Sony Xperia 5 IV: An expensive flagship without the latest flagship processor

Months after first introducing the Sony Xperia 1 IV and the Xperia 10 IV, the Japanese giant has finally revealed its more mainstream flagship offering: the Sony Xperia 5 IV. It’s a little bit pared down compared to the Xperia 1 IV, and despite being the Sony’s affordable option still retains a pretty hefty price tag.

For starters though, let’s first take a look at the design. Sony has always differed from the rest of the mobile scene with its thin smartphones with no notch, and the it’s mostly the same look here. You’re getting a 6.1-inch, FHD+ OLED display in its now iconic 21:9 aspect ratio. It is also capable of pushing a 120Hz refresh rate with full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, with Sony also claiming that the screen is 50% brighter than the previous Xperia 5 III. You’ll also find a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus over it for scratch resistance.

If you thought that Sony delayed the Xperia 5 IV until now to wait for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 to make its debut, you thought wrong. Despite most other manufacturers having switched to the newer chip, Sony has decided to use the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the Xperia 5 IV, which should still be enough for most users but will be less power efficient than the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. This gets mated to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while up to 1TB of external storage is also supported. It comes with Android 12 out of the box, and you can expect at least three years of software support.

Where Sony usually shines though is the cameras, and with the Sony Xperia 5 IV, you’ll find a triple rear camera system. The main camera is a 12MP, f/.7 shooter with a 24mm focal length using a 1/1.7 Exmor RS sensor, flanked by a 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide angle lens as well as a 12MP, f/2.4 60mm telephoto shooter; all three cameras feature Zeiss coating on the lenses. Unfortunately though, unlike the Xperia 1 IV, it’s not a true optical zoom lens. Nevertheless, you can still expect up to 4K 120fps slow motion recording on all three cameras, as well as Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking for improved portrait mode pictures and ‘Pro’ features for photography and cinematography. Selfies meanwhile get taken care of by a 12MP, f/2.0 camera on the front.

Elsewhere, there’s a 5,000mAh battery with 30W fast charging that Sony claims will be able to get you a 50% charge in just 30 minutes. The Xperia 5 IV also now comes with wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging, features that were previously missing in the Xperia 5 III. As for audio, there’s now ‘full stage stereo speakers’ as well as a 3.5mm audio jack, as well as DSEE Ultimate and LDAC support for wireless connectivity.

Other features of note include Music Pro which lets you record music, and then upload it to the cloud where the external noise gets filtered out using Sony’s own sound source separation technology to provide high quality recordings. There’s also a fingerprint sensor as well as WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, Bluetooth LE Audio and NFC connectivity. The Xperia 5 IV has IP68 dust and water resistance too.

However, while Sony’s smartphones often feature some impressive specs, they tend to be priced pretty exorbitantly, and the same can be said of the Xperia 5 IV. It retails for USD999 (~RM4,476.52) in the US, which is the same starting price of the iPhone 13 Pro. Last year’s Sony Xperia 5 III meanwhile retailed in Malaysia for RM4,599 and we can probably expect to see a similar price tag when it does arrive in Malaysia later this year.