Test: Sony Xperia 1 VI – less private, for better or worse

Sony mobile phones have always been of high technical quality, but not always the most user-friendly, but are aimed at a niche group of enthusiasts. The sixth generation of the best mobile phones, the Xperia 1, doesn't skimp on quality, but it simplifies and improves the experience for the rest of us.

At first glance, there's little that screams “new mobile phone.” It's the same style as before, an industrial feel in the design with a flat matte glass back, straight fluted aluminum sides with a fluted surface and slightly sharp edges throughout. Sony features a selfie camera, front-facing speakers on top of a non-cracking screen, a SIM card slot that doesn't need a pin, and a separate camera button on the side.

But there are differences. Firstly, the Xperia 1 VI is a few millimeters wider than the Xperia 1 V, and the aspect ratio is 19.5:9 instead of 21:9. A more traditional and typical mobile format may attract more users.

What I noticed right away is that it's easier to type text using the on-screen keyboard when there's more room for buttons. It doesn't matter to me, I run the low end Asus Zenfone 9 myself, but it's something that might be important to others. It doesn't make the phone unwieldy to hold.

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Faster but not the fastest

The Xperia 1 VI is of course upgraded with Snapdragon 8 gen 3 and 14th generation Android, plus 12GB of RAM and 256 or 512GB of storage. Performance is high, but not at the absolute peak. It seems that Sony is choosing to reduce high performance rather than increase the temperature of the device. It's obviously noticeable when I'm playing games. The phone gets warm, but never uncomfortably hot, and performance drops quickly from the top ratings. However, at 1080p, it's still fast enough.

In Sweden, it appears that only the 256GB model was sold for SEK 14,990. The very small storage space may seem meager, but you do have a fast micro SD slot in the SIM tray if you want to expand it. It's not common in the upper tier of phones, which is something I appreciate.

I connect quickly over both wifi 7 and 5g with good reception, a usb-c port on the bottom that supports up to 10gb data transfer, and an external display. There's no desktop interface like Samsung or Motorola phones, but it's mainly for video. You can also connect a mobile phone to a Sony Alpha system camera and use it as an additional monitor.

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

The battery is the same as the one in the Xperia 1 V at 5,000 mAh, but the display, new processor and updated system appear to work together to increase efficiency. I now get much longer for video streaming and a little longer for mixed use. I would say you can safely leave the house in the morning without a charger in your pocket. As usual, you can get the charger yourself. The Xperia 1 VI is said to be capable of 30W charging, and using a powerful universal charger, I can fully charge it in just over an hour.

Fewer pixels, more quality per pixel

On the other hand, they have scaled back their ambitions. There's now a 1080p display here instead of the 4K panel that was on previous models. I think this is a good choice. You can't see more pixels without a magnifying glass, so why keep trying to show them? When I had the Xperia 1, I was still constantly running it in 1080p mode and didn't notice any difference.

One reason for the higher dot density might be to mix and display more colors, but the panel here has no problem with that. It offers 2020 color gamut, enough brightness to handle full sunlight, true 10-bit color depth, high color accuracy, up to 120Hz frame rate and a high sampling rate in the touch layer for fast response.

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Now there's finally true LTPO technology in the display, which should be able to control the frame rate without sacrificing the experience. That and the lower resolution should be able to reduce some power consumption. Not that the battery life in the predecessor was bad, but there is always room for improvement.

Sound is also top-notch, with rich, detailed stereo and the option to enhance the sound for music or movies with Dolby Sound and DSEE Ultimate. On top there is a classic 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Where did the mobile movie go?

You can't talk with the Xperia 1 without talking with the cameras. The mobile phone has long excited filmmakers and photographers, with features like eye recognition for autofocus, system camera feel in the interface, innovations in both sensor technology and optics, and plenty of ways to help you shoot and shoot more professionally.

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

The Xperia 1 V recently comes with up to three apps you can shoot with: the regular Camera app, Video Pro and Cinema Pro. When I tested it, I appreciated the capabilities, frame-rate controlled movie projects with a cinema feel, professional filters and 21:9 mode. But I didn't understand why they weren't just features built into the video mode of the regular camera app. Don't make it too complicated!

Sony listened. If not on me then on others who said the same thing. It seems she got the wrong message. Cinema Pro and Video Pro are gone and only a few of the features that made them interesting have been adopted into the camera app. You can manually control focus while shooting, and have some control over shutter speed, but there aren't nearly the same amount of tools as before. I also have to look up a video on Youtube to learn how to shoot in the app's pro mode.

More zoom and powerful macro

They are the same sensors found in its predecessor, a 48-megapixel main sensor with a large amount of light despite the small surface, and two 12-megapixel sensors for zoom and wide-angle. The new thing here is zoom. Sony has a zoom camera with moving optics, which means you get an adjustable focal length when zooming optically. In the Xperia 1 V, optical zoom ranging between 3.5x and 5.2x is provided. Now it has been expanded to 7.1x.

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Matthias Inge

Thanks to fast autofocus and optical image stabilization, I get certified clear images with up to 20x zoom. The zoom lens can also be used to take extremely close-up photos. However, this can only be done using the manual focus slider on the screen, so it can be difficult to focus properly and keep the mobile phone steady enough.

However, in full daylight, there are problems with the small surfaces of both zoom and wide angle when the light is very weak. Noise quickly creeps into the image. The main camera performs much better at night, maintaining the natural, neutral color reproduction that I appreciate with the Sony, and dynamics that do the dark and bright parts of the field of view justice. In the viewfinder, it may look a bit flat, but it turns out to have more detail in the lighter and darker areas than it appears on screen.

Is this the right way for Sony? To become like everyone else, or to go your own way without shame. I think it's the latter and I doubt that's what potential Sony customers want. But I could be wrong. The question then is whether Sony will go further or whether it also needs new vibes abroad.

performance

Antutu Standard 10: 1,804,465 points
Geekbench 6, multiple cores: 6,536 points
Geekbench 6, single core: 2200 points
Geekbench 6 Computing, GPU: 16,253 points
3DMark Wildlife Extreme: a point
GFXbench Aztec Open GL High: 103 fps
GFXbench Aztec Vulcan High: 100 fps
Car Chase GFXbench: 102 fps
GFX Mark Manhattan: 120 fps
Storage and reading: 3,489.3 MB/s
Storage and writing: 3,346.3 MB/s