Sony was once known for its innovative Xperia flagships. However, over the past few years, the company’s charm has waned, all thanks to its safe design and standard specifications. But this year, at MWC, the company is looking forward to getting back our attention, with the brand new Xperia 1. Yes, as the name suggests, this is a brand new flagship series from the company, backed by a really tall design. Ideally, it should be the successor of the Xperia XZ3, but considering the name, it looks like the company wants to start afresh.
So what’s so fresh about the Xperia 1?
First, it is the world’s first 4K OLED HDR smartphone. Sony isn’t new to 4K displays. Their XZ Premium series have had 4K displays, but they were all LCD. This one’s a 4K OLED HDR display. Plus, the display isn’t the usual 16:9 or 18:9 or even 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The company has decided to take things to the next level by using an extremely tall 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio. This would make the Xperia 1 quite unique in its design. It would be significantly taller and thinner than existing smartphones in the market. The display supports 10-bit colors and professional ITU-R BT.2020 color space.
Despite its taller than usual stance, there are some practical advantages of such a design. First of all, you can see more content on the screen while reading or browsing. This would amount to less scrolling. Further, you can multitask with ease and even pin apps on top as you’ll still have plenty of real estate down at the bottom. And of course, given the 21:9 aspect ratio, movies will be a treat to watch, provided you get them in the same format.
But such a tall screen will also have a few disadvantages. For example, if you have small hands, it would be extremely hard to navigate with just one hand. Sony does have a one hand mode for your rescue but considering its size, you might end up using this feature all the time. Another thing, it would be really hard to fit your phone in your pocket. A 6.5-inch display isn’t huge by today’s standards, but Xperia 1 is not just tall because of its 21:9 aspect ratio. It has a significant bezel (notch haters may rejoice) on the top that adds to its size. So, it’s not going to be your everyday smartphone that fits snugly in your jeans pocket.
Coming to the specs, you get the new Snapdragon 855 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. You have a side mounted fingerprint (so no in-display sensor like recent flagships), 3300mAh battery and a water-resistant body. Yes, the battery isn’t very large, especially considering the 4K OLED screen on board. So, battery life is one area where the phone might take a hit, but let’s wait for some real world tests.
The camera setup is set to match today’s flagship standard – three 12MP lenses featuring one 26mm wide angle setup (OIS), one 52mm telephoto setup (OIS), along with one 16mm superwide lens. Low light photography should be stellar, thanks to its 1.4μm dual photodiode image sensor, f/1.6 aperture, and RAW noise reduction. The Xperia 1 is also the first smartphone to feature Eye Autofocus, a feature borrowed from the company’s Alpha mirrorless camera series. It also supports 10fps continuous burst shooting.
While 21:9 content might not be easily available right now, Sony says that it’s working with makers of games like Fortnite and Asphalt Racing to support its tall display size. However, standard video content from other platforms like YouTube would still have black bars on the sides.
Sony has given a late Spring release for the Xperia 1 flagship in Black, Purple, Gray, and White colors. No word on its pricing yet but considering Sony’s history and policy, don’t expect it to come cheap.
Alongside the Xperia 1, two other models were also announced at MWC 2019 with 21:9 display — the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus, both featuring LCD displays.
