Sony Xperia 10V Review
Coming from using a Sony Xperia 5IV as my daily device I wanted to try out the mid-range Sony Xperia 10V
The first thing that strikes you about the Sony Xperia 10V is its large screen size measuring in at 6.1 inches its a big display but the phone doesn't feel too wide to hold in the hand as the weight is nicely distributed.
Sony has really cut back on the packaging and contents as in the box, you just get the phone and instructions.
Design:-
Sony havent changed the design of the phone from the previous interactions of the Xperia 10 range too much.
The phone is a little bigger than the previous model 155 x 68 x 8.3 mm but its weight is reduced to 159 g.
The camera array is raised slightly from the rear surface. (48 MP Wide, 8 MP Telephoto, 8 MP Ultrawide and a single LED flash)
The main microphone and the USB-C port and the one of the speakers are at the bottom of the phone.
One the right side of the phone you have the volume rocker and power button with integrated fingerprint scanner
I Iike the arrangement of the fingerprint scanner on the power button as it allows for quick unlock. ( Face Unlock is not supported )
On the left side of the phone is the sim card and Microsd card, (which you can just use your fingernail tool to open) ESim is also supported.
The Xperia 10V has a IP65/68 rating water resistance, I found the phone very nice to hold and the metal edges give the phone a premium feel.
The top has the second of the microphones along with the headphone jack and also the second speaker.
Screen:-
The screen on the Sony Xperia 10V is a large FHD+ 6.1" OLED, the display offers a ratio of Sony's usual 21:9 and a 1080 x 2520 pixels resolution with 449 PPI and is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
As the Xperia 10 V is 10-bit display it does a very good job at colour reproduction.
Sony again brings their TV expertise to their mobile display with their Triluminous Display for mobile technology.
The screen refresh rate is 60Hz and I found it very smooth between switching apps and watching streaming videos.
You can tweak the display in the Settings in Image quality settings, so you can choose either Original mode or Standard mode
I found the screen was sharp and provided a very good colour representation while viewing videos from streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix.
Brightness is very good at 683 nits and I found that even in very bright sun conditions the screen was clear.
The Xperia 10V also has a Night Light mode which reduces the brightness and gives the screen an orange hue, so the screen is easier on your eyes you can schedule this to be enabled at a specific time or at sunset and then turn off at sunrise.
Another nice feature is Smart Backlight Control, which will keep the screen on while your looking at the screen on the phone.
Camera:-
The Camera on the Sony Xperia 10V has this setup
- Main :48MP 1/2.0″ sensor, f/1.8 , focal length 26mm, PDAF
- Tele: 8MP, 1/4.4″ sensor, f/2.2, focal length 54mm, PDAF (2x Zoom)
- Ultrawide : 8MP, 1/4″ sensor, f/2.2, focal length 16mm
The camera app setup is the typical Sony one. They have improved access to the zoom and now you can directly go to 10x, once by pressing 5x then pressing 10x.
The top menu bar has access to Flash, Timer ( 3 or 10 sec), Night shooting Mode, Bokeh , White Balance & Exposure, Main Camera settings.
The Mode shortcut has extra modes Google Lens, Slow Motion, Manual and Panorama.
The Xperia 5V has improved their camera above the Xperia IV
The camera does a good job when there is plenty of natural light and captures quite a bit of details and Colours look accurate with Dynamic Range available, JPEG mode is only supported and also supports 10fps AE burst
Outdoor Samples
Outdoor Samples with Full 10x Zoom
Indoor Samples
Indoors- with very Low Light using Torch
Indoors- with very Low Light with Fill Flash
Indoors- with very Low Light without Flash
The Xperia 10V captures a good amount of detail when the Fill-Flash or Torch is enabled ,but without any light source the details in the shadows aren’t captured too well
Video
Max Video that can be captured is 1080P at 30fps 16:9 and other modes are below
Overall the Xperia 10V does a good job when recording videos, but there isnt a huge level of detail captured which becomes evident when you zoom as details get blurred as part of the zoom is digital there is a loss of sharpness when zooming in.
As usual Sony have EIS so that keeps your videos smooth.
Front Camera
And for the front selfie camera , which is similar to one on the Xperia 10IV. It has a 78 Degree Field of view and support HDR with options like Manual mode or to use a hand gesture to take a selfie, disabling the Soft Skin Effect and Sharpen faces provided a more accurate selfie
Front Camera Selfie Camera Sample
Audio:-
The Sony Xperia 10V provides very clear audio through its stereo speakers.
When I tried different music types they sounded very well through the speakers and at high volume don't lose clarity and also has a decent bit of bass.
Also included is the 360 Reality Audio,but it only works with some audio apps like TIDAL.
and DSEE Ultimate which uses AI to upscale your music.
There is a 3.5mm headphone jack as well that supports LRGM headsets
Phone Performance and UI Tweaks:-
The Sony Xperia 10V has 6GB RAM and is powered by the same Snapdragon 695 5G CPU from the Xperia 10IV.
I didn't notice any lagging between switch games and other apps.
There is 128GB Memory onboard which can be expanded with a Microsd card.
It's a pity I had to install four updates and do four restarts to move to Android 14 but I guess that's a limitation from Google to do updates that way.
Sony have again bundled their Side Sense app, which allows you shortcuts to most used apps, or Pop-up which lets you have one app overlaid in the corner or using Multi Window to display two apps at once, i.e Chrome and Youtube, you can even have 3 apps open at the same time if you use Multi Window and Pop-up
YouTube and chrome in Multi Window
YouTube and 2 chrome browsers , with Multi Window and Pop-up
Sony hasn't included too much bloatware which is good and what is included can be deleted.
The phone is running Android 14 with Sony's own skin.
Performance in games was very smooth and i didnt have any issues, Sony Game Enhancer App was not included in the Xperia 10V.
I found the fingerprint unlock worked very quickly.
Connectivity is covered with 2G/3G/4G/5G are all supported.
For WiFi there is support for 2.4GHz and 5GHz i.e Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac , Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive ,NFC and also USB OTG
For Shortcuts (available from top swipe down) these can be edited
Battery :-
Onboard is a large 5000mah capacity battery which should be enough to get you through the day.
Wireless charging isn't included but charging via QC and PD is supported, it can do a full charge in about 2 hours.
You can also change the phone's performance to increase the battery life, by enabling the Battery Care which learns your charging habits so during the night time it will pause when it reaches 80% percentage and then charge up to 100% before you wake up. Doing this increases the lifespan of batteries which is a good thing as we all keep our phones for longer now.
If you're looking for a big phone to watch plenty of videos with a big battery and don't want to break the bank, the Sony Xperia 10V is definitely a contender.
More Info Xperia 10 V Lightweight & large battery | Smartphones | Sony UK
