Compact. Creative. Powerful. That is how Sony advertises the Xperia 5 V. And it most definitely looks like it will live up to those expectations. The new...
Yeah this is one of my two problems with Sonys best phones even though I am the exact type of enthusiast they are after; the other being the often slow and confused launch that results in crap and delayed availability. There is zero chance I will ever buy a premium phone (and a grand is premium for me) unless I can trust it has multiple years of updates. Samsung does stuff wrong all the time but at least I know they will support their premium phones for the advertised price.
Yea people should stop complaining about this. Cables that come with phones are always crappy anyway, and I prefer chargers that have multiple outputs.
It’s bizarre how reviewers very quickly gave up on complaining that (other) phones don’t have headphone jacks or expandable storage, but keep hanging on the no charger thing.
It’s like complaining the phone doesn’t come with a SIM or electricity. Some stuff you just provide yourself.
I think it’s just the culmination of removing things from phones and increasing prices. We keep paying exorbitant prices and they keep cheaping out. Smartphones used to be one device for everything and now they are glorified cameras with internet where you need a heat gun to replace a freaking camera.
So to me it feels insulting that they would remove a charger.
And all of that sucks, except not including a charger.
It’s complaining about the one thing that actually makes sense, and letting everything else slide.
Pack-in chargers and cables always suck. I don’t get how people use them, especially those cheap rubber 1m long cables. Utterly useless.
And chargers with one port? Who shells out 1 grand for a phone and has just one device? You can get an excellent charger with 4 ports and support for all the stupid proprietary protocols for like 30 bucks. Why would I use a pack-in one?
Complain about lack of replaceable batteries, headphone jacks, expandable storage, complain about Google’s monopoly and data harvesting in phones, not that they don’t give you some useless extra crap.
None ever does or has. Only boutique brands like Razer may give you a braided cable, but nobody ever gives you a cable longer than 1 metre, never mind a charger with more ports.
But let’s say they do. Let’s say they include a selection of 3 good cables, and a charger with 4 ports that supports all the competing protocols, and throw in wireless charger too. Well congrats, now every phone, tablet, watch, camera and speaker is 50 $€£ more expensive, comes in a box twice as large, and we’re back to the problem of having too many useless chargers that stay in boxes.
Btw I use magnetic cables anyway. So whatever they include cable-wise is useless waste for me.
I think your definition of decent charger&cable is just different from me then I guess.
I expect to get a charger that has the fast charging for the phone (not necessarily the top spec, but high enough) and a usable cable, let’s say a 0.5 to 1 meter, that can also do basic data transfer.
If I wanted a charger with 4 ports I’d buy it. If I wanted a braided cable I’d buy it. I don’t want either - but I want a charger that I know works fast enough with my phone, and it becomes my travel charger. Everything else I can manage.
This will be less of a problem as power delivery becomes the norm, but most people probably don’t have a decent PD charger several times over at home. Worst case you’ll have an extra charger where an old one dies, which seems to be common especially with some peoples’ cables.
Or, you know, alternatively do actually discount the phone by $60 or however much they act like it costs (it’s obviously way less than that, but chargers are still a significant expense largely because they need to have many different SKUs for different regions so the logistics are more complicated).
If I wanted a charger with 4 ports I’d buy it. If I wanted a braided cable I’d buy it.
You really should try it. People don’t know what they’re missing until they use it.
I have the same experience with lots of pack-in products. One that comes to mind are camera (DSLR) neck straps. They’re absolutely dreadful, and shiny advertisements to boot. At some point I tested a bunch of 3rd party ones and found how much better they are. Yet people kept acting like I’m the weird one for paying 20-50 $€£ for something that improves the experience so much.
Same thing here. If for nothing else, not including those crappy accessories just makes people think about the alternatives.
There’s a reason why accessory brands even exist. OEMs actually rarely know how to do accessories well.
let’s say a 0.5 to 1 meter
So FYI standard length is 1 metre, which tends to be a surprise to people when I tell them… 0.5m is super short for anything but a PC connection or powerbank. Again I suggest you try a good, soft, braided 2m cable if you charge using a power brick.
that can also do basic data transfer
What’s “basic”? You know, with most phones you only get a USB2 cable (if it does data transfer at all), again showing how useful they are.
People rarely do data transfer via cable these days, and a really good USB3 cable doesn’t cost 5 cents, so again to me it makes sense to just get one to your liking.
Well, agree to disagree I guess. I am never going to stop complaining that £850 phone can only work as a paperweight after 24 or so hours unless I already have some charger.
Pros
Cons
Add the update policy to the cons. 2 major versions and 3 years of security updates is just bad, especially for a device of this price range
Yeah this is one of my two problems with Sonys best phones even though I am the exact type of enthusiast they are after; the other being the often slow and confused launch that results in crap and delayed availability. There is zero chance I will ever buy a premium phone (and a grand is premium for me) unless I can trust it has multiple years of updates. Samsung does stuff wrong all the time but at least I know they will support their premium phones for the advertised price.
That’s a Pros in my point of view ! Because we already have a lot of charger/cable in are house usually.
Yea people should stop complaining about this. Cables that come with phones are always crappy anyway, and I prefer chargers that have multiple outputs.
It’s bizarre how reviewers very quickly gave up on complaining that (other) phones don’t have headphone jacks or expandable storage, but keep hanging on the no charger thing.
It’s like complaining the phone doesn’t come with a SIM or electricity. Some stuff you just provide yourself.
I think it’s just the culmination of removing things from phones and increasing prices. We keep paying exorbitant prices and they keep cheaping out. Smartphones used to be one device for everything and now they are glorified cameras with internet where you need a heat gun to replace a freaking camera. So to me it feels insulting that they would remove a charger.
And all of that sucks, except not including a charger.
It’s complaining about the one thing that actually makes sense, and letting everything else slide.
Pack-in chargers and cables always suck. I don’t get how people use them, especially those cheap rubber 1m long cables. Utterly useless.
And chargers with one port? Who shells out 1 grand for a phone and has just one device? You can get an excellent charger with 4 ports and support for all the stupid proprietary protocols for like 30 bucks. Why would I use a pack-in one?
Complain about lack of replaceable batteries, headphone jacks, expandable storage, complain about Google’s monopoly and data harvesting in phones, not that they don’t give you some useless extra crap.
We need to force them to improve on that front then not excuse them for cutting costs.
Any decent company will give you a high-spec charger and a decent cable with your fucking $1000+ phone.
Deciding to ditch the charger is only to inflate their bottom line, especially if you look at what they then sell the charger for separately.
None ever does or has. Only boutique brands like Razer may give you a braided cable, but nobody ever gives you a cable longer than 1 metre, never mind a charger with more ports.
But let’s say they do. Let’s say they include a selection of 3 good cables, and a charger with 4 ports that supports all the competing protocols, and throw in wireless charger too. Well congrats, now every phone, tablet, watch, camera and speaker is 50 $€£ more expensive, comes in a box twice as large, and we’re back to the problem of having too many useless chargers that stay in boxes.
Btw I use magnetic cables anyway. So whatever they include cable-wise is useless waste for me.
I think your definition of decent charger&cable is just different from me then I guess.
I expect to get a charger that has the fast charging for the phone (not necessarily the top spec, but high enough) and a usable cable, let’s say a 0.5 to 1 meter, that can also do basic data transfer.
If I wanted a charger with 4 ports I’d buy it. If I wanted a braided cable I’d buy it. I don’t want either - but I want a charger that I know works fast enough with my phone, and it becomes my travel charger. Everything else I can manage.
This will be less of a problem as power delivery becomes the norm, but most people probably don’t have a decent PD charger several times over at home. Worst case you’ll have an extra charger where an old one dies, which seems to be common especially with some peoples’ cables.
Or, you know, alternatively do actually discount the phone by $60 or however much they act like it costs (it’s obviously way less than that, but chargers are still a significant expense largely because they need to have many different SKUs for different regions so the logistics are more complicated).
You really should try it. People don’t know what they’re missing until they use it.
I have the same experience with lots of pack-in products. One that comes to mind are camera (DSLR) neck straps. They’re absolutely dreadful, and shiny advertisements to boot. At some point I tested a bunch of 3rd party ones and found how much better they are. Yet people kept acting like I’m the weird one for paying 20-50 $€£ for something that improves the experience so much.
Same thing here. If for nothing else, not including those crappy accessories just makes people think about the alternatives.
There’s a reason why accessory brands even exist. OEMs actually rarely know how to do accessories well.
So FYI standard length is 1 metre, which tends to be a surprise to people when I tell them… 0.5m is super short for anything but a PC connection or powerbank. Again I suggest you try a good, soft, braided 2m cable if you charge using a power brick.
What’s “basic”? You know, with most phones you only get a USB2 cable (if it does data transfer at all), again showing how useful they are.
People rarely do data transfer via cable these days, and a really good USB3 cable doesn’t cost 5 cents, so again to me it makes sense to just get one to your liking.
Well, agree to disagree I guess. I am never going to stop complaining that £850 phone can only work as a paperweight after 24 or so hours unless I already have some charger.
Why not just buy a bulletproof charger with multiple ports that will last a decade for all your devices, and good, 2m or longer, braided cables?
Or do you really only have one device and one charger for it, with no backups, nothing for travel?