Sony Xperia 1 Hands On and Photo Gallery


Apart from mid-range smartphones like Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, Sony introduced its much-expected flagship device under the name Xperia 1 at the MWC. With this device, the company is positioning itself in the mobile market as media consumption and imaging powerhouse. In an attempt to stand out from the crowd, Sony has ditched the 19:9 aspect ratio, offering a 21:9 aspect ratio.

The Xperia 1 measures 8.2mm in thickness and have a height of around 167mm, which makes it even more sleeker. The front and rear are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6, giving us a premium feel which we have accustomed to quite lately. The front side of the device is occupied by the screen itself with a bit bezels on top and bottom.

On the right side, we have a dedicated camera button, power button and volume rocker too. Below the power button is a fingerprint sensor, which means, the Japanese handset maker has opted to stay clear of the in-display fingerprint sensor. Turning it back we have vertical triple camera setup housed in the centre just above the Xperia branding.

The best part about this smartphone is its 6.5-inch (1644x3840pixels) 4K OLED HDR Display with 21:9 aspect ratio, TRILUMINOS Display for mobile. This is the first smartphone to come with 4K HDR display. Notably, it has Creator mode that uses industry-leading technology to ensure consistent colour reproduction, so movies and TV shows are as the creator intended.

With Xperia 1, Sony got its answer to the emerging multi-camera smartphone trend. It has triple 12-megapixel rear cameras that include a 16mm super wide-angle lens, 26mm normal lens with a dual photodiode image sensor and RAW noise reduction and a 52mm lens for portrait and 2x optical zoom.

In fact, it is also the world’s first smartphone with Eye AF and up to 10FPS AF/AE for precision focus and high-speed shooting. The Cinema Pro, powered by CineAlta offers 21:9 Movie recording in 4K HDR that promises best results – even in backlit scenes or low light.

Under the hood, the Xperia 1 is powered by the latest Snapdragon 855 SOC paired with 8GB of RAM, 128GB onboard storage and microSDXC support up to 512 GB. Other mentions include Water Resistant (IP65/IP68), runs on Android 9.0 (Pie), has USB Type-C audio, Stereo speaker, DSEE HX, LDAC, Dolby Atmos.

Lastly, the device is powered by 3300mAh Battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Qi Wireless charging.

The Sony Xperia 1 comes in Black, Purple, Grey and White colours, is priced at £799 (US$ 1,045 / Rs. 74,270) and will roll out from late spring in the US and in the coming weeks in Europe.

Vigneshwar contributed to this post


Author: Bharadwaj Chandramouli

Bharadwaj is a content creator who has been obsessed with technology since the early days of smartphones. He loves talking about tech, is a fan of good design and photography. You can follow him on Twitter @gadgetbuff_ to know what he's upto!