The device was unavailable for about a month due to faulty circuit boards in some units. About a month ago, Sony initiated a replacement program for its...
I really wish they would ditch the elongated display ratio. It’s wasted space in landscape 99% of the time, makes the top of the display inaccessible with one hand and the phone unnecessarily large in your pocket. The premium on these could be justified when all the features hit that mark but this is poor human ux.
They did, but I honestly preferred the old version. I swapped recently from a 1ii (21:9) to 1vii (19.5:9).
I now can’t reliably use the phone one-handed and reach the entire way across the display with my thumb, which feels like a much bigger usability issue. Being unable to reach the top was mitigated by side-of-screen gestures that allowed access to the notification bar without reaching to the top of the display, so it was never actually a problem.
While I can indeed now reach the top of the screen with my thumb, the phone is wide enough that I can’t firmly hold it while doing so, which really isn’t an improvement if I’m liable to drop the damn thing.
The other thing I can also no longer do is watch a video and use another app at the same time; previously you could have a full-screen-width 16:9 video at the top of the screen, an app with an actually usable amount of height in the middle and the keyboard at the bottom and interact with everything. There’s just not enough room for all three with the shorter aspect, the video always getting scrolled halfway off the screen when opening the keyboard.
Curiously, have you actually owned one of the earlier 21:9 models? Because I’ve noticed the absolutely overwhelming majority of “complaints” come from people who’ve never actually tried it, but my experience is you hand someone your (21:9) phone and every time they make a positive comment about it.
Losing these “unique” features is also the thing that is probable to kill Sony phones for good. Without some point of differentiation they’ll become another “also-ran”, selling devices that are otherwise similar to their competitors but cost more. That isn’t sustainable long term. Just ask LG, HTC, or any other non-Samsung Android manufacturer who’s no longer with us.
I really wish they would ditch the elongated display ratio. It’s wasted space in landscape 99% of the time, makes the top of the display inaccessible with one hand and the phone unnecessarily large in your pocket. The premium on these could be justified when all the features hit that mark but this is poor human ux.
They did though? My 1 VI is a standard smartphone form factor
They did, but I honestly preferred the old version. I swapped recently from a 1ii (21:9) to 1vii (19.5:9).
I now can’t reliably use the phone one-handed and reach the entire way across the display with my thumb, which feels like a much bigger usability issue. Being unable to reach the top was mitigated by side-of-screen gestures that allowed access to the notification bar without reaching to the top of the display, so it was never actually a problem.
While I can indeed now reach the top of the screen with my thumb, the phone is wide enough that I can’t firmly hold it while doing so, which really isn’t an improvement if I’m liable to drop the damn thing.
And to be clear, this is with a very small real-world difference in size. If you look at GSM Arena’s size comparison tool, the actual difference is only 3.1mm (1.9%) shorter, and 2.9mm (4.1%) wider: https://www.gsmarena.com/size-compare-3d.php3?idPhone1=13843&idPhone2=10096
The other thing I can also no longer do is watch a video and use another app at the same time; previously you could have a full-screen-width 16:9 video at the top of the screen, an app with an actually usable amount of height in the middle and the keyboard at the bottom and interact with everything. There’s just not enough room for all three with the shorter aspect, the video always getting scrolled halfway off the screen when opening the keyboard.
Curiously, have you actually owned one of the earlier 21:9 models? Because I’ve noticed the absolutely overwhelming majority of “complaints” come from people who’ve never actually tried it, but my experience is you hand someone your (21:9) phone and every time they make a positive comment about it.
Losing these “unique” features is also the thing that is probable to kill Sony phones for good. Without some point of differentiation they’ll become another “also-ran”, selling devices that are otherwise similar to their competitors but cost more. That isn’t sustainable long term. Just ask LG, HTC, or any other non-Samsung Android manufacturer who’s no longer with us.
This. I used to have a Moto Z which was regular 16:9 and you could actually type in landscape and actually see the textbox with that.
Sony 1 VI switched to a standard form factor