The Sony Xperia 5 V is the most regular, user-friendly Xperia I've tried to date, and that's a genuine compliment. Sony phones can't seem to help testing users with a boatload of idiosyncrasies compared to other phones. And while those are still definitely present in the Xperia 5 V, Sony seems to have made an appreciable effort to make this phone a bit more conventional by dropping the price in exchange for losing a camera.
This skinny figure of a phone still comes loaded with powerful image capturing and editing apps, and a design that highlights a lot of features that other devices have abandoned — things that perhaps only proper photo/video enthusiasts will be able to make the most of. But the Xperia 5 V’s surprisingly small design, big battery and more attractive default image quality are things that the average smartphone user can appreciate too. On the downside, the Xperia's hardware is sparsely furnished in several areas, making this flagship phone look like questionable value next to contenders like the Samsung Galaxy S24, Google Pixel 8 or iPhone 15 Pro.
