Sony has announced the Sony Xperia 1 V exactly a year to the day after the Xperia 1 IV, updating its top-end camera centric smartphone with new lens technology.
The Xperia 1 V (that’s ‘one mark five’) has a new image sensor compared to the previous generation that Sony calls its Exmor T for Mobile.
The company, which also produces a popular line of cameras, said this sensor has improved low light photography – but it is not the Sony IMX989 1in sensor used in recent camera systems on the Oppo Find X6 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Ultra.
It’s a little odd Sony has decided not to use its own excellent sensor in its latest flagship phone.
Despite this, there’s a ton of interesting tech stuffed into the Sony Xperia 1 V, which looks to be a professional photographer’s dream device.
Sony also announced a mid-range phone, the Xperia 10 IV. Here’s everything you need to know.
When will the Sony Xperia 1 V be released?
The Sony Xperia 1 V is now available to buy in the UK.
It doesn’t go on sale in the US until 28 July.
How much will the Sony Xperia 1 V cost?
The Sony Xperia 1 V costs £1,299 direct from Sony.
In the US, the phone costs $1,399.99 and is available to pre-order now from Sony.
The Sony Xperia 1 IV cost $1,599/£1,299 at launch, so it’s good to see Sony bring down the US price by $200, even if it remains incredibly expensive.
Sony
What are the specs and features of the Sony Xperia 1 V?
The Sony Xperia 1 V’s headline new feature and main different spec compared to the Xperia 1 IV is its new Exmor T for Mobile image sensor for the main lens on its camera system.
Sony has used a 52Mp sensor using a 48Mp section of it. Shots are then pixel binned down from 48Mp to 12Mp for the final image, a technique used by many phones when in auto mode including the iPhone 14 Pro.
That megapixel count, and sensor size, is an upgrade over the 12Mp main sensor in the Xperia 1 IV.
“Due to the combination of the low-light performance, which is approximately double compared to the previous model and the high-speed multi frame overlay procession technology of the Xperia 1 V, it is possible to shoot a noise resistant photo with a wider dynamic range that is equivalent to a full-frame camera,” Sony said in a press release.
True to its imaging roots, Sony also insists on referring to the camera by their focal length. So the main 52Mp lens is 24mm, the 12Mp ultrawide is 16mm, and the 12Mp optical telephoto is 85-125mm and physically moves as it did on the Xperia 1 IV.
I’m calling back to the 1 IV a fair bit because a lot is the same – Sony said in a media briefing that the display is the exact same on the 1 V as it was on the previous model, meaning it’s also not an LTPO screen. This means it can’t dial back the refresh rate all the way down to 1Hz like some of the best phones out there, instead only being able to be set at 60Hz or 120Hz.
There is a nice upgrade in chipset though with Qualcomm’s superlative Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The chip has proven much more power efficient in phones such as the OnePlus 11 and Galaxy S23 Ultra, and we are keen to see if it goes some way to solving the overheating issues that plagued the Xperia 1 IV and Xperia 5 IV that used the too-hot Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
You also get a big 5000mAh battery but it only charges at 30W, which I will not be calling fast charging. 15W wireless charging is there too.
The design of the phone looks similar from the front, but the back has seem some welcome if subtle changes. The back is now covered in tiny dimples for a grip that doesn’t look like glass, but is. I already loved the matt finish on recent Xperia phones but this could be even better.
Sony
Not only will it surely stave off fingerprints, in black it also snuggles up to the aesthetic of Sony’s Alpha cameras. Given the manual and pro leanings of the Xperia 1 line, that’s no surprise – Sony is making a huge deal of the fact the camera app now displays its UI in portrait orientation. This is something every other phone on the market does! But perhaps that’s unusual for pro photographers.
There are some niche but very useful tricks if you have an Alpha camera and get the Xperia 1 V. You can use the phone as a monitor and record directly onto its 256GB storage, but using the Alpha camera to capture the scene. Nifty.
Throw in front facing stereo speakers, a true rarity these days, plus very good photo, video, and music recording apps and this could well be the phone for you. The video pro app has a new concentration on vlogging with new features for live streaming and interacting with viewers and followers in real time.
Sony has not confirmed how long the software support is for the Xperia 1 V, but its last $1,599/£1,299 phone, the Xperia 1 IV, was only promised two years. This lags behind Google’s three with five years of security updates, and Samsung and OnePlus’ four with five years of security. It’s not good enough from Sony, and I hope it has improved the support for the new phone.
Here are the full specs of the phone:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- 6.5in 120Hz 4K HDR OLED display
- 240Hz touch sample rate
- Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- 12GB RAM
- 256GB storage
- IP65/68
- 30W charging
- 15W wireless charging
- 5000mAh battery
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Hi-res audio
- Black, silver, green
What about the Sony Xperia 10 V?
Sony also announced the Xperia 10 V today, the follow up to, you guessed it, the Xperia 10 IV, which as of May 2023 sits atop of our best battery life phone chart. That thing just wouldn’t die.
The new Xperia 10 V looks great from the spec sheet. Here that is, with Sony oddly omitting Mp counts for the triple cameras:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G
- 6.1in OLED display
- Gorilla Glass Victus
- 6GB RAM
- 128GB storage (microSD up to 1TB)
- IP65/68
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Hi-res audio
- Black, white, green, lavender
It’s great to see hi-res audio support on a phone like this, particularly as Sony is selling it in the UK for £399.
It should be on sale mid-way through June. Global availability and pricing are yet to be announced.