Sony Mobile unveiled the Xperia 1 (J8110, J8170, J9110) flagship at MWC earlier today. There were few surprises given the numerous leaks leading up to the press conference, including a full specs leak a few days back. All of those leaked specs were on the ball, but to repeat, Sony’s new flagship is called the Xperia 1, which shows Sony adopting a new naming structure for 2019 devices.
The handset adopts a tall skinny form factor with a 21:9 display aspect ratio, which Sony is dubbing ‘CinemaWide’. The Xperia 1 has a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED display with resolution of 1644 × 3840 pixels. Sony uses the X1 for mobile image processing engine from BRAVIA to help deliver a high quality picture. To go one step further, the Xperia 1 has a 10-bit equivalent display (8-bit with 2-bit smoothing), supporting a 100% DCI-P3 and BT.2020 (REC.2020) wide colour space.
For camera duties, the Xperia 1 utilises a triple lens camera on its rear (three 12MP camera), which gives some versatility for budding photographers including a super wide-angle option and 2x optical zoom. There is also full manual control of shutter speed and ISO, with up to 30 second exposure. The new Cinema Pro “Powered by CineAlta” and Creator mode will allow users to shoot video in 4K HDR at 24 frames per second in 21:9 format.
A world first in the Xperia 1, is the BIONZ X for mobile allowing the use of Eye AF (Auto Focus) to deliver continuous burst shooting with up to 10 fps AF/AE tracking (Auto Focus and Auto Exposure). Sony also uses RAW noise reduction to deliver even clearer images.
The 12MP triple rear camera array features three different lenses including: 1) a 26mm F1.6 78-degree lens with 1/2.6-inch Exmor RS sensor (1.4μm pixel pitch) with OIS, 2) a 16mm F2.4 135-degree lens with 1/3.4-inch Exmor RS sensor (1.0μm pixel pitch), and 3) a 52mm F2.4 45-degree lens with 1/3.4-inch Exmor RS sensor (1.0μm pixel pitch) with OIS. The front selfie camera has an 8MP 1/4-inch sensor (1.12μm pixel pitch) with 84-degree wide-angle F2.0 lens.
The one area that is likely to disappoint many fans is the use of the 3300mAh battery. It would have been great to see Sony include a bigger battery to handle the 6.5-inch 4K display. Sony is good at optimising its software, but a bigger battery wouldn’t have done any harm.
All of this is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB RAM and 128GB UFS internal storage. The design includes Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on front and back and IP65/IP68 dust and water resistance. On the audio side, Sony uses Dolby Atmos for multi-dimensional sound with the stereo speaker.
Like the Xperia XZ3, the Xperia 1 also supports Side sense with AI – allowing you to select the apps you’re most likely to want to use based on recent usage, time, location and more. Other features include Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB 3.1 Type-C, and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The Xperia 1 has dimensions of 167 x 72 x 8.2mm.
The Xperia 1 will be available in Black, Purple, Grey and White when it launches with Android 9 Pie in late spring 2019.
What are your impressions of the Xperia 1 reveal? Is the device that Sony needed to revive its fortunes? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Via Sony Mobile Blog.
