Earlier today, Sony held a virtual presentation of its new Xperia smartphones, focusing on the flagship Xperia 1 VI. The phone has a new processor, some improvements in the camera department and a more traditional design.

Design and display

The Xperia 1 VI continues to follow Sony’s minimalist design philosophy, offering a boxy design with straight edges and a flat back. There is also a pill-shaped camera island on the back, reminiscent of its predecessor. The biggest design change comes from the screen, which now has a more traditional 19.5:9 aspect ratio rather than the cinematic 21:9. This change made the smartphone shorter and wider than its predecessor.

Sony also ditched the 4K OLED display in favor of a 6.5-inch FHD+ panel (1080 x 2340 pixels). The phone still uses an OLED panel with HDR certification, covering the full DCI-P3 color gamut, and X1 for mobile. It offers a 1-120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, and 240Hz motion blur reduction. The screen and back are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Despite the change in aspect ratio, the phone still has massive top and bottom bezels.

Productivity

Under the hood, the Xperia 1 VI is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with integrated Andreno 750 graphics. The processor is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage (the 512GB model will be available in Japan and Japan). East Asia). Sony also offers memory expansion up to 1.5TB via microSD card. To combat overheating, the phone is equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system.

On the audio front, the device offers full front-facing stereo speakers with improved bass, clarity and sound spread across width and depth compared to the previous model. It also includes a 3.5mm jack for wired listening and includes technologies like 360 ​​Reality Audio, 360 Reality Audio hardware decoding, 360 Spatial Sound, Dolby Atmos, LDAC, DSEE Ultimate, Qualcomm aptX HD audio and LE Audio for rich audio.

The battery has a capacity of 5000mAh with 30W USB PD fast charging as well as Qi wireless charging. For connectivity, it supports 5G, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 ax and Bluetooth 5.4 LE. For navigation, the phone supports GPS and GLONASS. It also has a USB 3.2 Type-C port, NFC, and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for security. It has an operating system based on Android 14, and Sony promises to provide three Android version updates and four years of security support.

cameras

The most important feature of the phone is that the camera system has a 48 MP main unit with a 1/1.3.5 inch Exymor T sensor. This is the same sensor in last year’s flagship Xperia model. It has an f/1.9 aperture with hybrid OIS and EIS support. The second camera on the back is a 12MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture and 16mm focal length. The third and final camera on the back is a telephoto camera with a 1/3.5-inch sensor and an advanced 85-170mm optical zoom lens that offers 3.5x to 7.1x optical zoom (21.3x hybrid zoom). All rear cameras have ZEISS T* coated lenses.

The front camera includes a 12-megapixel Exmor RS 1/2.9-inch mobile sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 84° field of view. The camera system of the Xperia 1 VI is capable of recording video up to 4K 120 FPS. Sony has also updated the camera app on the Xperia 1 VI to make it more accessible and user-friendly for those who just shoot. Pro mode is still available for users who prefer to customize the camera to their liking.

Prices and availability

The Xperia 1 VI will be available in early June, with prices starting from €1,399/£1,299. Available in black, platinum silver and green khaki.