Sony Xperia 1 has the best display on any phone today and finally it got a camera that can match the very best phones – but the price is also premium-level .See our review of Sony Xperia 1 with pros and cons and three great alternatives.

Review Sony Xperia 1

Sony Xperia 1 is the by far best phone from Sony in many years – fabulous screen, great camera with special video settings, simple and effective user interface and let’s not forget – it’s a great gaming unit.

See our review of Sony Xperia 1 with pros and cons and three great alternatives.

Sony have had some problems during recent time to make a truly convincing mainstream phone. In my opinion they make great phones but I also see why people would choose other phones instead of Sonys. Will the new Xperia 1 become a mainstream bestseller for Sony – that is the question – it certainly got the specs and functions to become a hit.

Screen

It’s not every day I recieve a phone with 4K HDR 6,5 inch big OLED display in 21:9 format. And the screen is the core of most good things on this phone.  The screen is in short absolutely spectacular. 6,5 inch OLED with 4K HDR resolution i 21:9 format – I would probably swap my girlfriend for this display if I had to choose!

The colours, details, sharpness, size, format – it all ads up to the best display ever on a phone and especially for videos and gaming its a huge step up compared to most phones.

The screen is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6, the most tough version from Corning.

Gaming

The display format 21:9 combined with the high resolution, HDR OLED, powerful processor + excellent sound from the speaker build in Xperia 1 makes it a supeiror phone for gaming. Most games are made to support 21:9 format so you don’t have to fear there is only a small amount of optimized games for Xperia 1.

Sony has added Game Enhancer to Xperia 1. With this you can block incoming messages and calls, you can change settings for each game you have and you can record videos of you gaming and share on social medias.

Camera

Xperia 1 er is Sonys first take on triple camera setup – 12 + 12 + 12 megapixel with Predictive Dual Pixel phasedetection autofocus, optical image stabilization, optical zoom eye tracking, ultra wide angle, HDR and so on.

It takes great pictures in almost any situations and it’s also good at handling low light pictures.

The phone can record videos in 4K HDR which is neat and it does so with very stable pictures. The phone has a special camera-app called Cinema Pro that can give you recordings a more cinematic expression and you can make some nice focus movements using this app.

You can set objective, ISO, white balance, shutter speed and if focus should be manual or automatic. 

It’s easy to believe that Cinema Pro is only for – well Pros. But actually anybody can use it. It’s user-friendly and a nice way to record videos that looks different than then rest out there.

User-friendly

Even though the screen is big and long it’s actually a very user-friendly phone – more user-friendly than you would expect. For example: Its easier to use with one hand than most other phones with a different display format because it’s more narrow and I can reach two third of the screen with out problems.

Side Sense makes sense on a phone with a big screen as its easy to reach the apps you use in everyday life.

The splitscreen function is great for multitasking and the 21:9 format gives more reason to use splitscreen. Mail-app in one window, browser in the other for example works just like a charm.

Another nice detail is that you can get to fast-settings by scrolling down on the display from almost anywhere on the screen – you don’t have to do it from the top of the display as on most phones.

Finally – the finger printscanner is not under the screen – yeah! It’s a real buttom on the right side of the phone and it works all the time.

Price

The price for Sony Xperia 1 starts from just below 1.000 dollars or around 900 euro. That is a lot of money for at phone but compared to other 1.000 dollars phones it’s actually not bad.

There are one big issue about the phone and a few minor.

The sar value is 0,98 W/kg. That’s almost iPhone-level sar value and means that the antenna quality is nothing to write home about. Should we give the antenna quailty a thumbs up we need to be around 0,5. W/kg. In cities you won’t have any problems but in areas with poor network coverage you probably will face some problems keeping the connection to the mobile network.

Poor sar value also means the phone has to work harder to stay connected in general which means higher battery consumption.

And the battery time is already average. 3330 mili amp hours in a phone with 6,5 inch 4K OLED display is not impressive.

Finally I do miss wireless charging.

Alternatives

As we can see there are not many big negative stuff on Xperia 1 but poor antenna quality and average battery life could be a deal breaker for some – so: Let me present you three great alternatives.

• Samsung Galaxy S10+
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
• Motorola Moto One Vision

Conclusion

Sony Xperia 1 is a great phone – on par or even better on some features than the best phones right now: Screen, camera, navigation speed, user friendliness and gaming are all of high quality.

Antenna quality and battery life could be better but compared to other 1.000 dollar phones Sony Xperia 1 is actually a great phone.