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News + Trends
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Sony Xperia 5 hands-on: The little Xperia 1

Jan Johannsen
5.9.2019
Translation: machine translated

Sony presented the Xperia 5 at the IFA. What at first sounds like just a new smartphone is somewhat surprising on closer inspection.

Because the Xperia 5 is the Xperia 1 with a smaller screen. The manufacturer did not reveal why Sony did not present them both together and bring them closer together with a name suffix such as "Plus" or "Mini". The name suggests big differences that are not there.

Smaller display, smaller battery

As the casing of the Xperia 5 has become smaller, the battery has lost capacity. However, with 3140 mAh hours, the difference to the Xperia 1 should be minimal. It is still charged via the USB-C port.

Darling, I have shrunk the Xperia 1

There are no other differences. The back of the Xperia 5 is also made of Gorilla Glass 6 and the fingerprint sensor is located on the side. The housing is still waterproof to IP65/68.

Sony has also installed the triple camera, in which not only the main camera, but also the telephoto and wide-angle lens shoot photos with a resolution of twelve megapixels. The different sensor sizes and apertures ensure different image qualities despite the identical resolution. You can record 4K HDR videos and use the "Cinema Pro" mode praised by our colleague Dominik.

Under the bonnet, the Snapdragon 855 and six gigabytes of RAM keep the Xperia 5 running. So there is no lack of computing power. The internal memory of 128 gigabytes offers space for numerous photos and videos and can be expanded with a microSD card if required.

Sony installs Android 9 Pie as the operating system.

Other colours

There's another difference I haven't mentioned: the colours. Sony offers the Xperia 5 in black, grey, blue and red. The Xperia 1, on the other hand, is available in black, grey, purple and white.

With the Xperia 5, you don't have to sacrifice anything compared to the Xperia 1 and can choose the more compact version without hesitation. It will be available in mid-September. Sony has not yet revealed how much it will cost. <p

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Jan Johannsen
Senior Editor
Jan.Johannsen@galaxus.de

When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de. 

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