SONY

Xperia 10 VII review verdict: very compact smartphone with long battery life

Not too long ago, a small and light smartphone with almost 24 hours of continuous battery life was a dream for fans of compact devices. The Xperia 10 VII even features microSD storage expansion and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It couldn’t be any better than that? Unfortunately, it could've been.

The Sony Xperia 10 VII is a solid mid-range smartphone with European prices starting at €449 at retailers such as Amazon Germany. The phone stands out in our upcoming in-depth review thanks to its fresh design and improved camera sensors. Sony is moving away from the narrow 21:9 aspect ratio in favor of a wider 19.5:9 display, which makes the Xperia phone slightly wider overall.

However, the 6.1-inch OLED screen has big bezels, which are very noticeable due to the otherwise compact display size. The display-to-body ratio is only 82.9%. By comparison, the Motorola Edge 60 Neo has a ratio of almost 89%.

The Sony phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, which is slightly faster than its predecessor but still delivers below-average performance for the price, especially compared to competitors such as the Poco F7. GPU performance is particularly weak on the Xperia 10 VII.

A clear positive is the very long battery life of almost 24 hours in our WiFi test. We adjusted the display brightness to 150 nits, which makes the results comparable with other phones.

Anyone who values long update support, very good battery life and traditional features such as a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD support will probably like Sony’s latest mid-range handset. For users who are looking for more performance or a more modern design, the OnePlus Nord CE 5 and Samsung Galaxy A56 are decent options.

Marcus Herbrich