The Sony Xperia 10 Plus is a mid-range smartphone with a 6.5-inch screen, dual rear cameras, an 8MP selfie camera and 4K video. Announced earlier this year, the Sony Xperia 10 Plus joins a very busy sector of the smartphone market and with so much competition, can it stand on its own and impress us with its features? Well, that's what we're going to find out. 

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The Sony Xperia 10 Plus is priced at £349 sim-free. There's also the Sony Xperia 10 available, which is priced a little cheaper at £299.

Sony Xperia 10 Plus Features

The big selling point Sony is shouting about with the Sony Xperia 10 Plus is the 6.5", 21:9 wide display, made from Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which can be used to view two apps at once, watch films in the cinema ratio they were filmed in or you can use the bigger space to simply view the images you've captured with the smartphone in more detail. You can also capture your own videos in a 21:9 ratio with the dual 12MP f/1.75, wide-angle + 8MP f/2.4 rear camera that has a 2x optical zoom and features SteadyShot - Sony's Image Stabilisation (electronic). The 12MP camera is your go-to lens while the 8MP camera helps create bokeh in backgrounds and gets you closer to the action with a 2x optical zoom. 

Other camera features include 5x digital zoom, bokeh effects, HDR, 120fps slow-mo and an ISO range which reaches ISO12800. Hybrid Autofocus is used by the rear camera, too. On the front, is an 8MP f/2.0 wide-angle lens that also features SteadyShot, HDR mode, selfie effects and flash. 

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor is built in along with a 3000mAh battery and a headphone jack. You get 64GB of memory and 4GB of RAM but the memory capacity can be expanded with a microSDXC memory card.  

Key Features 

• Dual Rear Camera: 12MP f/1.8, 27mm (wide) & 8MP f/2.4, 53mm (telephoto)
• Front Camera: 8MP f/2.0, 24mm (wide)
• 6.5-inch 21:9 display (1080x2520)
• 4K video 
• Bokeh mode
• Various selfie effects
• Digital filters
• Manual mode
• Headphone jack
• USB-C
• Fingerprint sensor
• 3000mAh battery 
• 64GB Memory/4GB RAM
• 167 x 73 x 8.3mm
• 180g

Sony Xperia 10 Plus Handling

When you first pick up the Sony Xperia 10 Plus the first thing you'll notice is its size - tall and thin is the perfect description and in comparison, to other smartphones, it does feel much bigger but in an odd way. What we mean by this is that the 21:9 aspect ratio might be great for watching films but its relatively thin width in comparison to its height make it look a bit weird and slightly dated. Perhaps the wider smartphone bodies with rounded corners and thin bezels have blinded up into thinking 'its this shape or nothing' when it comes to modern design but whatever the reason, there's no ignoring the fact that it feels a bit dated. 

Unlike other smartphones found in this price bracket, the Sony Xperia 10 Plus is constructed from plastic, making it look less expensive, but it does have a matt finish which protects it from fingerprints/smudges more than glass ever will. 

The elongated shape does make the smartphone less comfortable to hold in comparison to others but the longer screen does make scrolling apps such as Facebook, with their never-ending feed, easier. You can also open two apps at once should you enjoy a bit of multi-tasking. For those with smaller hands, you can downsize the display with a swipe of your thumb but it's still easier to hold the smartphone in one hand and navigate it with the other. As always, we recommend you always hold the smartphone with two hands when capturing photos/video to ensure your shots are steady. 

Those who watch tv/films on-the-go will probably love the ratio the 6.5-inch display gives them, colour temperatures are accurate and brightness isn't really a problem. 

As for button/camera placement, to the sides are the power/volume buttons but sandwiched between these is the fingerprint sensor you use to unlock the smartphone. If you want to unlock the Sony Xperia 10 Plus with your thumb (if right-handed) - great, as the placement of the sensor makes this a doddle but if you want to use any other finger on your right hand, it makes it a bit trickier to unlock. Left-handed users will have less of an issue with this but still, why Sony hasn't placed it on the back as other smartphone designers do is a bit of a mystery. On the bottom is the USB-C port and speakers and on the top is a headphone jack. Turn the smartphone over and you find the rear camera unit, and flash, which sits flush enough so that the Sony Xperia 10 Plus doesn't rock or move too much when placed on a surface. 

The camera app is rather self-explanatory with an on-screen shutter button, options to switch photo/video and a mode button where you can access effects such as bokeh along the bottom. There is no longer a dedicated shutter release button. At the top are options for using the flash, self-timer, aspect ratio settings, access to exposure sliders, settings and the button for switching to the selfie camera. You can switch between 1x and 2x zoom then if you want to access the 5x digital zoom, you simply 'pinch and zoom'. Tap the screen to focus and sliders for adjusting white balance and the exposure level pop up which are useful but can get in the way as you have to close them to access the zoom. It's also a bit weird having the button for turning the camera around in the top menu - most other smartphones have this near the shutter button. 

One annoying point is that when you turn the smartphone to use it in landscape mode, as a left-handed user (turning the smartphone 90-degrees clockwise), all of the buttons and options remain upside down! Turn it the other way, and all of the options adjust themselves to be the right way up. 

Another niggle was the lag sometimes experienced between hitting the shutter and a photo actually been captured. 

Mode-wise, there's a limited manual mode, bokeh options, a way to enhance portraits, various creative effects, slow-mo and a panorama mode. 

The Antutu score for the Sony Xperia 10 Plus is 116654 while the Geekbench ratings are as follows:1351 single core and 4729 multi-core. 

Battery life - The 3000mAh battery isn't the biggest we've seen in a mid-range smartphone but for taking photos, making calls and other day-to-day activities, it isn't so bad, and Sony's battery management is generally good at extending battery life. Heavy gaming or film watching will deplete it more quickly, though.