[ad_1]
The Xperia 10 is the first of a new wave of Sony smartphones, with a screen format that is best suited to CinemaScope, the most widely used cinema format, as the most important differentiator. No, these are not the original 2.35:1 and not 2.39:1, but a slightly more familiar 21:9 format (that is, 2.33:1), which Philips tried to introduce into consumer electronics at one time, creating TVs with in a similar format. They have been on the market for three years. This format lasted much longer — and still does — in the world of monitors, but Sony is not interested in widescreen per se, but in cinematic potential. And the experience of the failure of Philips (which never waited for the mass distribution of content in the original format) was ignored by the Japanese.
A screen with an aspect ratio of 21:9 received, among others, the mid-range smartphone Sony Xperia 10, which came to us for testing, and the flagship Xperia 1, which will reach the market only in the summer. Such a display allows not only to declare unique opportunities for watching a movie in the format in which it is (mostly) filmed, but also to make a narrow body that is most comfortable to grip.
The Sony Xperia 10 is interesting not only for its screen format, but also for its return to its roots: here is the traditional design of the front panel without a cutout or a hole for the front camera, and a “brick-like” body with a fingerprint scanner on the side panel. Hello to the golden times of the Xperia Z is obvious. It is on non-standard and out-of-date that Sony relies, since the Xperia 10 does not stand out at all in terms of characteristics: Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, dual camera (13 + 5 MP) without zoom, six-inch LCD display, not very capacious battery (2870 mAh) … Maybe Sony’s newest hope for success in the mid-range has some unusual tricks up its sleeve?
⇡#Specifications
| Sony Xperia 10 | Xiaomi Mi 8 | Huawei nova 3 | ASUS Zenfone 5 | Nokia 7 Plus | |
| Display | 6 inch IPS 2520 × 1080 dots, 457 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
6.21 inches, AMOLED, 2246 × 1080 pixels, 402 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 6.3″ IPS 2340 × 1080 dots, 409 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
6.2 inches, IPS, 2246 × 1080 pixels, 402 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 6 inch IPS 2160 × 1080 dots, 401 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
| Protective glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | No information | Corning Gorilla Glass (version unknown) | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 630: eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores up to 2.2 GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: Quad-core Kryo 385 Gold @ 2.8GHz + Quad-core Kryo 385 Silver @ 1.7GHz | HiSilicon Kirin 970: four ARM Cortex A73 cores, 2.4GHz + four ARM Cortex A53 cores, 1.8GHz; HiAI architecture | Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 (Eight Kryo 260 Cores, 1.8GHz) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 660: eight Kryo 260 cores, 2.2 GHz |
| Graphics controller | Adreno 509, 650 MHz | Adreno 630, 710 MHz | ARM Mali-G72 MP12, 850 MHz | Adreno 509, 720 MHz | Adreno 512, 850 MHz |
| RAM | 3 GB | 6 GB | 4 GB | 6 GB | 4 GB |
| Flash memory | 64 GB | 64/128/256 GB | 128 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB |
| Memory card support | There is | Not | There is | eat | There is |
| Connectors | USB Type-C, mini-jack 3.5 mm | USB Type-C | USB Type-C, mini jack 3.5 mm | USB Type-C, mini jack 3.5 mm | USB Type-C, mini jack 3.5 mm |
| SIM cards | Two nano-SIMs | Two nano-SIMs | Two nano-SIMs | Two nano-SIMs | Two nano-SIMs |
| Cellular 2G | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
| Cellular 3G | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 | UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 | HSDPA 850/900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 |
| Cellular 4G | LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600 Mbps): bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 32, 38 | LTE Cat. 16 (up to 1024 Mbps): bands 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat. 13 (up to 400 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20 | LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600 Mbps): ranges not specified | LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbps): bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41 |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.2 (aptX HD) | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| NFC | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou |
| Sensors | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), strong motion sensor | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass) |
| The fingerprint scanner | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Main camera | Dual module, 13 MP, ƒ/2.0 + 5 MP, ƒ/2.4, hybrid autofocus, LED flash | Dual module: 12 MP, ƒ / 1.8 + 12 MP, ƒ / 2.4, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization (with main camera), dual LED flash | Dual module, 24 + 16 MP, ƒ / 1.8, phase detection autofocus, LED flash | Dual module, 12 MP, ƒ/1.8 + 8 MP, ƒ/2.0, phase detection autofocus, LED flash | Dual module, 12 MP, ƒ / 1.75 + 13 MP, ƒ / 2.6, phase detection autofocus, dual LED flash |
| Front-camera | 8 MP, ƒ/2.0, fixed focus | 20 MP, ƒ/2.0, fixed focus | 24+2 MP, ƒ/2.0, fixed focus, no flash | 8 MP, ƒ/2.0, fixed focus | 16 MP, ƒ/2.0, fixed focus |
| Nutrition | 10.9 Wh non-removable battery (2870 mAh, 3.8 V) | Non-removable battery: 12.92 Wh (3400 mAh, 3.8 V) | Non-removable battery: 14.25 Wh (3750 mAh, 3.8 V) | 12.54 Wh non-removable battery (3300 mAh, 3.8 V) | 14.44 Wh non-removable battery (3800 mAh, 3.8 V) |
| The size | 156×68×8.4mm | 154.9×74.8×7.6mm | 157×73.7×7.3mm | 153×75.65×7.7mm | 158.4×75.6×9.55mm |
| Weight | 162 grams | 175 grams | 166 grams | 155 grams | 183 grams |
| Hull protection | Not | Not | Not | No | Not |
| Operating system | Android 9.0 Pie, native shell | Android 8.1.0 Oreo, MIUI shell | Android 8.1 Oreo, EMUI shell | Android 8.0 Oreo, ZenUI shell | Android 8.1 Oreo (Android One) |
| Current price | 220$ | $220 for 6/64GB version, $220 for 6/128GB version, $220 for 6/256GB version | 220$ | 18 990 rubles | 22 182 rubles |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
Sony Xperia 10 — information about the filling according to the CPU Z application |
||||
⇡#Design, ergonomics and software
Retro turn — this is how you can characterize the look of the Sony Xperia 10. For the past couple of years, the Japanese have carefully erased the familiar image of neat bricks with their puffy edges and flat panels both in front and behind — and suddenly everything is back in 2016. The same form, the same fingerprint scanner on the side panel. No «bangs» (admittedly, Sony did not succumb to this dislocation of fashion in any way), minimal bends in the edges of the back panel — it does not try to hide the real thickness of the device, the mini-jack is in place. The only thing that gives out a modern smartphone in Xperia 10 is a dual camera module. In this regard, Sony also adhered to conservative positions for a long time, but finally gave up last year.
The Sony Xperia 10 looks at least unusual in the end. The word «fresh» in relation to the design code returned from the past does not seem to fit very well, but against the general background it turns out so. You can’t confuse Sony smartphones with any others, and the «ten» quietly continues this tradition. Moreover, this “you can’t confuse” does not carry any negative connotations. Yes, someone may not like the Sony approach, but in general, the Japanese cannot be denied a sense of style.
Sony Xperia 10, front panel: above the screen — earpiece, front camera, ambient light sensor and status indicator
Nevertheless, the combination of the almost complete absence of a “chin” and side edges around the screen with a very impressive space above it raises certain aesthetic questions — the manufacturer claims that the engineers were forced to leave such a large gap because there was nowhere else to place various PCB connections, cables etc. It is logical, but, for example, there are no such gaps in the Xperia 1 announced simultaneously with the “ten”, and there are hardly fewer cables and printed circuit boards, so this explanation does not remove the questions.
Sony Xperia 10, rear panel: dual camera module and single LED flash
The Sony Xperia 10 is available in navy blue (as we tested), black, silver and pink. Design materials — metal for the back panel and side faces, tempered glass (Gorilla Glass 5) for the front. The coating, admittedly, is non-marking, you don’t need to constantly dance around the smartphone with a cloth or immediately enclose it in the arms of a cover. Only the front panel is covered with prints and stains — the oleophobic coating on the Xperia 10, alas, is far from ideal. Of the unequivocal pluses, I will note how comfortable the smartphone is to hold — elongated and thin, it fits very well in the palm of your hand, and there is every reason to assume that in any.
Sony Xperia 10, left side: slot for SIM-cards and / or memory cards
Sony Xperia 10, right side: power key, volume/shutter key and fingerprint scanner
Sony wouldn’t be itself if it didn’t do something special in terms of controls. True, we didn’t wait for the proprietary camera shutter button here, but instead of it, an additional place on the right side was occupied by a fingerprint scanner. The peculiarity of this solution is that it is just a scanner, it is not combined with the power key, as before. The power and volume keys (its lower part is also responsible for releasing the same shutter) are above and below it, respectively — and are shifted down relative to their standard position on most smartphones from other brands. As a result, the face looks more symmetrical, but it becomes inconvenient to use the volume control: you have to move your finger unusually low.
Sony Xperia 10, top edge: mini-jack and microphone
Sony Xperia 10, bottom: USB Type-C port and two grilles — one hidden microphone, the second — the main speaker
On the top we see a mini-jack, on the bottom we see a USB Type-C port and a lone mono speaker hidden under the right grille. The slot for SIM-cards and memory cards traditionally opens without the help of a pin lock — and again, traditionally sends the device into a reboot, as soon as you remove the slot from the case. And regardless of whether there is a SIM card in it or not.
The fingerprint scanner, admittedly, works very well. Despite the small area, for a week and a half of testing it was not necessary to rewrite the print even once — the capacitive sensor responded to it stably. The only point is that you need to carefully monitor the cleanliness of both the scanner and the finger: the sensor is very sensitive to any contamination.
The Sony Xperia 10 runs on the Android 9.0 Pie operating system with a proprietary shell that is well known, for example, from the Sony Xperia XZ3, but without a number of chips associated with the OLED display used there: Xperia 10 has neither Always-On Display nor the ability to activate the display just by looking at it. But there is a basic set of Sony applications, high-quality design, competent mutual integration of branded and «android» functions — this is one of the most accurate and nicely organized smartphone shells today, which at the same time has its own face and does not greatly overlap the Google OS.
Of the features that nevertheless unexpectedly moved from the XZ3, I note Side Sense — a side panel added there in connection with the use of a curved display. Here the display is completely flat, but there is a sidebar that gives you quick access to the apps, settings and contacts of your choice. Moreover, it is implemented much better than in the flagship — it is difficult to call it by accident, since the sensitivity of the area in which Side Sense is activated is fine-tuned. From a redundant function that many Xperia XZ3 users turned off immediately after they met, Side Sense here has turned into an optional, but in principle useful vignette, which at least does not interfere.
There is also a unique feature added in the new generation of widescreen Xperia — the screen can be divided into two parts. Multi-screen in itself is no longer a novelty for Android smartphones, but it is implemented in the new format really well: it is convenient to adjust the size of windows, due to the aspect ratio they should be placed on the screen with maximum comfort. They should — because at the time of testing, the function simply did not work.
Sony solves the problem with scaling external applications in a simple way — by occupying everything outside the usual format (19: 9) with the status bar and navigation strip. But this does not always work — some applications on an elongated screen look so-so.
⇡#Display and sound
The Sony Xperia XZ3 (and the Xperia 1 due early this summer) features an OLED display for the first time in Sony’s mobile division. But this has not yet turned into a general trend that would have grown to middle-class models. Despite the obvious multimedia orientation of the Xperia 10, the display of this smartphone, extended to a 21:9 format, is equipped with an LCD matrix (IPS). But frankly saving on the screen, limiting itself only to a non-standard aspect ratio, the Japanese company did not: the 6-inch screen received Full HD + resolution (2520 × 1080 pixels), which gives a density of 457 pixels per inch. The picture is very detailed, it is simply impossible to see the pixelation.
The aspect ratio of the screen allows you to watch many films in the format in which they were shot — this is true. There is one big but, which has already cut off the oxygen of the same idea with TVs, although they are, in theory, much more suitable for viewing original content than mobile devices. Finding the originals is far from easy — in streaming services or iTunes (and in pirated sources) almost all content has already been reformatted to 16:9, CinemaScope has not been recognized as the BluRay Ultra HD standard. And the problems with finding content for an elongated display are followed by another one — if when stretching an image to full screen in today’s smartphones with a 19:9 or 19.5:9 screen, not much information is lost at the edges, then when stretching to 21:9 it hurts the eyes already. Watching any Internet video on the Xperia 10 is accompanied by the obligatory observation of two especially large black bars on the sides. Such is the «special experience».
The oleophobic coating of the Xperia 10, as I noted above, does not shine, otherwise it is a standard sandwich for a modern smartphone of a normal level — there is a polarizing filter and a multi-touch coating that responds to 10 simultaneous touches. Viewing angles are free.
With instrumental measurements, the Xperia 10 display produces a very good maximum brightness level — 519 cd / m2. This is enough to keep the information on the screen readable on a sunny day, but you can’t count on excellent picture quality — there is frankly not enough contrast, and this is normal for a liquid crystal display.
Contrast at an average level — 1374:1. HDR support, alas, is not announced, Xperia 10 cannot offer any special experience in the field of quality, and not the picture format.
In the screen settings, you can change the color reproduction, brightness and white balance, as well as adjust the automatic inclusion of night mode. I measured the color reproduction of the Xperia 10 display with two of the available presets: Standard and Vivid.
Sony Xperia 10, gamma in standard mode. The yellow line is the Xperia 10 performance, the dotted line is the reference gamma
Sony Xperia 10, color temperature in standard mode. The blue line is the Xperia 10 readings, the dotted line is the reference temperature
Sony Xperia 10, color gamut in standard mode. Gray triangle — sRGB coverage, white triangle — Xperia 10 coverage
The average gamma in standard mode is 2.10, which isn’t too far off the mark. The curves also behave relatively stable, but begin to diverge in bright colors. The color temperature is overstated, but not as much as one would expect from a Sony smartphone — it ranges from 7,500 to 8,500 K. It seems that the times when the Japanese quite consciously made the shades on their screens prohibitively cold still passed. Well, fine. The color gamut is not expanded — coverage approximately corresponds to the area of sRGB, but slightly offset. The average DeltaE deviation for the extended Color Checker palette (grayscale + a wide range of color shades) is 5.27 with a maximum allowable rate of 3. The result is not the worst, but far from ideal.
Sony Xperia 10, gamma at maximum brightness. The yellow line is the Xperia 10 performance, the dotted line is the reference gamma
Sony Xperia 10, color temperature at maximum brightness. The blue line is the Xperia 10 readings, the dotted line is the reference temperature
Sony Xperia 10, color gamut in maximum brightness mode. Gray triangle — sRGB coverage, white triangle — Xperia 10 coverage
When the high brightness mode is activated, the situation with color reproduction paradoxically remains practically unchanged. It can even be said that all indicators fluctuate around the arithmetic error. The gamma turns out to be 2.04 with similar behavior of the curves, the color temperature remains within the same limits, the average deviation of DeltaE by Color Checker is 6.10, the color gamut is the same as in the standard mode.
We have to admit that the display of the Sony Xperia 10 is set to medium — it’s okay, but not at all what you expect from a deliberately «cinematic» gadget.
 |
 |
But in terms of sound, the Sony Xperia 10 is very good. The signal is supplied with sufficient power so that there are no problems with audibility even in the subway, and not at maximum volume. With wireless data transfer, both the well-known aptX HD profile and the proprietary LDAC profile are supported — when using headphones that support it, the smartphone is able to provide a very rich and detailed sound, not much inferior to the “wired” one.
At the same time, Xperia 10 cannot even offer stereo sound through external speakers — one of the main advantages of the flagship Xperia (they sound better than all competitors) has not spilled over into the younger model. The speaker is loud but lonely.
⇡#Hardware and performance
Sony is a company committed to tradition. This is sometimes good, and sometimes not so good. The latter concerns the eternal lag of the company’s smartphones in terms of hardware characteristics from direct competitors. So the Xperia 10 goes there too: despite the price of $200, the smartphone is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 platform — rare, not very successful. The very one for which we scolded Yandex.Telephone, which even at the start cost a little less — 18 thousand.
The Snapdragon 630 uses eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores, four of which are clocked at 2.2GHz and four at 1.8GHz. Recall: most often, Cortex-A53 is used as auxiliary cores, which are responsible for working at low load, while the heavy one goes to more powerful cores. Here, eight of these cores are responsible for everything — and in a platform for a middle-class smartphone, this now looks somewhat out of place. The lag is clearly manifested both in synthetic tests and in practice.
It is worth adding that the platform is executed according to the 14-nm process technology, and the Adreno 508 subsystem is responsible for the graphics.
The Sony Xperia 10 does not shine with gaming performance — the main mobile games with 3D graphics will have to be run at minimum settings to keep the frame rate at a normal level, and even wait a few minutes until they start. But that’s not all — even with basic applications, the smartphone works sluggishly, slightly slowing down. During testing, the “ten” hung several times in ordinary applications like Google Maps or Instagram* — it was necessary to restart the program to return the gadget to working capacity. You can attribute this, of course, to the pre-production status of our specimen, but the sediment remains.
The Snapdragon 630 performs well in neural network computing — 5111 points in AI Mark allows you to bypass 55% of all devices tested to date in the benchmark. Artificial intelligence in the Xperia 10 is used, as in many other smartphones, to determine the scene when shooting, and then select the optimal settings for it.
With throttling, the Xperia 10 also has no serious problems — the cooling system is very effective. In the CPU Throttling Test, the smartphone showed a decrease in frequency to 76% of the maximum. Another thing is that the average performance was 82.4 GIPS, which is very far from the best indicators, but it’s not the cooling system that is to blame, but the SoC itself, which is not very powerful by today’s standards. At the same time, at the end of the 15-minute test, the smartphone did not heat up much.
The Sony Xperia 10 is equipped with 3 GB of RAM — for a smartphone with a Full HD + screen resolution, this is, in fact, close to the lower limit. There is absolutely no stock here — and with this, perhaps, freezes are associated at some points. The drive is 64 GB, which is also not impressive, but at least fixable with a microSD card. She can replace the second SIM card, the maximum capacity of the card is 512 GB.
⇡#Communications and wireless communications
The Snapdragon 630 platform includes a very good modem in terms of maximum data transfer rate, it provides the smartphone with the ability to work with LTE Cat.12 with a maximum data reception rate of 600 Mbps. Another thing is that this modem does not shine with connection stability. Interruptions are not uncommon here, and even in proven places. There are no problems with the set of available bands — the i4113 version, which is supplied to the Russian market, is friendly with all the frequencies necessary for working in Russia.
Sony Xperia 10, nano-SIM and/or memory card slot. Painfully familiar to all owners of Sony Xperia inscription — on the screen
But there are no problems with the rest of the wireless modules: there is dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11 a / b / g / n / ac), and Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC, and a high-quality navigation system (GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS). There is only a rarely used infrared port.
⇡#Camera
The Sony Xperia 10 has a dual rear camera. The main module consists of a sensor with a resolution of 13 megapixels and physical dimensions of 1/3» (pixel size — 1.12 microns), with optics aperture f/2.0. The second — from a sensor with a resolution of 5 megapixels and physical dimensions 1/4» (pixel size — 1.4 microns), with optics aperture f/2.4. In principle, the parameters of the second camera are not so important — it is responsible here solely for artificial blurring of the background. The dual module does not provide any optical zoom or any bonuses during normal shooting.
The camera has a hybrid focusing system that combines phase and contrast methods — it does not work very quickly, but it is quite stable and accurate, both in good light and in low light. Tracking autofocus is available, which allows you to capture dynamic scenes on the Xperia 10 camera. But the optical stabilizer in the smartphone camera is not provided.
The Sony Xperia 10 camera interface is unusual. We are used to the fact that you can switch between shooting modes using a carousel of screens, that they are all available in one or two swipes. Here, you can only switch between photo and video shooting, and special modes are presented as, in fact, separate applications integrated into the camera, as it were, on top of the main interface. Each mode asks for permissions on first launch and takes time to activate. And this applies to both shooting with artificial bokeh or a set of filters, and the mode with manual settings. But for Sony, this is progress — earlier, let me remind you, the same Bokeh mode was a completely separate application that had to be downloaded from the Play Market.
Portraits on the Sony Xperia 10 can be obtained with very good blur, but there is also a limitation, which is set by the focal length of the only wide-angle lens responsible for shooting. Shooting close-up portraits is fraught with too much facial distortion, while full-length or, as in the example above, half-length portraits work better with the Xperia 10.
Another mode that I would like to dwell on a little is filters, here they are quite interesting and unusual. What is typical for Sony, they do not repeat what you will find in the cameras of this company, but are completely original. Divisions within the company have been working autonomously until recently, and the Xperia 10 is one of the latest smartphones created by Sony in the mode of such internal, if not competition, then independence.
 |
 |
|
|
On the left — a picture without HDR, on the right — with HDR. It is noteworthy that the smartphone independently decided whether to apply dynamic range expansion or not. |
||
I already wrote above that the Xperia 10 camera is able to determine the shooting scenario and select the optimal settings for it, in its own opinion. Unusually, artificial intelligence is non-switchable here, unlike the same Xiaomi or Huawei — if you are not shooting in manual (professional) mode, then the smartphone will always try to adapt to the situation. You can’t even enable or disable HDR on your own — the device itself resorts to its services if it considers it necessary, without informing the user (HDR can only be controlled in manual settings mode). In most cases, this does not interfere in any way, rather the opposite — the Xperia 10 has a very good taste in photography, the smartphone knows how to correctly set the settings and correctly select colors.
With software processing, the Sony Xperia 10 is also doing well, what it lacks is just physical parameters. As a result, a camera with a medium-sized sensor and low aperture optics produces a pleasant picture in daylight or bright artificial light, color reproduction and details look great. But in low light or at night, the «tens» camera has a hard time — it diligently crushes noise, but kills all the details along with them, especially in the shadows. Taking a picture without blurring is, in principle, not difficult even in automatic mode, since the camera sets normal shutter speeds, but the quality of the pictures is frankly poor.
The Sony Xperia 10 is very good when it comes to video recording — not only is the smartphone capable of recording 4K video at up to 30 frames per second (and who can’t now?), it is also capable of doing it with a 21:9 format. The resolution in this case will be 3840 × 1644 pixels. The picture quality is very decent, with good details and normal dynamic range. When shooting in Full HD, a digital stabilizer is available, there is also a slow motion function (120 frames per second at 480p resolution).
 |
 |
The front camera in the Sony Xperia 10 is quite ordinary — 8 megapixels, physical dimensions 1/4 » (pixel — 1.12 microns), aperture f/2.0. There is no flash and autofocus, but software background blur is available when the “selfie portrait” mode is activated, available in the same list of modes as all the others. Somewhat frustrating noticeable optical distortion associated with wide-angle optics, but in general the quality of self-portraits is normal.
⇡#Offline work
Sony has once again stinted on a capacious battery for its smartphone. The Xperia 10 has a 10.9 Wh (2870 mAh, 3.8 V) lithium-ion battery. In principle, you can live with a six-inch display, you just need to take care of normal optimization. Alas, with this, the “ten” is sad. A smartphone can hardly last a day at a standard load and sit down in 6-7 hours at a maximum load (you can add another half an hour or an hour if you activate the STAMINA mode on time). This is one of the weakest devices in its class in terms of autonomy.
In our traditional HD video playback test, at maximum brightness, with updates and notifications turned on, the smartphone lasted six hours. The indicator is frankly low.
There are several proprietary energy saving options in the settings, but this is no longer the magical STAMINA that it used to be — it will not give a serious gain, as I wrote above. For charging, a USB Type-C (USB 2.0) port is used, PowerDelivery fast charging with a power of up to 18 W is supported — with it the battery is charged in less than two hours. At the same time, the kit comes with a standard 5V / 1.5A charger, with which it will take even more time to replenish the charge.
⇡#Conclusion
Sony in the new generation of Xperia tried to change something, find the right direction and made a fair bet on what the company is really good at — on the multimedia component. But everything went wrong again — simply by stretching the smartphone display to a 21:9 format, it will not work to make it an ideal device for watching videos: there is not enough content, despite the format accepted in the industry, and other areas of smartphone application suffer, and display is mediocre. Yes, the quality of the sound delivered to the headphones is higher than that of the competition, but why is the external speaker mono? Why save here?
Well, and most importantly, for an important accent, one should not forget about the other functions of the smartphone. We have long been accustomed to the fact that budget Xperia and mid-range Sony smartphones always lag behind Chinese competitors in terms of hardware characteristics, but this time the lag seems to be simply blatant. Also, the camera does not shine — with a very good color reproduction and reasonable software processing, it is frankly lost in low light. It would seem that there is a demand from an inexpensive smartphone, but the much more affordable Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and Honor 8X can answer this.
The final situation is disappointing: the Sony Xperia 10 again turns out to be a “smartphone not for everyone” — for brand adherents and connoisseurs of Sony’s approach to design, ready to endure a lot for this.
Advantages:
- original design, Sony-style in its repertoire;
- an unusual format screen, ideal for watching movies in the original (if you can find it);
- functional and nicely designed shell;
- high-quality sound in headphones (both wired and without them);
- well-placed fingerprint scanner.
Disadvantages:
- poor performance;
- mediocre autonomy;
- the camera does not shoot well in the dark;
- the smartphone does not work quickly and freezes from time to time;
- a screen of an unusual format, which leads to the fact that the content is mainly displayed with large black bars around the edges (and some applications are not friendly with this format);
- no fast charging included;
- the price is high.
* It is included in the list of public associations and religious organizations in respect of which the court has made a decision that has entered into legal force to liquidate or ban activities on the grounds provided for by Federal Law No. 114-FZ of July 25, 2002 “On countering extremist activity”.
[ad_2]