Sony Xperia
Ranked 18 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
People recommend Xperia phones for their water resistance, headphone jack, microSD slot and good audio. Critics say security updates are slow and pricing is uncompetitive.
People recommend Xperia phones for their water resistance, headphone jack, microSD slot and good audio. Critics say security updates are slow and pricing is uncompetitive.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 15
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Headphone jack and microSD slot
“Sony phones were some of the first high end water resistant phones. They continue to be water resistant and still have the headphone jack and microSD card slot.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Wired headphone sales are exploding. What's with the Bluetooth backlash?” “The Sony Xperia line has been waterproof for over 10 years and continues to have a headphone jack and an SD card slot.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]” “I want the SD card, dual sim plus eSIM, a headphone jack, a rectangular screen with a decent aspect ratio”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “I switched to eSIM in 2025, and I am full of regret” - Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “I switched to eSIM in 2025, and I am full of regret”
- Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE)”
- Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing”
Long-standing water resistance
“Sony phones were some of the first high end water resistant phones. They continue to be water resistant and still have the headphone jack and microSD card slot.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Wired headphone sales are exploding. What's with the Bluetooth backlash?” “The Sony Xperia line has been waterproof for over 10 years and continues to have a headphone jack and an SD card slot.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]” “The Sony Xperia is thinner and lighter than any iPhone and has the same IP rating.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Sony Exits UHD Blu-ray Player Market as Pull Back from Physical Media Continues” Good audio and jack quality
“the Xperias have had better 3.5mm jacks than even many dedicated DACs”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE)” “they're inherently superior when it comes to audio just working”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Wired headphone sales are exploding. What's with the Bluetooth backlash?” Compared favourably with iPhone
“The Sony Xperia is thinner and lighter than any iPhone and has the same IP rating.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Sony Exits UHD Blu-ray Player Market as Pull Back from Physical Media Continues” “The Xperia is bounds ahead of the iPhone.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security updates slow or short-lived
“f*k Sony, for releasing security patches for barely year-and-a-half for so-called flagship”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “GrapheneOS has fixed the Android 17 QPR1 kernel performance regression” “Their security updates were sub par the last time I checked.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Fairphone 6: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting” Camera quality worse than rivals
“rooted Sony phones have terrible photo / video quality”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app” “Sony phones have even worse camera than Samsung”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Disappointing Phones” Poor value and uncompetitive pricing
“Sony reintroduced it but has probably the worst VFM in the market”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable” “They've always had uncompetitive pricing.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “I switched to eSIM in 2025, and I am full of regret” Cellular network compatibility problems
“that option also died once AT&T changed the details of their voice network and it was no longer possible to place 3G phone calls”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Commodore Releases Flip Phone” “my brand new Sony Xperia VII phone would not work in upstate NY”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS Foundation” “4G/5G does not work properly in Australia”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “I switched to eSIM in 2025, and I am full of regret”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Sony XperiaThis page | 15 | 15 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
35 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The Sony Xperia is thinner and lighter than any iPhone and has the same IP rating.”
“Sony's Xperia phones, are completely unrecognized”
“f*k Sony, for releasing security patches for barely year-and-a-half for so-called flagship”
“the Xperias have had better 3.5mm jacks than even many dedicated DACs”
“product names are probably assigned by their worst competitor”
“I had a problem only once a long time ago, when I was in water with one of my Sony”
“Good luck getting voice to work.”
“that option also died once AT&T changed the details of their voice network and it was no longer possible to place 3G phone calls”
“it has the headphone jack”
“Sony phones were some of the first high end water resistant phones. They continue to be water resistant and still have the headphone jack and microSD card slot.”
“they're inherently superior when it comes to audio just working”
“overpriced bad value Sony”
“Sony reintroduced it but has probably the worst VFM in the market”
“Now that Xperia dropped open source, every phone out there is terrible”
“the Xperia line of devices is varied, with nice set of tiers”
“my brand new Sony Xperia VII phone would not work in upstate NY”
“Sony phones have even worse camera than Samsung”
“Their security updates were sub par the last time I checked.”
“rooted Sony phones have terrible photo / video quality”
“The Sony Xperia line has been waterproof for over 10 years and continues to have a headphone jack and an SD card slot.”
“most audiophiles note that it's driven by Snapdragon's mediocre integrated DAC”
“xperias are well supported”
“I want the SD card, dual sim plus eSIM, a headphone jack, a rectangular screen with a decent aspect ratio”
“4G/5G does not work properly in Australia”
“the used market for them is almost non-existent”
“They've always had uncompetitive pricing.”
“Sony stopped their first party device manufacturing, so your mileage of the hardware might be wildly different in the future.”
“Sony is the one manufacturer that returned to a headphone jack after having removed it for a while.”
“f** Sony software updates policy”
“I have an Xperia with Sailfish OS”
“Why didn't they just replicate/rebrand Xperia?”
“Sony does this really well”
“if mine didn't fall apart after reasonable use”
“after a year the back started peeling off”
“The Xperia is bounds ahead of the iPhone.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.