I spent the last three weeks in the company of one of the smartphones I was most looking forward to in this 2023, namely the Sony Xperia 1 V. After several generations of smartphones afflicted by overheating problems, battery drain and cameras not up to par, it was impossible to go wrong thanks to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a new design to optimize grip and temperature management and a main camera based on an IMX888 sensor equipped with 2-Layer Transistor Pixel technology, which in a nutshell allows you to capture more light without all the “defects” of a one inch sensor.
Were my expectations met? Yes, I had a great time with this Sony and I won’t deny that I would continue to use it for even more time without missing the iPhone 14 Pro or Xiaomi 13 Pro. I remind you that the Xperia 1 V is based on a 4K AMOLED HDR display with a 120Hz refresh rate, the aforementioned Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flanked by 12GB of LPDDR5x 16bit quad-channel RAM, 256GB of expandable UFS 4.0 storage, a double front speaker, three top-level microphones and three cameras including, in addition to main, we have a periscope with effective optical zoom from 3.5x to 5.2x.
CONSTRUCTION QUALITY AND DESIGN
One of the things I appreciate most about Sony is that, unlike many manufacturers who overturn the aesthetics every year, it always maintains an iconic design and improves it without distorting it . Anyone who looks at this smartphone immediately understands that it is a Sony, as long as they have ever seen a smartphone from the Japanese company. I’m not kidding, in recent weeks many people have asked me what smartphone it was and that they didn’t know Sony was still making smartphones, just to let you understand what an all-time low Xperia marketing has reached.
Leaving aside these boring speeches, however, the improvements from the mark IV can be seen in the rear glass, a Gorilla Glass Victus, which is enriched with an excellent rough matte texture so as not to retain fingerprints and give a tactile sensation almost as if we were touching a Sony professional camera. The frame, which remains in aluminum, is also very good, but now it too has a different texture that significantly improves the grip. For the rest it is the good old Sony design with the camera block that remains minimal without indulging in unnecessary and cumbersome magnificence as is increasingly the case.
Considering the 21:9 format of the display, obviously the smartphone continues to be long and slender like its predecessors and this helps a lot to have a good grip and to be able to carry out some operations with one hand. The low weight, less than 190g, means that even after medium-long sessions you never have discomfort on your wrist and that even adding a cover we hardly exceed 200g. There is no pre-applied film once the smartphone is taken out of the sales package, which by the way does not even contain a charging cable, but fortunately there is a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 to protect the display.
Delving into the endowment on the frame, we notice how everything has remained identical to the previous generation between the 3.5mm jack and the hybrid slot for dual sim or any micro sd. Even everything else like the fingerprint sensor located inside the power button, the volume rocker, the double-stroke shutter button, the two microphones, remained in place.
DISPLAY, FACE UNLOCK AND FINGERPRINT
As mentioned above, the side fingerprint sensor has remained and unfortunately I must inform you that it does not work perfectly. It will be that we are in the hottest months of the year, it will be that some final updates have yet to come out but at the moment there are various occasions where the sensor does not recognize our fingerprint at all and, having no face unlock to support, we have to resort to the good old PIN, not just a bore.
I understand that a fingerprint sensor under the display is not the smartest choice with such an elongated display, also because it should be positioned in the center of the smartphone to make everything balanced and in that position we find the battery, however you could use the upper edge to insert a 3D unlock with the face, since this phone has no notches, holes or the like but classic and symmetrical frames.
Leaving aside all this, however, once the Xperia 1 V is unlocked we find ourselves in front of an AMOLED display with an exaggerated resolution such as 4K, 120Hz maximum refresh rate with touch sampling up to 240Hz in gaming mode, and a peak brightness that stops at around 1000-1100 Nits. Within the settings we have two modes: Standard to save in resolution when possible and with much more saturated and bright colors, while in Creative mode we force the resolution to 4K with a BT.2020 color gamut with 10Bit color depth.
Technical data in hand the only thing that makes you turn up your nose is the maximum brightness, definitely far from those 1700-2000 nits to which the top of the 2023 range have accustomed us despite, as I always repeat, nits are not everything . The Xperia 1 V suffers from few reflections and therefore the approximately 1000 nits even under a challenging sun are not a real limit; we certainly don’t have that visual clarity of a Xiaomi 13 Ultra but you have to consider that this also helps to contain consumption.
We are talking about a basic display with crazy quality, viewing streaming content on Bravia Core is a unique experience with the images that almost seem to come out of the display itself. A great pity, however, that Netflix is not yet optimized because the HDR certifications are missing, we basically see content in 1080p SD. No problem for Prime Video instead which supports HDR and maximum playback quality.
SOFTWARE AND UPDATES
If for now I have praised only, excluding the temporary hitch with Netflix, now that we get to talking about software, I already anticipate that there is something that hasn’t convinced me and I’m not talking about the graphical interface but about updates! In fact, if I really like how Sony remains on stock graphics by adding many smart but at the same time non-invasive functions and all of which can be deactivated, the same cannot be said for the 2+3 update policy.
Showing up in 2023 with very few smartphones in the catalog that need to be supported and not offered at least 3 major updates and 4 years of security patches for a smartphone that costs €1300 in the price list, is a choice that many users are unlikely to swallow, especially if used to a Samsung which now supports a 4+5 policy or Apple which updates so much that it is probably quicker to change phones than to see software support interrupted. Not only that, because the security patches don’t even arrive monthly, always leaving a bitter taste in the mouth.
Mention of merit to the management of the video and audio output from the type-c because not only can this smartphone act as an external display for professional Sony cameras, but it also has various settings to improve and manage the video/audio output in a fine way. quite a bit.
DATA SHEET
- SoC: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)
- Display: 6,5 pollici OLED, 120Hz, HDR BT.2020, 1644 x 3840 pixels, 21:9 ratio (~643 ppi), Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- Memory :
- 12 GB RAM
- 256GB or 512GB of expandable storage via microSD
- Rear camera with Zeiss optics:
- 48 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (grandangolare), 1/1.35″, 1.12µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
- 12 MP, f/2.3, 85mm (telephoto), f/2.8, 125mm (telephoto), 1/3.5″, Dual Pixel PDAF, 3.5x-5.2x continuous optical zoom, OIS
- 12 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultra grandangolare), 1/2.5″, Dual Pixel PDAF
- Front camera: 12 MP, (wide angle), 1/2.9″, 1.25µm
- Connectivity : 5G with Nano-SIM and eSIM, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Assisted GPS, NFC, USB-C 3.2
- Audio: stereo e jack audio 3,5mm
- Sensors : Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, barometer, compass, color spectrum
- Battery : Li-Po 5000 mAh with 30 W wired (50% in 30 min), wireless and reverse charging
- Dimensions and weight:
- 165 x 71 x 8,3 mm
- 187 grams
- Colors : Black, Khaki Green, Platinum Silver
- Other : IP65/IP68 certified dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30min)
- Operating system: Android 13
PERFORMANCE AND FUNCTIONALITY
If the question of updates leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, the same cannot be said for the SOC used based on the excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which finally puts an end, almost definitively, on the overheating and usage problems of the Sonys of the past . I used that “almost” because on some remote occasions you could still feel this smartphone warming up more than the other top of the range, as in gaming use with demanding 3D titles such as Honkai Star Rail: in fact, after a few tens of minutes the phone definitely starts to heat up for a long time the whole frame, resulting slightly unpleasant to the touch if you do not use a cover. It probably suffers from the absence of an effective dissipation system.
However, if we talk about social use, video recording, photos and so on, we will never feel the phone heat up with the battery which in these summer months is never exceeding 40°C, with 47°C reached only in case of extreme use or under direct sun. the 12GB of LPDDR5x RAM are fortunately not accompanied by fictitious digital GBs that only add up to numbers and the 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage reach excellent speeds even if they are not among the best observed (Motorola for example did better).
TEMPERATURES INTENSIVE USE AND GAMING
AUTONOMY AND RECHARGE
If on the performance side we no longer have problems with skyrocketing temperatures, even on the autonomy front we no longer have abnormal drains, on the contrary, I have often managed to complete almost two days of use with a single charge! The 5000mAh of this Sony Xperia 1 V not only convinced me but returned a better result than the one obtained with Xiaomi 13 Pro, the top of the Android range that I have used most often at the beginning of the year, with a very conservative basic MIUI consumption side. Of course on the Sony we stop at a mere “fast” 30W recharge but considering that I found myself charging the phone always and only at night thanks to the excellent autonomy, it has never been a real problem. In addition to wireless charging, there is also reverse wireless charging!
MICROPHONES, SENSORS AND RECEPTION
There are three microphones available to this Xperia 1 V with the two main ones on the frame and the third placed inside the camera block with the main purpose of managing background noise. In fact, within the camera settings we find a toggle to choose in which direction to optimize the audio and not only that, we also have an application dedicated to voice recordings that allows you to have a versatility never seen on other smartphones. The reception and all the various sensors are also very good with just the slightly subdued brightness indoors, too often it lowers the brightness of the display excessively.
DOUBLE SPEAKERS
The double front speaker is a gem , not so much for the quality and fullness of the volume which in the end turns out to be similar to many top of the range already tested, but for the fact that we can hold the smartphone without fear of going to plug the speakers and then muffle the sound. There are obviously various optimizations that we can activate in the dedicated menus and not only because we also find the spatial audio supported through the two system speakers!
THE THREE CAMERAS
And here we are at one of the thorniest chapters since Sony has always left a bad taste in the mouth when it comes to photos and videos about their smartphones, even if it then produces the best sensors for all other manufacturers. If the 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera based on the IMX563 and the 12MP periscopic camera based on the IMX650 have remained the same as the previous generation, everything changes and is completely distorted as regards the sensor of the main camera . Sony has introduced the IMX888 , a sensor that is not exaggerated in size like the 1-inch ones seen on the Xiaomi 13 Pro, Xiaomi 13 Ultra, Vivo X90 Pro or OPPO Find X6 Pro, but which is based on a new, unprecedented structure in the smartphone world that now we’re going to go deeper.
PHOTO WITH PERISCOPE
Compared to conventional stacked structures, the new IMX888 sensor is based on a structure called 2-Layer Transistor Pixel which allows to have a layer dedicated to pixel transistors, in order to eliminate a lot of background noise, and one completely dedicated to photodiodes, making them larger and allowing them to capture more light. Among other things, the sensor is a 4.3:3 in appearance, compared to the classic 4:3 and this allows you to work better on crop stabilization. Indeed, compared to the previous Xperia 1 IV, great strides have been made, but for all three weeks of testing I had the feeling that something is always missing to excel.
PHOTO MAIN BEDROOM
The quality of the photos you are seeing is good but the software is still lacking in computational photography compared to an iPhone, a Pixel but also a Xiaomi which, thanks to the collaboration with Leica, has made great strides in the management of shooting and post-shooting. It happens that every now and then the phone doesn’t fully understand the exposure and tends to burn the subject, that in ambiguous situations there is too much camera shake or that some photos simply turn out to be “less detailed” than the competitors. In short, there is still work to be done but finally the path is the right one to follow also because the autofocus is exceptional and the tracking of the eye together with the physical double-stroke shutter button, which once pressed activates a sort of live view, is excellent.
PHOTO MAIN BEDROOM
The ultrawide camera didn’t excite me, on the contrary, it disappointed me a little especially at nightfall where it struggles a lot, even in videos where the EIS is too invasive and creates a lot of jittering. The periscopic is definitely better, which can take advantage of an optical zoom with a range from 3.5X up to 5.2X without loss of quality , since we are not talking about a digital zoom but a physical one with a real change in focal length! I’m sure that we will see this technology proposed again by other brands in the next generation because it allows you to save an extra sensor and optimize only one: not a trivial matter.
SELFIE
The selfies are of a good standard even if they do not compete in the slightest with the iPhone 14 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra which remain on two steps much higher thanks to a more competitive autofocus and cinema mode. Here too there is an outline of bokeh video but it crops a lot and the quality remains questionable. Definitely better, indeed well the videos that are always well stabilized and rich in detail with the main sensor. For those who are more accustomed to the Sony world and to videography, there are two dedicated Video Pro and Cinema Pro apps that allow you to further optimize the experience.Good thing that in 4K 30fps there is the possibility to change the view with all the sensors available during video recording and that there are various nice modes such as the one that gives focus priority to the products we place in front of the lens without therefore hooking the face who’s behind it, features we typically find on Sony’s vlog cameras.
CONCLUSIONS
And here we come to draw conclusions on this Sony Xperia 1 V, a smartphone that is almost complete in everything and that will hardly leave you disappointed except for the fact that finding one at the moment is a colossal undertaking. Although it was announced at a price of €1399, probably with some discount or bundle with the WH-1000XM5, at the moment the phone is still not available for purchase anywhere, with the Sony website only referring to a waiting list via e-mail. We are absolutely not there because we are already halfway through the year and, although this Sony is a very valid smartphone, few will decide to spend € 1400 for it when the S23 Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Pro are often found at much lower figures.
Of course you will tell me that these last two mentioned have been on the market for months and therefore it is physiological that they have already dropped in price and that we will have to wait a few months for the Sony to drop too, but since it is already July and imagining a first drop in price around September -October, I ask you: who would buy a top of the range in that period with already all the rumors of the new top of the range, the 8 gen 3 snapdragon coming soon and so on? Probably none or almost none.
In short, I believe that Sony needs to review some marketing strategies such as going out with the other competitors or at least marketing the smartphone immediately after the presentation , perhaps aiming for a minimum of advertising and placing some nice mid-range pumped up in order to make the brand known xperia. What do you think? I’m loving it day after day and I’m sorry at the thought that it will probably go by the wayside like all the latest Sonys from past generations. Waiting to hear yours below in the comments!
PRE-ORDER LINK ON THE SONY WEBSITE
THE DISPLAY REMAINS ONE OF THE BEST AESTHETIC IMPROVEMENTS RIGHT OVERHEATING PROBLEMS SOLVED EXCELLENT AUTONOMY VIDEO/AUDIO OUTPUT UNIQUE AMONG THE TOP 2023 THE DOUBLE FRONT SPEAKER
ONLY 2 MAJOR UPDATE FOR A TOP OF THE RANGE THE FINGERPRINT SENSOR DOESN’T WORK VERY WELL SOME BORES WITH NETFLIX
