Introduction
It won't be long before those full-HD five-inchers start stealing the show and the older Xperia generation should be preparing for life in their shadow. It doesn't mean though that the Xperia V cannot hope for a good time.
We don't see why a phone with dual-core Krait and an LTE connectivity shouldn't enjoy life in the midrange. OK, the upper midrange - but the Xperia V isn't easily caught off guard. Of course, people are not as easily impressed today as, say, a year ago. Yet, a select few phones are willing to offer 1080p videos and 13MP stills, while putting an HD touchscreen at your fingertips.
Sony Xperia V water-resistant phone
And there's more to the Xperia V than that. It's more durable than your average smartphone without looking like an army bot. You should've figured it by now, what we have here is a dust and water-resistant Xperia T with 4G connectivity and a tad smaller screen. Oh, well they needed to make sure the wetsuit would still fit the user.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
- 3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
- LTE Cat3 DL 100 Mbps UL 50 Mbps
- 4.3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit Reality LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine 2; Scratch-resistant glass
- Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean coming up
- IP57 certified for dust and water resistance, up to 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes
- Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset
- 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Superior Auto mode
- 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
- VGA front-facing camera
- Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
- 8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
- microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
- Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Voice dialing
- Deep Facebook integration
- PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- NFC connectivity
Main disadvantages
- No JellyBean at launch
- Relatively modest battery capacity
- Video recording fails to impress
- No hardware shutter key
- Comes across as overpriced
The one thing that doesn't help Sony look particularly good is the tardy arrival of the latest software. The Xperia V is still to get Jelly Bean - and it will most likely be JB 4.1. There have been reports of Sony pushing back the Xperia V's launch on certain markets to put the latest software in. That makes sense but is perhaps part of the reason for the limited supply, that's been keeping prices quite high.
A bit of a vicious circle there, not too good for Sony, but hopefully not for long. Hopefully, the Xperia V should be getting the Jelly Bean treatment as early as February.
The Sony Xperia V at HQ
Elsewhere, the Sony Xperia V makes a pretty strong case for itself. The HD display is looking good, the camera on the back is ready to serve 13MP stills, there's LTE and the dual-core Krait is humming along. And the Xperia V is ready to take calls at the poolside or in the shower.
Sounds like an exciting package, and good-looking too. Hit us up on page 2 and let's get started.
Display
The Xperia V displays everything in 720p resolution on the 4.3" Reality display. With Full HD screens already upon us, the Xperia V will find it hard to get anyone impressed, but to be fair, the screen is well above average. At 342ppi, the Bravia-backed Reality display is quite sharp and pleasant to look at.
Sony used the second generation Mobile BRAVIA engine for the Xperia V and it's supposed to improve contrast and enhance colors. In reality, viewing the screen head on will leave you pleased but as soon as you tilt the device to the side even slightly, the colors begin to look washed out and contrast is heading south at a frightful pace.
It's by no means a deal breaker and most people should be happy with the Xperia V's screen most of the time.
The Xperia V
The display uses a standard RGB matrix arrangement, which you can see in the picture below. As for contract itself - it's passable but far from the standard setters.
The Xperia V and Xperia T displays under a microscope
Contrast ratio
- Nokia 808 PureView4.698
- HTC One X2.158
- Nokia N82.144
- Apple iPhone 42.016
- Sony Ericsson Xperia ray1.955
- Samsung Galaxy Camera1.938
- Sony Xperia V1.792
- Sony Xperia U1.758
- LG Optimus 4X HD1.691
- HTC One V1.685
- LG Optimus Vu1.680
- HTC Desire V1.646
- Samsung Galaxy mini 21.114
Handling
The Xperia V isn't the most compact of smartphones with a 4.3" screen but the surprisingly lightweight body is a pleasure to handle, and the finish is great.
Single-handed operation is very comfortable and the dust and water resistance are something many users will appreciate. The flipside is a non-hot-swappable microSD card and the absence of a proper shutter key.
The Xperia V held in hand
Overall though, it's a great-looking smartphone - without overdoing it - and one that's very secure and comfortable to hold.
Ice Cream Sandwich at the forefront
The Sony Xperia V runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich out of box but Sony is reassuring users that an eventual Jelly Bean is in the works for this year. If you are not familiar with the features specific to the various Android versions, make sure you check out our dedicated Android version scoop.
If you're familiar with Sony's latest Android UI, the Xperia V should look familiar. Sony has smothered Android 4.0.4 with its custom launcher, which runs much deeper than skin-deep. This isn't the first time we've seen ICS on a Sony device either, things are undistinguishable from the Xperia T.
Final Words
We're obviously reviewing the Xperia V at a time when the eyes of the Sony faithful are set elsewhere. It's been a year since the Japanese went solo and, although they've blown hot and cold thus far, they seem to have found their pace. With a couple of full-HD five-inchers, Sony is ahead of some of their top rivals. Not bad for a year's work.
And what about the Xperia V? Long story short, it is the water-proof version of the soon-to-be-ex-flagship and it will most likely interest users who have a use for an IP57-certified handset and who wouldn't overspend on a smartphone, state-of-the-art five-inch full-HD touchscreen or not.
This isn't a particularly bad situation to be in. The Xperia V is more durable than the Bond phone and looks not a bit worse. It's got all the value-adding features that Sony has at the top shelf: a 13MP camera with 1080p video recording, the custom Album app, the Walkman player. Half the built-in storage of the Xperia T and a lower-res front camera are not things we'd complain about. After all, the Xperia V is supposed to be the more durable and slightly less expensive version of the flagship.
But is it? Well, not at this point, no. And we mean the price tag, not the water resistance. Instead of making short work of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus, the HTC One S and why not even the LG Optimus 4X HD, its current price sets it on a collision course with the quad-core flagship monsters that wouldn't mind one last fight before retirement, especially one that they're guaranteed to win.
Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus • HTC One S • LG Optimus 4X HD P880
It just doesn't make sense for a phone like the Xperia V to cost about the same (and sometimes even more) than a Samsung Galaxy S III or an HTC One X. Not to mention the Google Nexus 4, which is ridiculously cheap at Google Play.
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III • HTC One X • LG Nexus 4 E960
To add insult to injury, Sony still has the Xperia V waiting for Jelly Bean. It could really be a matter of weeks now, but that's still worse than what most of its competitors got.
Maybe the current price is kept up by low supply, as Sony is said to be pushing back the Xperia V launch on some markets to make Jelly Bean available. The result is a weird situation where the Xperia V costs a good 100 euro more than the Xperia T. This seems way off and perhaps it will get corrected faster than it's usual for a newly-released device.
And when it does, we wouldn't mind a phone that looks this good, runs Jelly Bean and is water-resistant. Maybe the launch of the Xperia Z and ZL will help too. Sony may realize it's running out of alphabet but, more importantly, they'll run out of reasons too for charging so much on the Xperia V.
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