Sony Xperia 1 IV Launched with the World’s Best Smartphone Camera

Sony's product launch event kicked off an hour ago, when the Japanese phone maker unveiled the mid-range Xperia 10 IV with its latest flagship phone, the Xperia 1 IV.

The Xperia 1 IV improves photography, videos, movies, music and games, and shares some features with the Xperia Pro and Pro-I.

Let's see what it is.

Design and Display

Starting with the screen, it's a 6.5-inch 4K AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color, HDR10 +, and 50% more brightness than the previous generation.  This makes it one of the rare flagship phones with 4K screen while most other phones are limited to 2K.  Front and rear have Gorilla Glass Vect Protection, IP68 Water Resistance, and Side Mounted Fingerprint Sensor.

It even has a 3.5mm headphone jack unlike other flagship phones these days.

Internals and Storage

Internals are powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, paired with just a 12GB RAM option.  Storage is 256GB and this time there is no mention of 512GB model.  There is still an SD card slot for storage expansion, which is rare in flagship phones.

The phone runs pure Android 12 out of the box.

Cameras

Sony is once again sticking with 12MP for all three cameras.  The main camera is based on 1 / 1.7 inch sensor with OIS and 24mm lens.  Ultra wide sensor is 1/2 inch unit with autofocus.  The 1 / 3.5 inch telephoto sensor has OIS and AF with continuous zoom capabilities with 3.5-5x optical zoom.

This camera setup is capable of recording 4K video with 120 frames per second.

Thanks to the new 1 / 2.9 "ExmorRS sensor, the 8MP selfie camera has been upgraded to 12MP since last year. It is also capable of 4K video recording with HDR, but it is limited to 30 frames per second.

Battery and Pricing

Sony increased battery capacity from 4,500 mAh to 5,000 mAh last year.  There is also support for 30W fast charging which can fill a dead battery up to 50% in 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, there is no charger in the retail box.

The Sony Xperia IV will go on sale in June for an astonishing €1,400.  It will be available in black, gray and white color options.

Sony Xperia IV Specifications

• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• CPU: Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.40 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.70 GHz Cortex-A510)
• GPU: Adreno 730
• OS: Android 12
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G
• Display:
  • 6.5″ OLED with 1644 x 3840 pixels resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color, HDR10+
• Memory:
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Internal: 256GB
  • Card slot: yes
• Camera:
  • Rear (Quad): 12 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.7″, 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.3, 85mm (telephoto), f/2.8, 125mm (telephoto), 1/3.5″, Dual Pixel PDAF, 3.5x-5.2x optical zoom, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.2, 124˚, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.5″, Dual Pixel PDAF
    0.3 MP, TOF 3D, (depth)
  • Front: 12MP
• Colors: Black, Grey, White
• Fingerprint sensor: Side-mounted
• Battery: 5,000 mAh, 30W fast charging
• Price: €1,400