With the announcement of Xperia 5 IV, Sony has extended its “compact” phone for another season. It’s a step down Fourth 1 In size, price and features, however, it has the same focus on parity in its camera system. This means the phone’s three rear cameras — standard wide, ultra-wide and telephoto — include the company’s excellent Real-Time Eye AF capabilities for better photos and allow for super-fast burst speeds while still being HDR enabled. It has other important specs to back up its camera features and comes at an equally affordable price: $999
The Xperia 5 IV includes (side note: what will they call next year’s phone? That telephoto lens is fine, however; it’s not the optical zoom lens on the 1 IV. Each uses 12-megapixel sensors – lower resolution than most flagship cameras 50 or more are 100 megapixels these days. Hell, even Apple looks like they’re getting started. Stay away from 12 megapixels. Sony spokesman L. Dean Naude says this is a deliberate move to enable this high readout speed on all cameras and to maximize low-light sensitivity with larger pixels.
Both rear cameras are capable of 120 fps readout, allowing 4K/120p video recording on each. You can also capture still images at 20 frames per second with auto focus, auto exposure and HDR technology enabled. The selfie camera also has a new 12MP sensor.
In addition to photographic capabilities, the Xperia 5 IV features a 6.1-inch 1080p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 21:9 form factor, a first-gen Snapdragon 8 chip, and a 5,000mAh-battery – now with wireless charging. It has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, an IP65/68 rating, and some fast-disappearing hardware features: a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. There’s 5G support below 6GHz – with no mmWave – and the phone has a range of new, more powerful stereo speakers. 5 IV scheduled for delivery on 27 October
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