One query on everyone’s lips, especially those of us who’ve used Sony’s previous version of Xperia – the Mark 4, is “Has Sony resolved the overheating problem in the Xperia 1 Mark 5?” The thermal performance of the Mark 4 left quite a number of users disgruntled. To address this, let’s delve deeper into the cooling chamber of the Mark 5, supported by facts and figures, in comparison with its predecessor, the Mark 4.
Sony’s advancements in Xperia’s cooling system
On the face of it, Sony has upped their game by expanding the cooling chamber by approximately 60% in the Mark 5. Additionally, the device sports the new, more power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, showing a boost of 45% compared to the chipset in the Mark 4. These are impressive numbers on paper, but what about real-life scenarios?
Putting the Xperia 1 Mark 5 to the test
I’ve taken it upon myself to run the 3D Mark Wildlife extreme test on both devices, in an attempt to understand their on-ground thermal performances better. This exhaustive test designed to push the device’s CPU and GPU performance to their maximum, generates significant heat, thus providing a challenging scenario.
To ensure fairness in testing, both devices were fully charged, and readings were taken from the center of the devices where heat dissipation primarily occurs. The Xperia 1 Mark 5 registered a maximum initial temperature of 34.8 degrees Celsius, while the Mark 4 heated up to 37.4 degrees Celsius.
The surprising test results
During the stress test’s initial period, the Mark 5 got noticeably hotter than its predecessor. It reached temperatures of around 47.4 degrees in the top left corner and 40.7 at the center. The Mark 4, on the contrary, was almost five degrees cooler, which initially seemed to contradict expectations of an overheating problem. However, digging a little deeper, it seemed like Sony had likely implemented software safety measures in the Mark 4 to pre-emptively throttle back performance when certain temperature thresholds were crossed.
Interpreting the test results
An intriguing element to consider was the nearly doubled frame rate on the Mark 5 even though it ran hotter. This seemed to indicate that the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, combined with allowing the device to run at a higher temperature, was resulting in higher performance.
The final readings showed us that despite the Mark 5 running hotter, its larger cooling chamber made it cool down faster with a performance stability score of 56.2. The Mark 4, on the other hand, stayed at 44 degrees, suggesting performance throttling was probably in play to control heat levels.
So has Sony dealt with overheating?
To sum it up, while the Xperia 1 Mark 5 does run hotter, it seems to handle heat more efficiently, allowing it to achieve higher performance levels. This makes a compelling argument that Sony has indeed addressed the overheating issue prominent in Xperia 1 Mark IV.
