Compact flagship: Sony Xperia 5 IV launched with a headphone jack
Sony officially launched the Xperia 5 IV taking advantage of IFA being held in Berlin. The new premium compact smartphone brings a year-old processor but was able to get some notable upgrades particularly on the battery department. Sony also kept a few novelties including a shutter key, microSD card slot, and 3.5mm audio jack that are quite rare to find these days.
TL;DR
- Sony unveiled Xperia 5 IV with a bigger battery and better selfie camera.
- Headphone jack and microSD card slot are kept on the Xperia 5 IV.
- Sony's Xperia 5 IV is priced at $999.
The Sony Xperia 5 IV has the same compact design as last year's Xperia 5 III. Its OLED display is now 50% brighter and still measured at 6.1-inch wide. A tougher Gorilla Glass Victus protects the front and back panels. More importantly, IP68 waterproofing is still present, as well as dual SIM option and microSD card slot. Surprisingly, 3.5 mm audio jack is still available along with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 system on chip. It's interesting that Sony was not able to equip its premium Android device with the recent Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. There is also 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of expandable storage on top of the dated silicon chip.
Battery-wise, Sony's Xperia 5 IV boasts a larger 5000 mAh battery compared to the 4500 mAh capacity of its predecessor. Fast charging is retained with 50% top-up speed in just 30 minutes. Additionally, wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are now supported.
In terms of imaging capabilities, Sony chose to play safe by sticking mostly to its older formula. Only the selfie and telephoto cameras have been changed. The former snapper allows 4K video recording, thanks to the bigger 12MP sensor. The rest is carried over like the 12MP wide and ultrawide shooters.
The Xperia 5 IV will be released globally starting in September for about $999 price (€1049/£949) in the US. It runs on Android 12 out-of-the-box. Unfortunately, Sony hasn't mentioned the exact timing of the Android 13 update yet. The device is available in green, white, and black colorways.
