no mark, you should buy it from Sony in addition to retailers like Amazon, AO, Ebuyer and Very. It’s not formally obtainable within the US on the time of writing however you should buy it from Amazon.

Take a look at our chart of one of the best mid-range telephones for extra choices.

Design & Construct

The Xperia 10 V has an unusually slim design that makes it simple to grip. It’s as extensive because the small Asus Zenfone 10, the truth is even a tenth of a millimetre narrower, and virtually a millimetre thinner. Extra when you embrace the Zenphone’s giant digital camera pucks on the again. However it has an elongated 6.1-inch display screen with a 21:9 side ratio, and additional millimetres each above and under the display screen to accommodate the selfie digital camera, audio system and different electronics.

Mattias Inghe

This makes it virtually a centimetre longer and dangers protruding of some smaller pockets. Brief width measurements have some benefits. I can simply attain the whole width of the cellphone with one thumb, and Sony’s Android interface can also be, like Asus, effectively tailored for one-handed navigation.

You don’t have to achieve to the highest to swipe the notification and fast menu, and it’s simple to activate a one-handed mode that shrinks the energetic display screen in top. Sony does different issues excellently in its interface, too. The split-screen administration is clean and considerate, and also you get a number of good options to optimise vitality consumption.

Mattias Inghe

The marginally curved body and flat again are inbuilt matt plastic, which feels sturdy and steady and is snug to grip. The entrance, fabricated from sturdy Gorilla Glass Victus, is totally flat. The cellphone has another typical Xperia options by way of design and performance, corresponding to an analogue headphone jack on the highest and Sony’s typical slot for SIM and SD playing cards which you can pull out with a fingernail. It doesn’t have a twin sim slot, however you may as well activate eSIM in your cellphone.

Nonetheless, it’s a utterly waterproof building and is classed as IP65, which signifies that it could possibly stand up to, for instance, rinsing below a faucet, and IP68, which signifies that it may be submerged in water for as much as half-hour. Not too deep although, it’s not a scuba cellular, however it could possibly stand up to a puddle, a ditch or a tub. Any sort of water resistance is sweet, in fact, and on this respect the Xperia 10 V outperforms most different mid-range telephones which are both IP68 or IP65, or nothing in any respect.

Mattias Inghe

Display & Audio

The display screen is 6.1in OLED and thus gives wonderful distinction and wealthy, intense colors that may preserve excessive color accuracy, each in the usual DCI P3-rated mode and one known as Unique that matches sRGB. Nevertheless, the usual mode is initially set to an unusually chilly white stability, however this may be simply adjusted manually.

The display screen’s brightness is formally as much as 1,000 nits for automated most brightness and HDR show. In normal mode, I get slightly below 700 nits at finest on an all-white display screen, and because the solar is shining, I may measure peak brightness in automated mode, which delivers on Sony’s promise. Utilizing the display screen outdoors on a strong day is ok. You additionally get HDR10 assist and Sony has ensured that the Xperia 10 V has the best certificates for many main streaming companies.

Nevertheless, outdated display screen shouldn’t be uncommon within the mid-price vary, and plenty of are higher than this one, with even greater brightness, and particularly greater frequency. Right here I’m caught at 60Hz, which is a distinctly disagreeable expertise once I’ve been used to 90- and 120Hz screens. There are even 90Hz screens in most actual funds mobiles these days, so perhaps it’s time for Sony to catch up?

The title Sony is normally a assure of fine sound, and sure, with the best headphones, it’s undoubtedly true. Plugged in analogue, they’re fed by DAC, and also you get assist for Excessive Decision Audio each wired and wi-fi in addition to DSEE Final, a know-how that makes use of AI to scale up CD-quality audio or decrease to a extra Excessive Res-like expertise. However to be trustworthy, I don’t hear any distinction, and it additionally attracts further battery energy to activate it.

Taking part in something apart from voice by the built-in audio system is much less satisfying, as they each lack virtually all bass and lose loads of element within the treble. Stereo dispersion is sweet because of the forward-facing parts at every edge, however that’s the one optimistic factor I can say. Sony ought to do higher than this.

Mattias Inghe

Cameras

Identical to its predecessor, the Xperia 10 IV, you get a full triple digital camera system, with a wide-angle, optical zoom and a important digital camera with a focal size in between, and a wise zoom perform within the digital camera app that permits you to zoom all the best way from 0.6x to 10x hybrid zoom. There’s some leaping within the viewfinder when it switches sensors, however it’s not too distracting. You may as well activate a helpful mode within the app that reveals the sections for various fastened zoom ranges.

Sadly, the distinction in high quality between the completely different sensors is big. The primary digital camera has a big half-inch 48-megapixel sensor, Sony’s IMX582, with optical picture stabilisation and quad bayer pixel binning that delivers sharp 12-megapixel pictures with good dynamics and loads of element. Colors are barely muted, however it is a typical Sony attribute, adopted from their color administration in system cameras. It’s extra pure rendering than intense and impactful.

An extended publicity mode mechanically kicks in when taking pictures in darker environments, at evening or indoors, and with a gentle hand it takes first rate photographs. Taking fast snapshots continues to be manageable, you don’t have to carry the digital camera nonetheless for all of the seconds the app signifies, however you lose lots in color management and dynamics. Autofocus additionally turns into jumpy, sluggish and affected person when it will get the slightest bit darkish.

The opposite two sensors are extra modest at eight megapixels every and considerably smaller in space. This implies, for instance, that hybrid zooms of greater than 2x shortly turn into blurred and so they don’t have almost the identical capacity to take pictures at the hours of darkness as the primary digital camera. It shortly turns into pitch black, noisy and mottled the place different cameras can select colors. The selfie digital camera can also be based mostly on the identical eight-megapixel sensor and shares its traits.

Mattias Inghe

Efficiency & Battery Life

Maybe the Xperia 10 V was helped by a extra trendy and quicker system circuit. It’s outfitted with the Snapdragon 695 that arrived in 2021, which delivers good multitasking capabilities however not so excessive peak efficiency. Particular person processor-intensive duties deliver the cellphone to its knees. For instance, some digital camera operations.

Even one thing as primary as rendering a posh internet web page may cause micro-pauses. It’s additionally not a cellphone to play demanding video games on, a sport of Sweet Crush and a few Roblox is ok, however you possibly can’t be choosy with persistently excessive body charges. A cell phone that must be the second finest a producer has to supply, and with a price ticket shut to 5 thousand SEK, ought to ship a bit greater than this.

Even the vibration motor within the cell phone feels prefer it belongs in an actual funds machine. There’s no tactile suggestions, simply an annoying shaky buzz that I’ve to shortly swap off to keep away from going loopy.

It’s an equally lengthy listing of pluses and minuses for the Xperia 10 V, so it’s as much as you which ones values are vital to make you are feeling tempted to purchase. I can’t advocate it outright, as there’s likelihood that some vital function received’t be ok, even when there are some issues it excels at.

That, power-efficient {hardware} and a big 5,000mAh battery make the Xperia 10 V among the best battery life I’ve seen. I can stream video at full brightness for over 24 hours and surf, e mail, and use different combined apps for about the identical period of time at medium brightness.

Sadly, I can’t give the identical reward to the battery cost. Sony doesn’t reveal how a lot energy is supported and also you don’t get an included charger. The one official info is that the cellphone will assist Quickcharge and USB Energy Supply. With a 30 Watts and a 65 Watts USB-PD charger I get the identical outcome, 35 per cent charged in half an hour, and over two hours for a full battery.

Sony Xperia 10 V benchmarks

• Geekbench 6: 2,076 factors
• Geekbench 6 single core: 858 factors
• Geekbench 6 compute: 1,377 factors
• GFX Bench Aztec OpenGL Excessive: 11 fps
• GFX Bench Manhattan: 40 fps
• Storage, learn: 477.22 MB/s
• Storage, write: 369.46 MB/s

This overview first appeared on M3.

Specs

• System chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
• Processor: 2 Kryo 660 Gold 2.2 GHz + 6 Kryo 660 Silver 1.8 GHz
• Graphics: Adreno 619
• Reminiscence: 6 GB
• Storage: 128 GB, micro sd slot
• Display: 6.1 inch oled, 1080×2520 pixels, 60 Hz
• Cameras: 48 megapixel + 8 megapixel extensive angle + 8 megapixel 2x telephoto with led rear, 8 megapixel entrance
• Connections: Usb 2 sort c
• Communications: 2g, 3g, 4g, 5g, wifi 5, bluetooth 5.1, agps, galileo, nfc
• Working system: Android 13 with Xperia UX, 2 years of updates
• Different: Esim, aspect fingerprint scanner, waterproof (IP65/68)
• Battery: 5,000 mAh, 25 hrs video streaming (max brightness), 19 hrs 20 min combined use (Pcmark Work, 200 cd/m2 brightness), about 33 hrs calls (4g)
• Battery charging: usb 21 W (pd, qc), 0-18% in 15 min, 0-35% in 30 min, charger not included.
• Dimension: 15.5 x 6.8 x 0.8 cm
• Weight: 159 grams