Sony Xperia 1 V: quality comes at a price, but the investment doesn’t pay off
4.7.2023
Translation: Katherine Martin
Sony may have thrown everything at the Xperia 1’s camera, but it needs to get the whole package right too.
The new Sony Xperia 1 V aims to take smartphone photography to a new level, all while excelling in audio and gaming. I’ll be reviewing the smartphone as a whole while my colleague Samuel Buchmann focuses solely on the camera.
Design: comfortable to hold
With its elongated shape in 21:9 format and a weight of 187 grammes, the Sony Xperia 1 V is a good fit for my rather dainty hand. A rough back and grooved edges make the phone easy to grip. The phone is protected with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 at the front and Gorilla Glass Victus at the back.
The smartphone is dust- and water-resistant according to the IP68 rating, holding out for up to 30 minutes in freshwater at a depth of 1.5 metres.
Source: Michelle Brändle
On the right side, there are buttons with two functions each. The power button on the left side is also the phone’s fingerprint sensor. Meanwhile, the volume button doubles as a zoom button when the phone is in camera mode. The third button takes you right to the camera app, which, although nothing special in and of itself, is handy. Once you’re in the camera app, it serves as a shutter button. In fact, pushing it in just half way allows you to focus.
Source: Michelle Brändle
At the top of the phone, Sony has installed an audio port for wired headphones. At the bottom, there’s a slot for a nano SIM and room for a microSD. Conveniently, you don’t need any extra tools to open the slot, meaning you can also change the memory card when you’re out and about.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Generous hardware: from display to memory
The Sony Xperia 1 V comes with a 6.5-inch OLED display in 21:9 format and a 4K resolution at 3840 × 1644 pixels. Its display provides good contrasts and rich blacks. You can either leave the colour rendering in Standard mode, which consists of stark colours and bright whites, or you can use the Creator mode, with more natural colour rendering and warmer whites. The colour spectrum is somewhere in the region of the BT.2020 colour space.
The refresh rate reaches up to 120 hertz and makes scrolling smooth. The phone also comes with Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Using the Geekbench 6 app, I take a look at how the processor’s performance measures up. Pitted head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (kitted out with the same processor), the Xperia 1 V is on a level playing field. The GPU performance scores almost 2,000 fewer points.
You have 256 gigabytes of internal memory and 12 gigabytes of RAM available to you. This sizeable working memory is useful when you’re rendering videos on the smartphone, keeping numerous apps open at once or playing games. That being said, the reality is that game studios ensure their games can also run on less powerful devices. When I gave titles such as Genshin Impact and Call Of Duty Mobile a whirl, the load didn’t reach any higher than seven gigabytes.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The battery has a capacity of 5000 mAh. During typical usage, this lasts me all day, through to the following afternoon. I can watch videos for around 16 hours. When it comes to filming them, however, things take a bit of a turn. Ten minutes of video recording in 4K at 120 fps gobbles up about 5 per cent of the battery, meaning you could shoot about 200 minutes of footage.
In practice, two things work against this. Firstly, you’d have to add an external memory card at the 170-minute mark. Secondly, the smartphone overheats after roughly 15 minutes of filming time. To stop the phone from becoming damaged, the Xperia then cuts off the video recordings automatically.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The smartphone doesn’t come with a power plug or cable, which Sony says is for environmental reasons (article in German).
Hooked up to my 80-watt power supply, the Sony Xperia 1 V takes about two hours to fully charge – a disappointingly long time for an Oppo smartphone user like me, who’s used to fast-charging. Apple and Samsung devices, on the other hand, charge about as slowly as Sony’s.
Software updates: not forever
The Sony Xperia 1 V comes with Android 13 by default. Sony wants to reduce its environmental impact by including fewer accessories and opting for sustainable packaging. This justification for the lack of charger seems hypocritical when you consider the update periods. Two years for Android and three years for security really isn’t enough.
There isn’t an overwhelming number of preinstalled apps. Besides the Google family, you get a few well-conceived Sony apps, including for photos, videos and audio recordings. For gaming enthusiasts, there’s also the Playstation app, which you can connect to your console.
Topping it all off, Sony has also included its own streaming service, Bravia Core. When you open a new account, you get 12 months of free streaming and the chance to choose five movies to keep. Though there isn’t a staggering range of titles, there are plenty of decent ones.
I also immediately find my favourite animated film – Spiderman: A New Universe. Sure, the streaming service would be more useful on a TV, but the quality is great with versions in 4K or IMAX.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The display format makes no difference
Sony has been including its 21:9 aspect ratio in its advertising. However, the display isn’t much longer than that of my Oppo Find X5, which has a 20:9 ratio. When I compare the displays on the two phones, it looks like the Xperia 1 V has more space. But images and menu items are displayed smaller. If I increase the font size in the settings, images and menu bars still remain in the smaller format.
The more elongated display would be handy for watching movies, but you won’t always be able to find a cinema format. At least you can enjoy the 21:9 display with Sony’s streaming service Bravia Core.
Source: Michelle Brändle
The camera: decent, but not a marvel
The camera is the new Xperia’s headline feature. The app’s user interface looks like a large Sony Alpha. Keen not to miss out on an opportunity, my fellow editor Samuel did a thorough review of the camera to see if it’d be worth its salt.
In a nutshell, the Xperia takes good RAW images, but isn’t significantly better than flagships from other manufacturers. You’ll find the full review here:
Gaming: game optimiser and live stream
When you open a game, you’re automatically presented with a game optimiser. If you want, you can have it as a button or menu bar. It shows you the status of the device during the game and has various features, including a Focus mode, the option to create your own live streams and the opportunity to take high-resolution screenshots. You can adjust the settings for each of your games separately.
Source: Michelle Brändle
Great audio experience when listening and speaking
If you have Sony headphones, you can register them directly in the headphones app and adjust the sound. The smartphone’s speakers are of relatively good quality. There are two speakers located directly above and below the display in the form of small slots. This way, the sound reaches you head-on. What’s more, this means you don’t end up covering the speakers when you’re holding the smartphone in landscape mode.
If you want to send voice messages when the weather’s rough, you’ll definitely like the wind filter. When I compared it to my Oppo Find X5, my voice was slightly distorted on the Sony Xperia 1 V. The wind, however, was quieter – and my voice was clearer. You can also hear me relatively well on the Oppo, but the wind is louder.
Conclusion: quality has its price, but it’s too high for me
The Sony Xperia 1 V offers solid hardware and a display with excellent image quality. To enjoy the 21:9 format, however, you need movies, such as those from Sony’s own streaming service Bravia Core. Listening to music and playing games are also fun and allow for personalised settings.
Although the camera’s good too, it isn’t outstanding in comparison to other smartphones. Given that the lenses have fixed apertures, the camera’s manual modes aren’t really a meaningful addition – and very few people are likely to take photos in RAW format on a smartphone.
Sony wants serious cash for all this high-end hardware. Three years of security updates and just two years of Android updates aren’t enough to justify that. If you want an inexpensive smartphone that takes good photos and gives you the pleasure of having supported updates for longer, I’d recommend the Google Pixel 7 Pro instead. It’s available from 737 francs or 760 euros. As an alternative for Switzerland, I’d also recommend the Oppo Find X5 Pro, costing 829 francs.
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.