The Canon PowerShot G5 X is the bigger brother of last year's G7 X prosumer compact camera.The G5 X uses the same 20.2-megapixel 1-inch image sensor and 24-100mm f/1.8-f/2.8 lens as the G7 X.

The PowerShot G5 X is a well-designed and easy-to-use premium compact that takes good quality photos and videos and offers a nice EVF and LCD on which to compose them. It's subpar battery life, so-so lens and sluggish continuous Raw shooting keep it from being a top choice.

It has a great touchscreen (and only a touchscreen – no EVF option) with a simple set of controls and buttons. That said, Canon left the mode dial in place atop the camera for quick access to all of the shooting modes.

Canon's newest point-and-shoot finds its niche.

It's all change in the camera market, with the focus on throwaway compacts all but dead in the face of smartphone domination. Canon is well known for its chunky-but-capable compact cameras, with 2013's G16 seemingly representing the end of that range, now moving aside to make way for the equally...

Capable autofocus in various lighting conditions; built-in viewfinder and vari-angle screen; fast maximum aperture throughout zoom range; notable upgrade over G16

Fairly chunky build will raise questions for some; still in the shadow of the Sony RX100 III/IV due to size; high ISO can't overcome image noise

The Canon Powershot G5 X is a development of the G7 X , and features the same large 20 megapixel 1inch BSI CMOS sensor, and bright 4.2x optical zoom f/1.8-2.8 lens, but adds a tilting vari-angle touch-screen, electronic viewfinder and updated design.

4.2x optical zoom lens; 20mp 1inch sensor; Good noise performance; Tilting vari-angle touch-screen; Great image quality and colour; Excellent EVF quality; Solid build quality and handling; Wi-Fi and NFC; USB charging; Rapid focus

Lacks panoramic shooting mode; Short battery life - unless using ECO mode; High speed shooting much slower with raw

Canon's recent launch of the PowerShot G9 X and G5 X was designed to bolster its current range of enthusiast compacts. The G5 X sits above last year's pocket-sized PowerShot G7 X, and it would appear that Canon has taken on board a lot of comments from consumers with regard to that camera.

Large sensor compared to camera size; Fast zoom lens; Great colour rendition in JPEG; Excellent electronic viewfinder

Relatively slow autofocus; Slow to write raw files; Not truly a pocketable camera

The Canon PowerShot G5 X is an advanced compact camera, one that does its best to give you something approaching the shooting experience and image quality of a DSLR in a much smaller body.

High-quality photos; Great manual control layout; Strong JPEGs

Focusing relability falters in low light; Poor RAW shooting speeds; No 4K video

The compact size and viewfinder make this the most appealing Canon G series camera on the market

Compact and well-built; Good all-round performance; Useful OLED viewfinder

No 4K video; Viewfinder not as good as Sony/Panasonic

With truly exceptional image quality from such a small camera, anything less than five stars may seem unduly harsh. The G5 X's performance should be better, though, and it's important to remember that – unlike the Canon G7 X and Sony RX100 IV – the G5 X won't fit comfortably into a trouser pocket.