It's almost exactly four years on since my review of this dinky phone. I come back to it to see if it has stood the test of time and is usable as a primary phone for anyone in 2026. It's stuck forever on Android 14 and, as we know, was abandoned by Sony after two measly updates. However, Google continues to push Play System updates to keep it pretty much safe to use, even with banking apps. So what's missing? What's still great? What's worthy of note?
The first thing I remembered was how dinky it was. Even dinkier in all directions than my Sony Xperia 5 Mk V. It really is a tiny phone, even taking into account that 21:9 ratio. Apart from Pixel 3 and 4 phones, I think it's the smallest I have (certainly that is in any way usable now). So thin and light. Of course, the payoff for that is the width - making typing on the keyboard sometimes a challenge - and sometimes screen elements/text not quite rendering properly with text-wraps mid-word, for example. But nothing catastrophic. In a world of 6.8-inch screened devices becoming near-ubiquitous, this is a delight to hold and carry.
I've bombarded it with app updates today whilst charging it up—a combination, in my experience, which often challenges thermals—but honestly, there is only a slight 'warming' on the back, not blazing heat. I haven't found any apps that refuse to run, update or load. It even plays beautifully with the Pixel Watch 3 in every way (that is not Pixel-exclusive).
I do immediately note that I'm no longer used to having to work with 128GB of storage on phones. The new standard is certainly 256GB and, with many phones—particularly out of the Far East—512GB. Still, Xperia phones still have trusty microSD card slots, so all one's data can be bunged onto an expansion card. It's a little slower to read/write, for sure, but once apps' libraries are loaded the first time, it speeds up considerably. Some may be fine with 128GB in this day of streaming what is wanted, but I do like a backup!
Notification LED (Deep Dive Warning!) Then we come to the two things that really draw me back here: the Notification LED—which, actually, goes some way to negating the need for a smartwatch at all—and the Always on Display's Album Art (which I'll come to later)!
There's a whole range of hardcoded system functionality built in by Sony, particularly around power and battery state: Solid Orange/Amber: Charging while battery level is between 15% and 89%; Solid Green: Fully charged (or reached 90%+ while plugged in); Flashing Red: Battery level under 15% when unplugged, or an overheating/charging error; Solid Red: Plugged in and charging, but battery is under 15%. Beyond battery status, the LED traditionally handled a full spectrum of app notifications: blinking white for standard SMS/RCS messages, missed calls and general system alerts; blue for Facebook, Signal, Outlook and X; green for WhatsApp, Spotify and Google Meet; yellow for Snapchat and Google Keep; cyan for Telegram; and purple for Viber, Discord and Twitch. I honestly never knew how extensive that list was!
However, a quick double-check with software developer Malcolm Bryant (of Freepoc fame) shed some fascinating light on how this actually works behind the scenes under Android 14—and why some of that functionality has shifted over time. As Malcolm explains, in the early days, Sony maintained a bespoke API that developers could tap into for fine-grained LED customisation. That was eventually discontinued. Today, LED control has to be handled strictly through standard Android "notification channels" (the granular categories you see under Settings > Apps > [App Name] > Notifications).
When a developer creates an app, they specify parameters for each channel: priority level, sound, and—though seldom used by modern devs—whether to enable an LED blink and what colour it should be. If an app developer explicitly codes a custom LED colour into their notification channel (like WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal still do), the app 'instructs' Sony's hardware to flash that specific colour. If an app doesn't specify a colour or relies entirely on default system notifications, Android 14 falls back to a basic blinking white light.
Back in Android 8, through to Android 11, the OS had a native system-level menu allowing users to manually assign custom LED colours to any app, regardless of what the developer intended. Google removed that native override menu in Android 13/14, so we can't blame Sony for its absence! The good news? If you want complete control back, Malcolm notes that third-party utilities (like Light Manager 2 or Notification Light/LED) work using a similar mechanism to his own Notification Reader. They hook into Android's notification listener service to detect incoming alerts, check for keywords or apps and trigger custom LED colours, pulse speeds and per-contact lighting.
So, to summarise Malcolm's neat breakdown
System Level: Sony directly controls the LED hardware for core phone states (like battery levels and charging errors); Developer Level: App developers can request specific LED colours via Android notification channels, though many modern devs don't bother; Third-Party Utilities: Apps like Light Manager 2 can listen for incoming notifications and force custom LED blinking for apps that lack native support.
A bit of a deep dive, but a proper look into a feature that Sony kept alive long after the rest of the market abandoned it!
Sony LinkBuds Clip vs Moto Buds Loop I've recently been playing with the Sony LinkBuds Clip and Moto Buds Loop and, firstly, I think this form factor for casually worn earphones is totally the best, at least for me. No jamming stuff down the ear canal, no unwieldy over-ears all day—put these on, pair them up, and forget them. Particularly useful for notifications. A case in point is Malcolm's excellent Notification Reader. But before we get there, I'll just add that I was surprised that the Sony Sound Connect app gave me their own read-out notifications inside Scene settings for these Clips, just like it does for much newer hardware—in my case, the Sony Xperia 1 Mk VI. So kudos to them.
But further kudos to Malcolm, as his application only really started as an aside requested by one of our Phones Show Chat Podcast listeners who has no sight. I jumped on it and, I'm afraid, gave Malcolm loads more work ironing out bugs and stuff, which I don't think he was allocating his time for at the outset! But it really does well—and is much more developed with many more features than Sony's built-in one. For one thing, Sony's only works at all if you have their (recent) buds (or headphones) connected—it totally relies on their app. Malcolm's app makes that work for any headphones—or indeed via the phone's speakers. So when I use my Moto Buds Loop, it all works beautifully. And, into the bargain, I do think that they sound better—and have loads more battery life (like almost double)!
Always on Display Album Art (Deep Dive Warning!) I told you I'd come back to this, and it's worthy of a section of its own for sure. It really is a feature that I like. Yes, it does use battery (but surely only a tincture if you have the AoD on anyway), but it's such fun to see the full album art on the AoD as soon as the screen times out. This is apparently down to Android's 'media subsystem' and how it handles streaming apps like YouTube Music, Spotify or BBC Sounds. When you stream a track on YouTube Music (even if you don't own the file or have it stored locally), YouTube Music's servers send 'the metadata payload' (Track Title, Artist, Album Name and a high-resolution Bitmap image of the cover art). When it starts playing, it creates a native Android service called a 'MediaSession'. As part of that session, the app pushes that artwork bitmap directly into Android's internal MediaMetadata cache memory.
So Sony doesn't need to hunt for local MP3 tags or search Google Images in the background. Instead, Sony’s AoD software simply asks the Android OS: "Is there an active MediaSession right now? If so, hand me whatever bitmap image is currently stored in MediaMetadata." Because YouTube Music (or Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music or whatever) fetches the high-res album art from its own cloud servers and hands it straight to Android, Sony’s display code just grabs that cached image from system memory and renders it on your screen. For local music files on your SD card, the music player app reads the embedded ID3 image tag directly off the file and pushes it to MediaMetadata.
So why don't I see a blank placeholder there if I play a locally stored file (which might have no image data)? Apparently, even in that scenario, modern media players and the Android OS handle missing metadata through a combination of local fallbacks: The Local Music Player App Does the Heavy Lifting: If you play an MP3 or FLAC file on an Android music player and the file itself has no embedded ID3 cover image, the player app immediately runs through a fallback routine before broadcasting its playback state: Folder/Directory Scan: The app checks the folder where the MP3 is saved. If there is a generic cover.jpg, folder.jpg, albumart.jpg, or .art file sitting in that same directory, the app uses that. Online Fetching: Most local players have an online artwork-fetcher enabled by default. The player reads the track/album title from the basic ID3 text tags, queries a public music database (like Last.fm, MusicBrainz, or Cover Art Archive) over Wi-Fi/cellular, grabs the matching cover, and caches it locally on your storage. App-Generated Graphic: If the app can't find anything online or offline, the app itself generates a fallback graphic — usually a coloured background with a stylised musical note, or a dynamically generated geometric pattern matching the artist's name.
Once the music player app settles on an image (whether real, fetched or generated), it passes that final bitmap image to Android's internal MediaMetadata buffer. Because Sony's AoD reads whatever image is held in the system's MediaMetadata cache: If the music app provided an image or generated art: Sony's AoD displays whatever bitmap the player app passed down. If the music app passed no image at all (null artwork): Sony's AoD doesn't crash or display a blank box. Its system software falls back to its own default system placeholder—a minimalist, blurred ambient gradient or Sony's clean, stock musical note motif. So you never see a completely blank space: either your music player app automatically fetched/generated something behind the scenes, or Sony's display software seamlessly filled the gap with its own system fallback graphic. I have to say though, having used a mixture of sources on/offline, connected or not, I don't ever remember seeing the album art not being there. For OEMs, this, then, doesn't seem like rocket science—so I wonder firstly why Sony took it away after the IV-series Xperia phones, and secondly why other OEMs are not doing it. I guess it must just come down to battery.
It does 'time out' from the AoD—and so to another Gemini-infused deep dive! Skip over this if you're not interested, but I find it fascinating, so I'm including it! That "disappearing act" isn't a random glitch or an arbitrary timer built into Sony's display software—it is driven by Android's system-level 'Foreground Service' policies acting on the media app. While a song is playing, the app (YouTube Music, Spotify, VLC) runs a Foreground Service with a persistent audio session. Android keeps this service alive at high priority and Sony’s AoD continuously renders the album art provided by that active session. When you hit Pause, the app signals to Android that audio output has stopped (PlaybackState.PAUSED). The app drops out of the active "Playing" state, but Android keeps the session warm in memory for a brief grace period in case you tap Play again.
To prevent paused apps from silently eating up RAM and battery in the background indefinitely, Android imposes strict limits on idle background services: The 2-Minute Grace Period: Once an app remains paused for around 2 minutes, Android's MediaSessionService automatically drops the app from the system's "Foreground" tier down to background idle. Service Termination (onDestroy): After dropping to background idle (usually between 2 and 10 minutes depending on OS battery management and RAM pressure), Android destroys the idle background service. Session Teardown: When the app's playback service is destroyed, Android releases the active MediaSession and clears the MediaMetadata bitmap buffer from memory. Because Sony's AoD software is purely a "passive listener" to Android's MediaSession, the moment the system clears the MediaSession from memory, Sony’s AoD detects that there is no longer an active track, gracefully fades out the album art, and reverts to the basic clock and notification icons. Sure enough, I timed it—sad wretch that I am—and it disappeared (using YTM) in 3 minutes. However...
...it came back on when a notification came in for another fresh 3 minutes, which is as a result of how Android manages media states. When a notification pops onto the screen, Android sends a broad system update signal across all active layout managers—including the lock screen and AoD controllers—which forces Sony’s AoD to re-query the OS: "Is there still a MediaSession registered?" Since YouTube Music was still sitting paused in memory, Android re-exposed the cached track metadata to the display engine, and the 3-minute timer reset!
If you want the album art gone immediately without waiting for Android's background rubbish collection, you can either swipe away the media player card (swipe down the notification shade and swipe away or long-press and dismiss the media player card, which explicitly calls MediaSession.release()). The app tells Android to tear down the audio session and wipe the MediaMetadata cache instantly. Sony’s AoD sees NULL art straight away and reverts to the standard clock. Or, of course, one can just stop the app via Recents, instantly killing the underlying process. So as long as that playback card is sitting in your drop-down shade, the app maintains a "warm" session that any incoming notification can wake back up!
But there is an exception here—if you deal with that incoming notification and the Notification LED continues to flash, the album art stays alive! When an unread notification arrives and the LED is actively pulsing, Android enters an "Attention Required" state. Under the hood, two specific system behaviours keep the artwork alive: Low-Level Power Lock: Because the phone hardware is actively driving the notification LED (blinking every couple of seconds), Android's Notification Manager holds a low-level power lock (PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK). While this lock is active, Android delays its aggressive background cleanup process. The OS assumes you are about to pick up the phone, so it deliberately postpones killing idle background services—including YouTube Music’s paused MediaSession. System State Refresh: Sony’s Ambient Display engine is wired to refresh its lock screen layout whenever a system state changes (like driving the LED pulse and listening for user interaction). Every time it refreshes, it queries the OS: "Is the media session still in memory?" Android replies: "Yes, because the system hasn't cleared the background service yet!" So the 3-minute idle timer won't get a chance to run its standard cleanup routine until the "Attention Required" condition resolves. Once you dismiss or open that notification (stopping the LED from flashing), Android releases the system wake lock. At that moment, the standard background countdown begins, and 3 minutes later, YouTube Music's cached session will finally drop out of RAM, taking the album art with it!
I bet Malcolm's the only person to have got this far!
Dynamic Vibration
This is a wonderful feature in which Sony's haptic/vibration motor picks up on the 'beats' of music being played (or any sound really) and tries, pretty successfully, to allow you to 'feel' the music in your hands—much like Nothing Phone does with lights instead. Another feature that Sony has stripped out with newer Xperia devices, incidentally. Again, I can only assume, because of battery consumption. It's particularly impactful if you're watching video in landscape, holding the phone between two hands right in front of your face. Now, I guess many people wouldn't want to look at this small screen to watch a film, but it might come in useful when you have some time to kill and have no other, bigger screens as an option. Anyway, it's pretty neat to have rather than not! I guess it is designed primarily for video-watching as, yes, it goes off if playing music and the AoD kicks in. There's a slider to adjust the level of vibration, much like for volume: Off, 1, 2, and 3 (most effect).
These remain very, very good compared to even the most modern of phones. The Xperia 5-series was never quite as loud/qualitative as the 1-series, and the 5 Mk V is indeed slightly better than this 5 Mk IV, but, as I say, it remains very, very good. Put up against the 1 Mk VI it's significantly less powerful, but then all the 1-series Xperias have much more space in the phone's shell to enhance the sound—and yes, components, technology and software get better with time. But I doubt that 99% of people listening to this 2022 phone would have any complaints—particularly in isolation, not on a comparison testbench!
The stereo speakers fire forward from each end of the screen, making use of those rather sizeable bezels top and bottom (something that, incidentally, even now, Sony sticks with), and the soundstage, given the size and data above, is really very impressive. There's also the full, extensive Dolby Atmos suite to play around with and change the sound, as depicted in my original review. Nothing's changed here since then and it works beautifully, so perhaps have a re-read of that via the link above.
Battery
I've been using this phone now on and off for 3+ years and the battery holds up pretty much as it did on Day 1. Well, maybe not quite as good—I see from my review that I was claiming 2 hours and 45 minutes on my 10% Reading Test, and I did another of those today and it was more like 2 hours 30 minutes. It's a Li-Po 5,000mAh cell (the same as for all Xperia phones, even today) and because it's small and driving a 1080p screen (which I have set to 60Hz refresh rate)—and I have the AoD on the whole time (except for when it switches itself off in my pocket)—with my average daily use it's giving me 50% at bedtime, even on long days. As always, it totally depends on how you use your phone and this data is for my use, so your mileage on this will indeed vary! There's nice-and-safe 30W wired charging, which charges from flat in only just over an hour—and halfway there in half an hour—15W wireless and even 5W reverse wireless.
I was just reviewing the general specs on GSMArena to double-check the data and, you know, on release in 2022, it was very well specified. Mind you, for £949 it should have been! 5G, Gorilla Glass Victus on front and back for a level of protection (especially for those risking caseless), a lovely black (in my case) Aluminium frame, Nano-SIM and eSIM capability including Wi-Fi calling (VoIP) and IP65 and IP68 compliance for dust and water. The screen can refresh at up to 120Hz (though, as I say, I have it on 60 to save battery and can't tell the difference—maybe for gamers, eh!). The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) chipset feels totally fast enough in every way to me and there's that 3.5mm high-res audio jack for those wanting to plug in with wired ear/headphones. Bluetooth v5.2 is staggeringly good still, even though at the time of writing we're up to v6, and there's that 100% reliable side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Don't forget USB-C 3.2, OTG, and video output, which means that we can hook up to thousands of other screens and devices with a cable (as well as wirelessly). Connectivity on all fronts seems great still, including NFC and GPS for mapping—all still solid.
The OLED screen is gorgeous still too, with those deep blacks and loads of ways to adjust that in Sony's own display settings. It's so cute and dinky—the main difference between this, in that respect, and the 5 Mk V is that the latter certainly got fatter. The latter got fatter! It's technically not much (0.4mm), but in the hand, especially when using Sony's own Style Case (in which the sides are 'open'), it really feels thinner. Even more so if you take the cases off both. Because it's small, it's light at 172g and it really is a delight to use and carry, as I said! I'm OK still with the 21:9 and, in some respects, it's better. The only thing that I'd add is that Sony, with the 1 Mk VI, introduced a 19.5:9 screen aspect ratio. And since they are no longer producing the 5-series, I guess we'll never see that here. They have also adopted it for the 10-series in the same timescale, so if they had kept making the 5, presumably it would have been switched as well. So, pros and cons on the two aspect ratios—the main one for me is having a slightly better/wider keyboard experience.
It does, of course, have native Sony Alpha camera support for those who dabble and three 12MP sensors including a 2.5x optical telephoto, Zeiss optics and T* lens coating on them all, eye-tracking in various modes, 4K video shooting and a load of other stuff. Check the link above to my review, as nothing has changed with the cameras since then, and you'll find my thoughts and links to other folk deep-diving on it in video and writing. What has been recently added (and taken away) from more modern Xperia phones is a merged camera software experience for the benefit of Joe Public—they are clearly trying to make their phones these days appeal more to the mass market (by bundling most of the camera stuff into a single app—and it works well) rather than nerdy photography geeks! This phone has 4 separate apps for all the photography stuff and, yes, it is confusing for most people (without an Alpha camera)! Most people like me are not going to use video anywhere near as much as stills cameras, and the physical shutter button can be long-pressed to invoke the base Photography Pro app—and that works just fine. Oh - did I mention that the phone has a physical two-stage camera button just in the right place when holding the phone in landscape, like you would a camera? Joy.
