Sony Xperia 1 IV review

introduction

Sony is back with its traditional Xperia cameraphone and it looks better than ever. The new Xperia 1 IV brings the distinctive 4K display back on top of the more powerful Snapdragon chipset and one of the most intriguing arrangements of the one-of-a-kind continuous optical zoom camera. And of course, all of these goodies come wrapped in one of the most stylish designs money can buy you nowadays.

Sony has been consistent with its design and the timeless shape of the Xperia survives with the Xperia 1 IV. A water resistant smartphone with a great grip for photography on the go. It has always been like this in recent years. The 4K 120Hz HDR OLED is here to stay, while the chipset has been updated with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 release.

Other great upgrades include stronger speakers with more bass, a bigger battery, and an improved rear panel, now using a Gorilla Glass Victus.

The camera has received two major updates, and this is where most people will dig first. It still uses the same layout as before: a 12MP primary, a 12MP telephoto lens, a 12MP ultrawide, and a ToF camera. But the zoom camera now supports continuous optical zoom between 85mm and 125mm (3.5x – 5.2x compared to the main 24mm camera). Sure, this isn’t the first smartphone ever to use continuous optical zoom (Nokia N93, Galaxy K Zoom), but let’s say it’s been a while.

All rear cameras now support 4K at 120 fps, SteadyShot with FlawlessEye, Eye AF, and Realt Time Object Tracking. You can also enable wide dynamic range for SDR and HDR video thanks to real-time multi-frame stacking.

One of the things Sony wants to focus on with this Xperia 1 IV flagship this year is live streaming and unreleased content. Sony has entered into an exclusive agreement with YouTube and all Xperia 1 IV owners will be able to live stream on YouTube even if they do not meet the required number of subscribers. You can even stream with a Sony Alpha camera if you have the appropriate cable to connect it to your Xperia smartphone.

One thing that may have gone unnoticed but which we find important is that Sony has finally updated its selfie camera. It now uses a 12MP Sony sensor capable of capturing 4K HDR video. It was time!

Let’s scroll through the specifications now.

Sony Xperia 1 IV specifications overview:

• Body: 165.0×71.0x8.2 mm, 185 g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus), aluminum frame; IP65 / IP68 dust / water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes).
• Screen: 6.50 “OLED, 1B color, 120Hz, HDR BT.2020, 1644x3840px resolution, 21: 9 aspect ratio, 643ppi; Operates at 1096 x 2560 pixels except for select use cases.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 and 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 and 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
• Memory: 256 GB 12 GB RAM; UFS 3; microSDXC (uses the shared SIM slot).
• Operating system / software: Android 12.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f / 1.7, 24 mm, 1 / 1.7 “, 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; Telephoto lens: 12 MP, f / 2.3-f / 2.8, 80-128 mm, 1 / 3.5 “, Dual Pixel PDAF, 3.5x-5.2x continuous optical zoom, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f / 2.2, 124˚, 16 mm, 1 / 2.5 “, Dual Pixel PDAF; Depth: 0.3 MP, TOF 3D.
• Front Camera: 12 MP, f / 2.0, 20 mm (wide), 1 / 2.9 “, fixed focus.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K @ 24/25/30/60/120 fps HDR, WDR; 5-axis gyroscope-EIS, OIS; Front camera: 4K @ 30fps, 5-axis gyro-EIS.
• Drums: 5000 mAh; Fast Charging 30W, 50% in 30min (Advertised), Fast Wireless Charging, Reverse Wireless Charging, USB Power Delivery.
• Various: Fingerprint reader (side mounted); NFC; 3.5 mm jack; Native Sony Alpha camera support.

There is little missing on the Sony Xperia 1 IV if anything. It has all the fan-favorite features like a 3.5mm audio jack, microSD slot, two-stage hardware shutter, and all kinds of Sony goodies. There are new game optimizations like 120Hz HRR support, 240Hz blur reduction, and game streaming options are also available.

Bravia Core has arrived in the Xperia world, and if you are using it on a TV, you can now use it on this phone as well. There’s also a new paid Music Pro service for capturing songs and / or instruments and processing them on the cloud for studio quality.

Well, nothing is truly perfect, and there is one obvious omission …

Unboxing the Sony Xperia 1 IV

… and that’s a charger. And a cable! Sony didn’t just take the Apple, sorry, green way, they also went the extra mile and removed both the charger and the cable from the box. The Xperia 1 IV comes inside an extraordinarily thin paper box for this reason.

The Sony Xperia 1 IV supports USB-PD fast charging up to 30W, and if you don’t have a USB-PD charger, you’ll need to buy Sony’s 30W XQZ-UC1 charger bundle for € 50 one plus € 1400 you paid for this Xperia.