As we said earlier, Sony marches to the beat of its own drummer, while other brands launched Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones as soon as the chip became available, Sony just announced its first one. Say “hello” to the Sony Xperia 1 V. Well, you’ll have to wait until the end of July before you can actually say hello to the Mark 5 flagship.
With patience and €1,400/£1,300 in the wallet you too could own this prosumer camera phone. It’s not quite the Xperia Pro-I, but it’s not a flagship either.
This year Sony caved in and moved away from the standard 12MP main camera it had been using for some time. Instead of going for the IMX989’s raw size, he went with the IMX888 instead—this sensor has an effective 48MP resolution, and its stacked design allows for better light gathering than similarly sized imagers.
Even better, Sony finally caved in and developed a Night View mode, which uses a modern computational approach to night photography. Has the larger sensor improved image quality enough to compete with other flagships? Is night mode okay? The answer to these questions and more in our written review and video review.
The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 runs more efficiently than its Gen 1 predecessor, and Sony claims it has improved cooling. As you’ll see in our reviews, it could have done a better job, but performance and battery life (using the same 5,000mAh battery capacity) are up.
That’s all: Sony’s user-friendly design remains a rare example of having a 3.5mm jack for wired headphones and a microSD slot on board. The company has removed the notification LED, however, it was among the last to offer one. We should also note that we love the grippy texture of the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panel on the back.
It’s mid-2023 and there are already several camera-obsessed flagships on the market: Samsung’s new Ultra model with its 200MP sensor, top dogs from Xiaomi and vivo with their 1” sensors, and the Huawei flagship with a RYYB sensor.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra • Xiaomi 13 Ultra • vivo X90 Pro • Huawei P60 Pro
Is the Sony Xperia 1 V the flagship you wish you had or do you think Sony should have done more to make this phone competitive?
The new Sony Xperia 10 V is Sony’s annual mid-ranger update. Like the top model, it carries a 48MP sensor – that’s not very large, but the extra resolution offers 1x to 2x lossless digital zoom, so the 8MP, 54mm zoom camera takes over.
The new 10 model also features a stereo speaker, bringing it in line with the rest of the Xperia family. Unfortunately, we’ve almost reached the end of the “what’s new?” section.
The display is a tenth larger, 6.1″ versus 6.0″, but it’s still just a 60Hz panel. Worse still, the company still uses the Snapdragon 695 chipset. It could be a tough sell at €450, and that price will look even worse a month from now – the 10V doesn’t launch until June. Okay, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 may have been too much to ask (not really, but still), the 695 feels like an insult. Here are some mid-rangers with better chips:
Samsung Galaxy A54 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro • Xiaomi Poco X5 Pro • Google Pixel 7a
Check out our written review and video review for our thoughts on the Xperia 10V. Its price class is loaded with some of the best value phones out there.
Are you interested in owning the Sony Xperia 10 V?
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