Sony today unveiled its two new products to continue fighting in the smartphone segment. Its new Sony Xperia 1 IV is accompanied by a somewhat more modest version, the Sony Xperia 10 IV.
The firm has not given hardly any technical details about the camera and instead focuses on the weight of the device. Even with a 5,000 mAh battery, the handset weighs 161 grams. The claim doesn’t seem enough when taking a look at the rest of the specs.
Sony Xperia 10 IV technical specifications
| Sony Xperia 10 IV | |
|---|---|
| Screen | 6-inch 21:9 FHD+ (2520 x 1080) 60HZ OLED Gorilla Glass Victus |
| Processor | Snapdragon 695 5G |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Storage | 128GB Expandable via microSD |
| Main Cameras | Triple, with OIS on the main sensor Main: 12MP f/1.8 (27mm) Telephoto: 8MP f/2.2 (54mm) Ultra wide-angle: 8 MP f/2.2 (16 mm) 120º |
| Front Camera | 8MP f/2.0 |
| Sound | 360 Reality Audio DSS Ultimate High Res Audio headphone jack |
| Waterproof | IP68 |
| Connectivity | 4G/5G WiFi 5 Bluetooth 5.1 NFC |
| Biometrics | fingerprint sensor |
| Battery | 5,000mAh |
| Operating System | Android 12 |
| Dimensions and Weight | 153 x 67 x 8.3mm 161g |
| Price | €499 |
Sony cares (too much) about weight
The Sony device is placed in an ambitious mid-range, at least in terms of the price of the device: its €499 should pose a much more promising bet in many areas, especially in the cameras.
The set of cameras is decent and combines the main 12-megapixel sensor with two other 8 Mpixel sensors, one of which is an ultra-wide-angle. The firm talks about an automatic HDR in low light, an improved night mode with improved noise reduction, and a digital zoom also appear promising, but all these will have to be validated with tests.
The main camera has optical image stabilization (OIS), and this system will prevent blurred photos, but also helps with stabilization during video recording.
We do know that the front camera is 8 Mpixels, has an f/2.0 aperture, and is aided by artificial intelligence algorithms to improve selfies.
The processor is the Snapdragon 695 5G, a chip manufactured with 6 nm photolithography that is a slight evolution of its predecessor and gives access to the millimeter and Sub-6 GHz networks. CPU performance is 15% higher than the Snapdragon 690 we saw in the Sony Xperia 10 III, while the GPU gains 30% according to Qualcomm’s figures.
The 6-inch display with no notch or camera hole features a 21:9 aspect ratio and the refresh rate is 60 Hz. There is no data on other options such as its brightness, although they assure that they are 15% brighter than their previous devices. We do know that it is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and that the mobile has IP68 resistance.
The 5,000 mAh battery does have a special option: the Xperia Adaptive Charging technology that minimizes battery degradation “even after three years of use”, according to Sony. This technology monitors the state of the battery during charging to ensure that no more energy is being supplied than is appropriate at any given time.
The Sony Xperia 10 IV supports Hig-Resolution Audio even with wireless headphones and features a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The LDAC codec used allows three times more data to be transmitted than conventional Bluetooth audio, which improves sound quality.
The bet in the audio field is completed with the support of DSS Ultimate -which improves sound quality through artificial intelligence- and 360 Reality Audio technology that is used in services such as Amazon Music, Deezer, or Tidal.
The smartphone seems to be a minimal evolution of last year’s model: there is a slight improvement in the battery and processor, but there is hardly any gain in areas such as weight (the Xperia 10 III weighed 169 grams). It remains to be seen if these improvements manage to convince buyers, especially considering that the segment is tighter than ever.
Pricing and Availablity of the Sony Xperia 10 IV
The new Sony Xperia 10 IV will be available from mid-June 2022 and will be priced at €499.
