Charging from 0% on the same charger, it reached 50% in 48 minutes, capping out at 100% in just a hair under two hours. Those two elements might lead to class-leading stamina, but they also leave the phone feeling sluggish and somewhat unresponsive. While other mid-range phones pack large 5,000mAh batteries, I dare say none of them can match the Sony’s staying power.

Sony Xperia 10 V review: Stubbornly solid | Expert Reviews

Its picture and sound performance are hard to believe when we take into account how little it costs and, while it may not offer cutting-edge internal specs and the camera is hardly class-leading, it's comfortably the best budget phone on the market for movies and music. Everything’s simplified in a more intuitive way, which should go a long way in encouraging experimentation. Starting with the flagship Xperia 1 V, most of the upgrades are centred around the camera this year, which shouldn't come as a surprise as that was the case last year. It’s a gorgeous device, but rather than feeling like a spry, energetic youngster ready to take on the world, pulling it out of the box feels like a metaphor for hoisting a senior citizen out of their favourite chair to take them for a walk they just don’t want.

Low light proves trickier here, usually exposing for light sources in auto mode but losing shadow detail in the process. Starting with design, both the Sony Xperia 5 V and Xperia 10 V bear the unmistakable Sony DNA – sleek, elegant, and exuding a premium feel. While fine details aren’t preserved quite as well as they are on the very best mid-range phones, overall clarity is still satisfyingly high. The Xperia 10 V finally has a stereo speaker setup and a pretty good one at that - front-facing, well-balanced and decently loud, with a clean output. The big disappointment here is long-term support, with Sony only delivering one OS upgrade for the Xperia 10 V.

Xperia 10 V review: endurance athlete | Stuff Sony Xperia 10 V review: endurance athlete | Stuff

And speaking of cameras, though you won't get a telephoto with the Pixel 6a, it is hard to compete with Google's prowess in computational photography.

It’s got phase-detect autofocus and optical image stabilisation, while the lens gets a fairly wide f/1. Sony is very proud of its Road to Zero initiative, which, in short, has the goal of reaching zero carbon emissions. A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. Whichever you choose, Sony’s commitment to quality and innovation ensures you’ll be in good hands with either of these devices. In practice, the images that the 10 V captures aren’t anything particularly great, with a definite lack of detail and depth, and colours tend to look a bit washed out, but it gets the job done in a pinch.

Xperia 10 V Review: Misplaced priorities | Trusted Reviews Sony Xperia 10 V Review: Misplaced priorities | Trusted Reviews

Then there is arguably the biggest Achilles heel on the Xperia 10 V - the Snapdragon 695 chipset - the exact same chip from the Xperia 10 IV that was hardly an adequate choice then and is even less so now. That means your standard adaptor lying around won’t really need upgrading, giving a point to the “green” practice of simply using what you already have, but it’s another case of Sony’s handset struggling to keep up with the truly convenient features of the phones it’s trying to compete with for the same money.It’s not hard to find other mid-rangers with glass front and rear, but the Xperia 10 V avoids feeling cheap. Outlines of characters are clean without looking unnaturally sharp, which helps to create this depth effect.