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MagyarSony Xperia 10 Smartphone Review
Sony introduced its new Xperia midrange devices at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), one of which was the Xperia 10. The main thing that separates the Xperia 10 from its contemporaries is its elongated 21:9 display, which Sony promises should be better for watching movies and multitasking than 16:9 or 2:1 displays. The Japanese manufacturer is not the first to release a device with a 21:9 display, although it has been a while since we have seen one. The LG BL40 Chocolate comes to mind, but this was released way back in 2009.
The Xperia 10 has a 6-inch Full HD+ display that operates natively at 2520x1080. The device has plenty of midrange specs like its 64 GB of eMMC flash storage. You can add up to one 512 GB microSD card though, which is always nice to see. The Xperia 10 has dual rear-facing cameras too with a 13 MP main sensor that is supported by a secondary 5 MP one to help create bokeh-effect shots.
The device weighs 162 g, which is on the light side for a device this size and is powered by the almost two-year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC. The Xperia 10 retails for 350 Euros (~$395) and comes with 3 GB of RAM along with a 2,870 mAh battery. Neither is particularly impressive, so we hope that Sony has optimised the device well to keep RAM usage and power consumption down.
We have chosen to compare the Xperia 10 against a range of devices including the Motorola Moto G7, Nokia 8.1, Samsung Galaxy A7 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7. We shall also consider our review unit against flagship contenders like the Pocophone F1 and the Xiaomi Mi 8, as they are typically available online for around 350 Euros (~$395) or less too.
Case
The Xperia 10 has a plastic case that currently comes in black, blue, pink and silver. Sony has built our review unit solidly, and the device feels good in our hands, although its matte plastic back makes it look and feel cheap. The Xperia 10 is 8.4 mm thick, which is ever so slightly bulkier than many of our comparison devices. However, the device looks significantly heftier because of its flat back, compared to the curved backs of many of our comparison devices.
Nevertheless, the Xperia 10 has a smaller footprint than most of its competitors thanks to its narrow design. Unfortunately, our review unit is very top-heavy, and as such, it feels like it could slip out of our hands at any moment.
Sony has decked the front of the Xperia 10 in scratch-resistant 2.5 D Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which subtly tapers into its plastic frame. The IPS panel has thin bezels that help it look modern, on three of its four edges at least. Sony has eschewed contemporary trends and included a thick black top bezel, which houses the front-facing camera, earpiece and several sensors. This asymmetry results in a screen-to-body ratio of just under 80%, which is lower than most modern smartphones. Moreover, the thick bezel at the top ruins the Xperia 10’s otherwise sleek look, although this is a matter of taste.
The dual rear-facing cameras protrude slightly from the back case in a housing that has a silver finish. Our test device hardly wobbles when we place it on a table or a flat surface though. Additionally, the plastic back resisted our attempts to twist or bend it and prevented the display from deforming.
The Xperia 10 has two physical buttons, both of which are on the right-hand side of its frame. The two buttons sandwich a fingerprint sensor, the placement of which makes it easy to distinguish the two buttons in daily use. The buttons on our review unit are impeccably well-made, but they sit too deep in the frame for our liking and require plenty of force to activate.
Connectivity
The Xperia 10 has a notification LED, a pedometer and FM radio, along with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which is becoming something of a rarity these days. The device also supports Miracast for wirelessly projecting to a corresponding external monitor.
Sony has included a USB 2.0 Type-C port too, which supports USB On-The-Go (OTG) for connecting wired peripherals like a keyboard or mouse. It would have been nice to see a USB 3.1 port here, but this is only a minor gripe.
Our review unit had around 46.8 GB of its 64 GB of internal storage free upon delivery, with the remainder being taken up by the OS and preinstalled apps. The Xperia 10 comes in single and dual-SIM variants, both of which support microSD card expansion as we mentioned earlier. However, the dual-SIM model only has a hybrid second SIM slot, so you must choose between dual-SIM functionality and microSD card expansion, which is a shame.
The microSD card reader supports SDHC and SDXC cards, while it can read exFAT too. Unfortunately, we could only format our reference microSD card as external storage, so apps and data can only be stored on the 64 GB of internal storage.
Software
Sony preinstalls Android 9.0 Pie on the Xperia 10 and had delivered the February 2019 security patch to our review unit at the time of testing. The Japanese manufacturer does not include stock Android like Google does with the Android One program or its Pixel devices, but it has only made minor adjustments.
The UI looks mostly like stock Android except for a few changes like tweaked icons and a different launcher. Moreover, Sony has included additional functionality like being able to enable one-handed mode with a double-tap gesture. You can also access your favourite apps by triggering something that Sony calls “Side sense”. Double tapping on the side of the device brings up Side sense, which the Japanese manufacturer claims uses “AI in Xperia” to predict your favourite apps.
Our review unit also comes with hardly any bloatware just like stock Android. However, Sony has decided to include Facebook and Netflix, which can only be disabled and not uninstalled.
Communication & GPS
The Xperia 10 supports LTE Cat.12 for up to 600 Mb/s download speeds and 100 Mb/s upload speeds. Sony sells the I4113 variant in Germany, which only supports 10 LTE bands along with quad-band GSM and UMTS. Our review unit covers all necessary LTE bands for Germany and most of Europe, although it cannot use LTE Band 28, which is becoming increasingly popular among carriers. Moreover, you may struggle to connect to LTE networks in countries like the USA. However, other regional variants will support different LTE bands.
Sony has also included an NFC chip for use with services like Google Pay. The Xperia 10 supports Bluetooth 5.0 too.
The device also supports all modern Wi-Fi standards up to IEEE 802.11ac and can connect to 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz networks. Our review unit maintained stable Wi-Fi connectivity throughout our tests and manages an attenuation of -50 dBm when connected and placed next to our Telekom Speedport W921V router.
Moreover, the Xperia 10 performed well in our iperf3 Client Wi-Fi tests with our Linksys EA8500 reference router. Our review unit averaged 334 Mb/s in the download test and 253 Mb/s in the upload test, which are both in the midfield of our comparison tables.
The device also supports LTE across both its SIM card slots. Both slots support the same volume of LTE bands too.
The Xperia 10 uses BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS and SBAS for location services. Our review unit can achieve a satellite fix with up to three metres accuracy outside and four metres inside. The device finds a satellite within a few seconds too, which is impressive and not always the case for midrange smartphones.
We also took the Xperia 10 on a bike ride to compare its location accuracy against the Garmin Edge 500, our reference professional navigation device. Our review unit deviated only by around 20 metres over the 8.74 km route that the Garmin recorded us having cycled, which represents over 99% accuracy.
In short, the Xperia 10 did a good job at tracking us as demonstrated in the screenshots below. Overall, the device is accurate enough for all general tasks like turn-by-turn navigation while cycling, driving or walking.
Telephone Features & Call Quality
The Xperia 10 has decent call quality; we experienced no disturbing dropouts or reception problems during our test calls. Our review unit reproduced our call partner’s voice clearly, while the microphones did the same for our voice too. The Xperia 10 is good on video calls too, but its microphones struggle to filter out background noise for some reason, and our voice came across more quietly than it did in a regular call.
The device also supports voice over LTE (VoLTE), which allows you to make and receive calls over 4G. Sony includes Wi-Fi calling (VoWiFi) too, which can be found in the settings menu. The option for VoLTE is hidden on our review unit for some reason though. Both functionalities will only work if your carrier provisions the Xperia 10 on its network.
Cameras
The Xperia 10 has two rear-facing cameras as we mentioned earlier in this review. The main camera is a 13 MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture that supports hybrid autofocus. Sony does not specify the image sensor that it has used, but we also know that it has a pixel size of 1.12 μm. The second camera sensor has a narrower f/2.4 aperture and can only capture images in up to 5 MP. The Xperia 10 can use both lenses simultaneously to create effective bokeh-effect shots too.
Unfortunately, the photo quality is rather mediocre for a 350-Euro (~$395) smartphone. Our review unit often overexposes scenes in bright ambient light and fails to pick up as many details as many of its competitors manage. Photos have underwhelming dynamic range too, although enabling HDR in manual mode improves the results somewhat. The Xperia 10 reproduces colours naturally though as is typical of Sony smartphones.
The rear-facing cameras can also use a dual-tone LED flash in low light, but the results are disappointing, nonetheless. Our test shots in low light are dominated by image noise and look blurry, as demonstrated in scene 2. This poor low-light performance is because of its main sensor’s small pixels and comparatively narrow aperture.
Incidentally, both rear-facing sensors only support electronic image stabilisation (EIS). Neither is optically stabilised (OIS).
The Xperia 10 also has an 8 MP front-facing camera that has an f/2.0 aperture. Qualitatively, the photos are satisfactory for a smartphone that costs 350 Euros (~$395), but the Xperia 10 is no selfie specialist. Photos tend to look overly soft, while the sensor often overexposes bright areas too.
The front-facing camera can also shoot videos in up to 1080p at 30 FPS, which is fairly standard for a midrange smartphone. By contrast, the 13 MP sensor can record in 1080p at 60 FPS or in UHD at 30 FPS. You can also choose between recording in a 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio. Our review unit does a reasonable job at capturing videos, and the EIS does its job well, but it is no better than what other midrange smartphones can achieve.
Worse still, the EIS, or SteadyShot as Sony markets it, does not support UHD so videos recorded at this resolution will look blurry unless you have a steady hand or are using something like a gimbal to eliminate camera shake.
We also subjected our review unit to further camera tests under controlled lighting conditions and compared its colour reproduction against ColorChecker Passport reference colours. We also took a photo of our test chart as we do with almost all the smartphones that we test.
The Xperia 10 oversaturates black and white tones and typically reproduces colours more darkly than it should. Our review unit did a good job at reproducing our test chart though, particularly at the centre of the image. Colour gradients look clean, while fonts on dark backgrounds are hardly frayed. Contrast levels drop off towards the bottom of the chart, but that is a common flaw with many smartphones.
Accessories & Warranty
Sony includes a short manual, a 7.5 W modular charger (5 V/1.5 A), a USB cable and a pair of headphones in the box. The company also sells an 18 W quick charger and a case that incorporates a stand, which it calls the Style Cover Stand SCSI10. Sony claims that the case is MIL-STD-810G-certified, which means that it has successfully passed 14 environmental and climatic tests. These include falls from up to 1.2 metres along with being subjected to -33 °C for four hours and to -21 °C for 24 hours. There are also salt spray, high humidity, high temperature, high pressure, sunlight and vibration tests. Please keep in mind that no independent organisation or agency certifies MIL-STD-810 compliance, so take the certification with a pinch of salt.
The Xperia 10 comes with 24 months manufacturer’s warranty. Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.
Input Devices & Operation
The Xperia 10 has a 10-point multitouch capacitive touchscreen that reacts promptly and accurately even into the corners of the display. We had no issues with any delays or missed inputs during our tests.
One benefit of having an elongated display is that virtual keyboards take up hardly any room if left at their default sizes. The keys may be too small for some people out of the box, but you could alter the size of the keyboard subsequently if needed. Sony preinstalls SwiftKey as the default keyboard on the Xperia 10, which worked just as well on our review unit as on other devices that we have tested running it. You can switch the keyboard for another like those downloadable from the Google Play Store should you wish to do so.
The Xperia 10 also has a fingerprint sensor as we mentioned in the Connectivity section of this review, which worked reliably during our tests. The detection rate of the sensor is good, even if it is a touch too slow to unlock for our liking. The device does not have face unlock, but you can still use a password, pattern or PIN instead of a fingerprint. You must also set one of those three if you enable fingerprint unlocking too as a failsafe if the sensor fails to detect your finger.
Display
The star of the show with the Xperia 10 is its 21:9, 6-inch IPS display, which operates natively at 2520x1080. The panel has a 457 PPI pixel density, which is sharp enough for everyday use in our opinion. The same applies to its maximum brightness too.
Our review unit reaches a maximum of 548 cd/m² when tested with a pure white background and with the ambient light sensor deactivated. The more realistic APL50 measurement, which uniformly distributes light and dark areas across the display, measures a slightly higher maximum luminosity at 552 cd/m².
The display uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to regulate brightness, which looks as if the display is flickering to the human eye. This flickering can cause eye strain and headaches for some people at low frequencies. The Xperia 10 flickers at 2,330 Hz when set to 17% brightness and below, which should be high enough to not cause any issues even for those who are PWM sensitive. Subjectively, we did not notice any annoying flickering during our tests.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 93 %
Center on Battery: 547 cd/m²
Contrast: 1519:1 (Black: 0.36 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 4.6 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 3.9 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
97.3% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.17
| Sony Xperia 10 IPS-LCD, 2520x1080, 6.00 | Motorola Moto G7 IPS, 2270x1080, 6.20 | Nokia 8.1 IPS, 2246x1080, 6.18 | Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 TFT, 1480x720, 6.00 | Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 IPS, 2340x1080, 6.30 | Xiaomi Poco F1 IPS, 2246x1080, 6.18 | Xiaomi Mi 8 AMOLED, 2248x1080, 6.21 | Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 Super AMOLED, 2220x1080, 6.00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | -15% | -10% | -11% | 18% | 4% | 0% | 36% | |
| Brightness middle | 547 | 471 -14% | 567 4% | 512 -6% | 541 -1% | 489 -11% | 430 -21% | 570 4% |
| Brightness | 525 | 453 -14% | 547 4% | 508 -3% | 540 3% | 486 -7% | 434 -17% | 565 8% |
| Brightness Distribution | 93 | 94 1% | 92 -1% | 95 2% | 91 -2% | 93 0% | 94 1% | 93 0% |
| Black Level * | 0.36 | 0.5 -39% | 0.61 -69% | 0.28 22% | 0.33 8% | 0.34 6% | ||
| Contrast | 1519 | 942 -38% | 930 -39% | 1829 20% | 1639 8% | 1438 -5% | ||
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 4.6 | 5.5 -20% | 4.39 5% | 5.6 -22% | 2.7 41% | 3.8 17% | 5.09 -11% | 1.5 67% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 12.1 | 7.95 34% | 7.28 40% | 11.8 2% | 4.6 62% | 7.1 41% | 8.05 33% | 3.6 70% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 3.9 | 5 -28% | 4.9 -26% | 8 -105% | 3.1 21% | 4.4 -13% | 3.3 15% | 1.2 69% |
| Gamma | 2.17 101% | 2.326 95% | 2.248 98% | 2.14 103% | 2.26 97% | 2.22 99% | 2.257 97% | 2.07 106% |
| CCT | 7158 91% | 7654 85% | 7642 85% | 7831 83% | 6853 95% | 7213 90% | 7026 93% | 6504 100% |
* ... smaller is better
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 2336 Hz | ≤ 17 % brightness setting |  |
The display backlight flickers at 2336 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 17 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 2336 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 17933 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
IPS panels cannot switch off their pixels individually as OLED panels can, which means that they cannot produce as true blacks or as vivid colours either. The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) and Xiaomi Mi 8 have AMOLED panels, which means that they are also more colour accurate than the Xperia 10. Our review unit does a good job, nonetheless, and achieved a 0.36 cd/m² black value according to our tests. Moreover, its 1,500:1 contrast ratio is higher than or on par with our comparison devices.
Our tests with a spectrophotometer and CalMAN analysis software also underlined our initial impressions. Sony includes several options for tweaking the white balance in the settings menu, which is helpful. We have included a screenshot of our optimised settings to the right should you wish to use them. These settings allowed our device to achieve decent colour accuracy with a 4.6 DeltaE deviation for colours and 3.9 for grey tones. The ideal value is 3, so the Xperia 10 is close to perfect here and does a better job than many of its contemporaries. The colour temperature is a touch too high at 7,158 K though, which gives the display a blue tint. Ideally, the Xperia 10 would have a display with a colour temperature closer to 6,500 K, which would provide more balanced colour reproduction.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 24 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 6.8 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 17.2 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 48 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.5 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 64.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 28.4 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 36.4 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 97 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (33.8 ms). | ||
Thankfully, the Xperia 10 is easy to use outdoors because of its bright display. Content remains visible even in direct sunlight because of our review unit’s high contrast ratio, which prevents images from looking washed-out.
The display also has excellent viewing angles because of the IPS technology used. We noticed no colour changes even at acute viewing angles brightness, although the brightness does drop off slightly.
Performance
Sony has equipped the Xperia 10 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC, which is now almost two years old. The SoC integrates eight Cortex-A53 cores and is manufactured on a 14nm FinFET process, the latter of which makes it comparably energy-efficient. There is also a Qualcomm Adreno 508 GPU onboard that supports all modern APIs like Direct3D 12, OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan.
Our review unit performed solidly in daily use with its Snapdragon 630 SoC and 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, although we occasionally noticed some stutter animations during heavy multitasking. The system also deletes apps from its cache relatively quickly, but this could be because of an overzealous task manager rather than because of the device having inadequate RAM. 3 GB RAM is on the low side for a 2019 midrange smartphone, but it should be enough to handle all day to day tasks.
The Snapdragon 630 is one of the weaker SoCs of those in our comparison tables below, so it is unsurprising to see the Xperia 10 finish behind most of our comparison devices in synthetic benchmarks. The Snapdragon 630 is slightly slower than the Snapdragon 632 that powers the Moto G7 in CPU benchmarks, but its superior GPU allows it to pull clear in GPU-heavy benchmarks. The Snapdragon 630 is also much more powerful than the Snapdragon 425 in the Galaxy J6+ (2018), but it is no match for the Snapdragon 710 or the Snapdragon 845 that power some of our other comparison devices.
Again, while we have no complaints about browsing the web on our review unit, the Xperia 10 typically finishes towards the bottom of our browser benchmark comparison tables. Web-page content loads quickly though and scrolling on the preinstalled web browser remained smooth throughout our tests.
| Jetstream 2 - Total Score | |
| Average of class Smartphone (13.8 - 351, n=172, last 2 years) | |
| Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 () | |
| Sony Xperia 10 (Chrome Version 73) | |
| WebXPRT 3 - Overall | |
| Average of class Smartphone (39 - 304, n=122, last 2 years) | |
| Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72) | |
| Nokia 8.1 (Chrome 71) | |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (Chrome 72) | |
| Motorola Moto G7 (Chrome 71) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 (Chrome 70) | |
| Sony Xperia 10 (Chrome Version 73) | |
| Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 (35 - 39, n=5) | |
| Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 (Chrome 72) | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score | |
| Average of class Smartphone (4633 - 89112, n=210, last 2 years) | |
| Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72) | |
| Xiaomi Poco F1 (Chrome 68) | |
| Nokia 8.1 (Chrome 71) | |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (Chrome 72) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 (Chrome 70) | |
| Motorola Moto G7 (Chrome 71) | |
| Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 (4398 - 5202, n=13) | |
| Sony Xperia 10 (Chrome Version 73) | |
| Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 (Chrome 72) | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total | |
| Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 (Chrome 72) | |
| Sony Xperia 10 (Chrome Version 73) | |
| Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 (8396 - 10257, n=13) | |
| Motorola Moto G7 (Chrome 71) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 (Chrome 70) | |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (Chrome 72) | |
| Nokia 8.1 (Chrome 71) | |
| Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72) | |
| Xiaomi Poco F1 (Chrome 68) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (388 - 9999, n=172, last 2 years) | |
* ... smaller is better
Some 350-Euro (~$395) devices are starting to be equipped with UFS flash storage, which is much faster than the eMMC storage that the Xperia 10 has. The Pocophone F1 is an example of this, and it wiped the floor with our review unit in AndroBench benchmarks. Overall though, the 64 GB of storage in the Xperia 10 is on par with what we have come to expect from eMMC flash storage.
Our review unit performed comparatively better in microSD card benchmarks and matched our fastest comparison devices. The device cannot reach our Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 reference cards maximum theoretical speeds, but files should transfer quickly, nonetheless.
| Sony Xperia 10 | Motorola Moto G7 | Nokia 8.1 | Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 | Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 | Xiaomi Poco F1 | Xiaomi Mi 8 | Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 | Average 64 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | 78% | -6% | -9% | 9% | 41% | 86% | 2% | 15% | 744% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 273.8 | 297 8% | 279.3 2% | 292.9 7% | 283.4 4% | 705 157% | 693 153% | 295.8 8% | 273 ? 0% | 1505 ? 450% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 232.9 | 216 -7% | 203.8 -12% | 95.6 -59% | 204.7 -12% | 155.6 -33% | 207.8 -11% | 104.9 -55% | 176.8 ? -24% | 1112 ? 377% |
| Random Read 4KB | 53.1 | 69.3 31% | 69.9 32% | 64.6 22% | 82.9 56% | 101 90% | 136.3 157% | 84 58% | 59.1 ? 11% | 247 ? 365% |
| Random Write 4KB | 14.39 | 75.6 425% | 7.3 -49% | 12.71 -12% | 16.06 12% | 17.81 24% | 21 46% | 15.45 7% | 31.7 ? 120% | 271 ? 1783% |
| Sequential Read 256KB SDCard | 83.2 ? | 86.9 ? 4% | 84.7 ? 2% | 76.6 ? -8% | 83.2 ? 0% | 85.3 ? 3% | 78.2 ? -6% | 77.4 ? -7% | ||
| Sequential Write 256KB SDCard | 63.8 ? | 66.8 ? 5% | 58.3 ? -9% | 61.5 ? -4% | 59.5 ? -7% | 65.6 ? 3% | 64.4 ? 1% | 58.3 ? -9% |
Games
The Adreno 508 remains a competent GPU, although it struggles in some more-demanding games. Games like Asphalt 9: Legends and PUBG Mobile are playable at high graphics, but frame rates can dip below 20 FPS as demonstrated by our GameBench frame-rate graphs below. In short, you should have no problem playing most games smoothly, although you may need to drop the graphics to standard or low if you are running a complex 3D game like PUBG Mobile.
The touchscreen and corresponding sensors all worked perfectly during our gaming tests too. However, most games do not currently support the Xperia 10's 21:9 display, so games are often flanked by thick black bars. It remains to be seen whether this will be addressed as 21:9 is rather a niche aspect ratio.
PUBG Mobile
Asphalt Legends
Emissions
Temperature
The Xperia X10 is a rather hot device. The entire top third of our review unit exceeds 30 °C when idling, while the top third of the display averages a toasty 34.2 °C. The same area reaches a maximum of 38.6 °C under sustained load, which is considerably warmer than most modern midrange smartphones. Fortunately, the rest of the device remains cooler, so the Xperia 10 should remain comfortable to hold even if you are pushing it hard. However, the area around the rear-facing cameras and the top third of the display will feel hot to the touch when you are gaming, for example.
We also subjected the Xperia 10 to a series of GFXBench benchmarks to determine whether our review unit thermal throttles. Specifically, we ran the ES3.1 battery test on a loop for 30 minutes and recorded any changes in battery percentage, frame rates and internal temperatures. We have included our results below.
In short, the Xperia 10 does not thermal throttle, which is why it gets so hot. The frame-rate graph may initially make for dramatic viewing, but its Y axis increases in small increments. Correspondingly, the Xperia 10 only dropped a few frames over our 30-minute test, which does not constitute thermal throttling. Overall, you should encounter no problems if you push the Xperia 10 hard.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 38.6 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 36.6 °C / 98 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.6 °C / 87 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The Xperia 10 features Sony's proprietary Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE HX) technology, which the Japanese manufacturer claims should optimise compressed audio files by upscaling them to sound as if they were high-resolution files instead. We can confirm this, with our review unit delivering clean and beautiful-sounding audio via its 3.5 mm headphone jack.
The device also supports LDAC, which allows it to stream high-res audio content over Bluetooth with a transmission rate of up to 990 kbps. Conventional codecs like SBC can only stream in up to 328 kbps, so LDAC can transmit up to three times the data that codecs like SBC can.
Moreover, the Xperia 10’s mono speaker sounds surprisingly good for a midrange device. The one in our review unit reached a maximum of 86 dB(A) during our tests and produced pleasant-sounding audio throughout our review. Midrange and high-pitched frequencies dominate any audio that the speaker reproduces, but without sounding shrill. Our pink noise test, which you can see below, demonstrates that the speaker produces hardly any bass tones, but this is only a minor gripe. Even large laptops struggle to reproduce bass tones effectively.
In short, you will be spoilt for choice with audio outputs on the Xperia 10. Few smartphones at this price can output Hi-Res audio, especially over Bluetooth. The speaker is good enough for occasionally listening to music or watching YouTube videos too.
Sony Xperia 10 audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (86 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 32.3% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (12.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids - only 3.7% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (4.8% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 4.7% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (3.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (22.4% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 41% of all tested devices in this class were better, 7% similar, 52% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 60% of all tested devices were better, 6% similar, 33% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Motorola Moto G7 audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (83.4 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 68.9% lower than median
(+) | bass is linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(-) | nearly no mids - on average 68.9% lower than median
(+) | mids are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(-) | nearly no highs - on average 68.9% lower than median
(+) | highs are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (122.6% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 90% of all tested devices in this class were better, 9% similar, 2% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 97% of all tested devices were better, 3% similar, 1% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Battery Life
Power Consumption
The Xperia 10 consumes less power on average than all but the Nokia 8.1 of our comparison devices. Moreover, our review unit is slightly more efficient than what we would have expected from a Snapdragon 630-powered device, especially under load.
Our review unit consumes a minimum of 0.71 W at idle, which puts it in the midfield of our comparison table. It also averages slightly higher consumption than most at idle, but it comes into its own under sustained load. We recorded an average and maximum power consumption under load of 3.32 W and 5.34 W, respectively, which just edges out the Nokia 8.1 for first place in our comparison table. Predictably, more-powerful smartphones like the Pocophone F1 and Mi 8 consume significantly more than the Xperia 10 under load.
| Off / Standby |   0.01 / 0.16 Watt |
| Idle |  0.72 / 2.16 / 2.17 Watt |
| Load |
3.32 / 5.34 Watt |
    
| |
| Sony Xperia 10 2870 mAh | Motorola Moto G7 3000 mAh | Nokia 8.1 3500 mAh | Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 3300 mAh | Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 4000 mAh | Xiaomi Poco F1 4000 mAh | Xiaomi Mi 8 3400 mAh | Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 3300 mAh | Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Consumption | -22% | 8% | -5% | -15% | -14% | -64% | -7% | -1% | -18% | |
| Idle Minimum * | 0.72 | 1.1 -53% | 0.8 -11% | 0.64 11% | 0.61 15% | 0.65 10% | 1.5 -108% | 0.71 1% | 0.732 ? -2% | 0.897 ? -25% |
| Idle Average * | 2.16 | 1.8 17% | 1.5 31% | 1.81 16% | 1.95 10% | 1.97 9% | 2.2 -2% | 1.36 37% | 1.835 ? 15% | 1.452 ? 33% |
| Idle Maximum * | 2.17 | 2.6 -20% | 1.8 17% | 1.91 12% | 2.03 6% | 2.01 7% | 2.6 -20% | 1.47 32% | 2.16 ? -0% | 1.629 ? 25% |
| Load Average * | 3.32 | 4.2 -27% | 3.2 4% | 4.88 -47% | 4.56 -37% | 4.29 -29% | 6.1 -84% | 5.13 -55% | 3.81 ? -15% | 5.55 ? -67% |
| Load Maximum * | 5.34 | 6.8 -27% | 5.4 -1% | 6.38 -19% | 9.15 -71% | 9.05 -69% | 10.9 -104% | 7.89 -48% | 5.62 ? -5% | 8.31 ? -56% |
* ... smaller is better
Battery Life
While the Xperia 10 has comparatively low power consumption, it also has comparatively poor battery life. Sony has equipped the device with a 2,870 mAh battery, which is approximately between 5% and 40% smaller than the batteries in our comparison devices.
Our comparison table looks bleak. The Xperia 10 achieved lower runtimes than all our comparison smartphones in all but one of our tests, and this was only in the slightly unrealistic test where we subject our devices to full load until they need charging. We doubt that most people will ever do this.
It is not all bad news though as the Xperia 10 still has decent runtimes in our more practical Wi-Fi and looped H.264 video tests where we set the display to approximately 150 cd/m². Our review unit lasted for 9:01 hours in the former and 10:20 hours in the latter, which are both respectable runtimes. The Xperia 10 has comparatively high battery drain at idle though and lasted only 16:46 hours before it needed recharging. By contrast, our comparison devices had between 46% and 108% better runtimes in this test.
Overall, the Xperia 10 should last a full workday of mixed use, but you will need to charge it in the evening if you want to use it the following day. Our review unit takes around 2 hours to recharge fully from flat with the included charger. You could achieve faster charging times with the optional 18 W quick charger, while Sony’s built-in adaptive charging technology allows the device to monitor the condition of its battery to prevent overloading it. The Xperia 10 does not support wireless charging, for reference.
| Sony Xperia 10 2870 mAh | Motorola Moto G7 3000 mAh | Nokia 8.1 3500 mAh | Samsung Galaxy J6 Plus 2018 3300 mAh | Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 4000 mAh | Xiaomi Poco F1 4000 mAh | Xiaomi Mi 8 3400 mAh | Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 3300 mAh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | 32% | 37% | 40% | 50% | 51% | 34% | 28% | |
| Reader / Idle | 1006 | 1548 54% | 1682 67% | 2080 107% | 1950 94% | 2088 108% | 1634 62% | 1467 46% |
| H.264 | 620 | 819 32% | 857 38% | 706 14% | 940 52% | 936 51% | 897 45% | 836 35% |
| WiFi v1.3 | 541 | 798 48% | 738 36% | 651 20% | 768 42% | 808 49% | 736 36% | 605 12% |
| Load | 233 | 219 -6% | 246 6% | 272 17% | 259 11% | 220 -6% | 215 -8% | 273 17% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
The Sony Xperia 10 is an intriguing proposition. It will appeal to those who are fans of compact smartphones because its 21:9 aspect ratio allows it to be noticeably narrower than its competitors.
Its elongated IPS panel does have its disadvantages though. Our review unit is very top-heavy and many applications do not currently support 21:9, so you are left viewing content in 16:9 instead. Apps like YouTube can zoom in on most content, but you just end up viewing a heavily cropped image or video. In short, having a 21:9 aspect ratio could be useful, but it is impractical at present.
Sony has taken a step in the right direction with its new Xperia series. The Xperia 10 is a quirky and decent midrange smartphone, but its outdated SoC makes it currently too expensive in our opinion.
The display is a pleasure to use though and gets bright enough for all environments. Likewise, it is colour accurate and contrast-rich, so content looks vibrant. Our review unit is well made too, and we welcome the inclusion of a headphone jack along with the ability to upscale audio to almost Hi-Res quality.
However, its internal storage, RAM and SoC are all more befitting of a 250-Euro (~$282) device and not a 350-Euro (~$395) one. We are not fans of the plastic case either, although it will be more durable than a metal or glass one. Overall, the Sony Xperia 10 is a decent smartphone, but it would have been even more compelling if it was around 100 Euros (~$113) cheaper.
Sony Xperia 10
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04/15/2019 v6(old)
Marcus Herbrich
Pricecompare
