Sony Xperia 5: the return of the ‘compact’ phone is massive

Hilariously, it seems that if you want a compact flagship smartphone in 2019, 6.1 inches is the screen size you’re going to get.

Sony at IFA 2019 on Thursday announced the Sony Xperia 5, what is practically a smaller version of its Xperia 1 flagship.

The phone, not to be confused with the Z5 from 2015, sports a 6.1 inch OLED display with 2520×1080 resolution. Sony’s sticking to the 21:9 aspect ratio here, so you’re looking at a long but narrow smartphone — 158 mm by 68 mm.

That said, it does weigh just 164 grams, and compared to other flagships of 2019, it definitely is a “compact” device.

That said, it retains much of the Sony Xperia 1’s hardware, including a triple camera array with a 12MP f/2.4 wide-angle lens camera, a 12MP f/1.6 standard lens camera, and a 12MP f/2.4 portrait lens camera. All these are now mounted on the side of the phone, and not the middle.

For a compact device, you’ll get a 6.1 inch screen with that Sony-trademark 21:9 aspect ratio

Buyers will however still get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The latter can be bolstered by a microSD card too.

Up front, there’s an 8MP selfie snapper too, while no headphone jack features. Instead, NFC, USB-C 3.1, Bluetooth 5.0 and aptX support all feature. A side-mounted fingerprint sensor is also a welcome addition.

Powering all this is a 3140mAh battery, while the phone runs on Android 9 Pie at present.

There’s no word on price or availability for the Sony Xperia 5 just yet.

Feature image: Sony