Stuff | Basil Kronfli

A pocketable flagship with a sensational screen and a great camera

ITProPortal | Desire Athow

A very welcomed surprise from Sony, a step down from the Xperia 1 but one which actually feels more balanced. A must have if you want a smartphone that feels compact without any compromises.

NotebookCheck | Mike Wobker

A strong smartphone, but weak cameras and underwhelming battery life.

IT PRO | Bobby Hellard

For those looking for a flagship handset, the iPhone 11, OnePlus 7 and Samsung Galaxy S10 are all cheaper ... if you liked the Xperia 1 then you should equally enjoy the Xperia 5 because it's almost an exact replica - just smaller

Pocket-lint | Chris Hall

If you want a smaller-scale phone and can live with the design, then this is a perfectly powerful phone, with a battery that lasts well enough. But the camera isn't competitive and the fingerprint scanner is poor.

Trusted Reviews | Jon Mundy

Hot on the heels of the Xperia 1, the Xperia 5 is another strong flagship-level phone from Sony, this time offering a slightly better balance between top-end specifications and everyday practicality.

TechRadar | Tom Bedford

If you want to get in on the Sony phone ecosystem, or need a decent compact smartphone, that's still got a lot of power under the hood, the Sony Xperia 5 is a decent bet for you.

AndroidPit | Julius Stiebert

Sony Xperia 5 is well processed and offers impressive performance, which is to a large extent also responsible for the rating. Nothing about this smartphone is really bad, but at the same time, I was thinking that nothing is remarkable about it either.

Expert Reviews | Nathan Spendelow

I might be seeing double, but considering you can get a similar sort of experience as the Xperia 1 for just a little bit less, then the pocketable Xperia 5 is a decent choice for anyone looking to upgrade.

T3 | David Nield

Sony has pushed out another polished, stylish smartphone with a camera that impresses... but it's still playing catch up to the best flagships on the market

phoneArena | Preslav Kateliev

On one hand, I absolutely love it - the design is beautiful, functional, and ergonomic... On the other hand, that fingerprint scanner is maddening, some random crashes left me perplexed and disappointed, and the whole software user experience part needs a once-over by the programming team.

What Mobile | Jasper Hart

Sony has made a strong phone, that despite its flagship cost, ultimately appeals to a more niche crowd that favours watching films and shows on the go or fancies themselves as budding movie makers.

Android Authority | Oliver Cragg

For a phone that still costs more than 2019's best affordable flagships, the Xperia 5 has too many pain points - the lackluster camera, awful fingerprint scanner, bland software, awkward design - to fully recommend it to anyone but die-hard movie lovers with limited pocket/bag space who want to watch supported movies in 21:9 on the go.

TheEffect.Net | John Reilly

The Xperia 5 has some niche appeal. Its quirky, narrow form factor could be a draw for those who want a phone that can be easily used with one hand and that looks different from the sea of smartphones out there. Still, the mediocre camera performance and relatively high price compared to other Chinese Android options makes the Xperia 5 hard to recommend.

The Verge | Dieter Bohn

... while the Xperia 5 has some problems and probably wouldn't be my first recommendation to most people, there are surely some who would be into what it has to offer. The Xperia 5 has a nearly unique way of solving a problem we made for ourselves. We want big-screened phones, but they're too big to use with just one hand. Sony's solution is to make the phone very narrow and tall.

jmcomms | Jonathan Morris

The screen is great. The phone is loud too. It's fast and supports fast 4G, so the lack of 5G isn't a massive issue. But the camera is nothing special, and the battery is as dumb a move for Sony as the Pixel 4 series is for Google. Nobody should need to turn features off to comfortably get through a whole day.

Tom's Guide | Adam Ismail

The Sony Xperia 5 is an elegantly designed, reasonably priced flagship phone, but quirky ergonomics, frustrating cameras and a lacking feature set makes it a poor alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 and iPhone 11.

PC Mag | Steven Winkelman

For the price, the Google Pixel 4 or Samsung Galay S10e offer a lot more bang for your buck, and with a Pixel 5 on the horizon, the Xperia 5 simply doesn't offer enough to put Sony back in the smartphone conversation.