Cool. Sony phones are underrated imo
As someone who’s moved from Sony to Xiaomi, I think their flagships are great phones… Going through an identity crisis.
They are heavily marketed towards camera enthusiasts. So much so, that they’ve neglected the automatic camera modes, and the collective wisdom says that to make the most of them you should take photos in Pro Mode.
…which would be great, except for the fact that Sony put a 1" sensor in the Pro-I (well, they technically didn’t use the whole sensor, but still) and never attempted that again. Then you have Xiaomi, Vivo, etc, actually making phones for camera enthusiasts that can, in Pro mode, produce minimally processed images with better quality, as they are the ones using Sony’s best smartphone sensors.
Then you could say it’s marketed at people who want everything on a phone: SD, microphone… But then you have Sony’s recent shift back to 1080p screens. So if that’s what you’re after, 1400€ on a flagship with a 1080p is a tough sell.
If you consider it’s a “flagship for everyone” rather than fitting it into one of the niches above, then the lacking auto mode on cameras and the near-zero spend on marketing materials in Europe and the US makes zero sense.
So… Which one is it? They aren’t exactly cheap so I haven’t been able to buy another Xperia 1 without understanding this. The Xiaomi 14/15 Ultra has many caveats but it is unapologetic about being a smartphone for photography lovers, so I knew full well what I was getting into. As a product, the Xperia 1 VI was thoroughly conflicted.
Can you just buy or download another camera app?
For the Sony? As an “enthusiast” the app is not the problem, the problem is more that the sensor has almost 50% surface area than what you find on a Xiaomi 13/14/15 Ultra, a Vivo X100 Pro / Ultra, Oppo Find X7/X8 Ultra, etc.
The app is a problem if you just want a “point and shoot”, and then you could install a GCam and deal with the hacky bits. However, if that’s what you’re after, you’re likely better off buying a Pixel / Samsung Galaxy anyway.
Another aspect imo is software update policy. I guess now with new EU legislation it should improve, but in the past you got like 2 years OS, 3 security updates? Even on their flagship models.
That’s just terrible, even more so when you weren’t buying them at release.
I think they’ve advertised 4 years OS / 6 years security for 2025’s models.
I fully agree with you it was terrible previously, in fact as low as 2/2 at one point.
Yeah, even when considering them briefly that was an absolute deal breaker to me. 4/6 is still far less than the 7 years you get from Google/Samsung (at least their higher end models) or however long iPhones get updates, but similar to some competitors already mentioned in this thread from Xiaomi or vivo.
And I guess many will upgrade within 6 years anyways, whereas with 2 years it was basically guaranteed that the devices will spend a good part (maybe even a majority) of their lifetime without any software and security updates.
Definitely agree with you.
I wanted to give Sony phones a try, just for the 3.5mm jack alone, but the price was just too steep for me.
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
