Sony Xperia 10 Mk.V

It's so very tempting to compare the Sony Xperia 10 Mk.V with my Xperia 5 Mk.IV as I have it here, but that really would be quite unfair as they are different beasts, so I shall focus instead on the 10 Mk.V with the 10 Mk.IV instead. But forgive me if I slide into the former here and there!

Thanks to Sony's UK PR for sending this one over for review which on release in June was pitched in the market at £399. The Mk.IV, the year before, was £429, so a slight reduction in fact with some key improvements. It's less than half the price of the 5-series and aimed at a different buyer altogether with a list of top-end functions and capabilities not making it across the divide in cost/value.

The question is whether or not it represents value, for that target buyer, compared to other handsets doing similar things - so mid-range. It's going to be hard for Sony to beat the likes of Xiaomi, Moto and Redmi, feature-for-feature on pricing, but Sony also has a very clear fan-base and customer loyalty who like the styling, class and quality of their hardware.

The phone is slightly taller and wider than last year's model but about the same thickness, but to be honest, unless you have the two next to each other you'd hardly notice. Ever so slightly bigger screen at 6.1" over 6" but retaining that now-signature 21:9 aspect ratio, so good for wide-screen content. The panel is also much the same - a very bright and colourful Triluminos display with Gorilla Glass Victus protection against impact and scratching. Likewise, it retains the IP6/8 rating against dust and water, which you often do not get with many of the aforementioned Chinese-based challengers.

The similarities go on, with the more-than-capable (for target audience) SnapDragon 695 chipset (so very well-performing as I found on my Motorola Edge 30 Neo), the almost unique now microSD Card tray slot and 128GB storage in the base model and 6GB RAM (though there is a variant of the new model with 8GB RAM). The very same plastic frame and back are in attendance with pros and cons, as always, and weight is almost identical. It doesn't feel 'cheap' being plastic but it does feel light and not so substantial as the 5-series units (at a very similar size). It actually feels very nice in the hand, with one-handed use easily executable and fine pocketability, too. You won't know it's there!

One of the big changes for me is certainly the inclusion of stereo speakers, which is a much better idea than the previous model's mono bottom-firing one. The not-so-good news is that it really isn't a patch on the quality or volume of the pair in the 5-series and although yes, they are both front-firing, in my tests here I have found them far from providing the latter's room-filling sound. On a desk in front of you, fine. Held in front of the face, watching video is fine, too, though the stereo separation and balance between the speakers is, again, not like the 5-series, more like the faux-stereo we often speak of here at the Phones Show Chat Podcast (now, incidentally well on the way to 1000 shows)! Still, a very clear improvement from last year's 10-series model. The 3.5mm audio-out socket has also been retained, like the rest of the Xperia range, which can continue to be used with the 24-bit audio processing and sounds great with headphones, wired or not, as there's also the same Bluetooth 5.1 here as before. Note that there's no Dolby Atmos here, only a couple of Sony's own tools like DSEE Ultimate, 360RA and Upmix.

Android 13 comes installed on the phone with the same thin layer on top of the OS. Some tweaks and changes to the core, but nothing radical. People familiar with AOSP will feel very much at home and new users of Sony hardware won't be too bamboozled by having to learn about how to negotiate a heavy skin. Sony remain tight-lipped about how many OS updates their phones will get but my guess is, based on previous for this low-to-mid-range it'll be one more. Android 14 but probably not 15. The Google Security updates have the same story, really, being under the control of the OEM - at time of writing in July 2023, I have June's patches on this review unit.

The main camera has been bumped to 48MP from 12 but as with all these quad-bayer units, the software defaults to shooting at 12MP anyway. I can't seem to find any way to force the camera to shoot at the full 48MP resolution which is an odd omission as it's usually included by OEMs within these kinds of arrangements. Again, target audience and all that. The kind of user who doesn't actually want to use, nor understand, the fancy tools available in the rest of the Xperia range but rather have a point-and-shoot for well-generated outcomes. And for that it's great - with good results in decent light but may disappoint when light is low with some noise and pixilation if pushed (for anyone with their sights on anything other than social media posting and family-snap sharing). There's no optical zoom here but again, users will be happy with the digital version, even if photographers would frown! Modes in photo and video are available to tinker with (if people fancy a dive into manual settings) but not too many so as to confuse the aforementioned user and target audience. My guess is that not one of them is going to realise that video shooting is 1080p only!

There's no wireless charging still, again, something for further up the range, but what you do get is a mind-numbingly good battery life! It's the same 5000mAh as last year's unit, but Sony seem to have worked even more magic with the phone making the already super battery from before now even better, stronger and longer-lasting. For me in light use mode, I can certainly consider this a two-day battery (in fact maybe some way into Day 3). But even for heavier use, there's somewhere between little and no chance of killing it before bedtime! This is a good thing because the charging speed is not a fast one, whatever charger you use - there's not one in the box - and certainly seems to take a couple of hours to do so. But most users could charge this overnight every second night, I reckon.

The rest of it is pretty much as-was last year. Not huge changes, which seems to be the Xperia way. Sony making little changes each year to each of their devices in the range. Nothing radical, evolutional. And that's good in many ways as users can be familiar with their hardware, software and services.

For those looking for more, there is the 5-series, as I said, for significantly more money where you'll get a hardware shutter button, an Always on Display, an optical zoom, all those 'specialist' Sony apps (Photography Pro, Cinema Pro, Videography Pro and Music Pro), a more up-to-date, faster and more efficient chipset, Dynamic Vibration, HDMI (Display Port) functionality, wireless charging, aluminium frame and more. For the rest of the undemanding users out there, this is a super little everyday phone, does 95% of what the target audience will appreciate - and provide them with the class of Sony products that they have got used to having around them.

Yes, you could get a different feature-set in another phone for £50 or even £100 less, but I think that Sony know what they're doing here. There's a huge number of people out there who will appreciate what they are doing with this and without hesitation, would be going for this phone over 101 other cheaper ones. People who like Sony style, are somewhat budget-conscious, don't want the flagship features of a much more expensive Xperia, but still want (to be seen with, maybe) a Sony-branded product in their bag or pocket.