BingoTingo Best Place To Gain Knowledge & WP Theme
The Sony Xperia 1 IV was in many ways one of the most interesting phones of 2022, as it has features you won’t find anywhere else.
But it’s also a flawed phone and one with an extremely high price point, so there are definitely changes we’d like to see for the Sony Xperia 1 V, and we’ve listed them below.
Before that, though, we’ve added details on when the Sony Xperia 1 V could be launched, how much it could cost and what specs and features it could have. We haven’t heard much yet, but as more leaks and rumors come in, we’ll be sure to keep this article updated.
Contents
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Sony’s next flagship phone
- When is it out? Probably mid 2023
- How much is it? Expect a very high price
Sony Xperia 1 V: release date and price
Sony hasn’t been very consistent with its Xperia 1 line releases, so we can’t be too sure when the Sony Xperia 1 V will land, especially since there are no rumours.
For reference, the Sony Xperia 1 IV was announced on 11 May 2022 and then hit stores in the UK on 16 June – but the US won’t get it until 1 September and Australia won’t get it at all.
The announcement of the Sony Xperia 1 III was only slightly earlier last year, in April 2021, but the phone didn’t go on sale until August sometime. For the two models before that, we saw an announcement in February and a sale date in May.
So what can we get out of this? The Sony Xperia 1 V is likely to be announced in the first half of 2022. Possibly in May as that would be a year after the Xperia 1 IV, but that’s far from guaranteed.
The actual release date is even harder to guess as there is sometimes a long delay after the announcement, but some regions may get it in or around June, and Australia probably won’t get it at all.
For the price, the Sony Xperia 1 IV costs $1,599 in the US, which gets you a model with 512GB of storage. In the UK there’s only a 256GB version available, and it costs £1,299.99.
So the Sony Xperia 1 V may have a similar price, but we’re not sure. Hopefully it won’t get more expensive anyway, as the Xperia 1 IV is already one of the most expensive non-folding phones you can buy.
Sony Xperia 1 V: news and leaks
There aren’t many Sony Xperia 1 V leaks yet, but we’ve now seen a leaked image that allegedly shows the rear of the phone. You can see this below and it looks a lot like the back of a Sony Xperia 1 IV, except this time all the camera sensors are housed in the camera block.
There are also changes to the selection of available lenses and sensors. It’s still a three-lens camera, but those lenses look bigger, so some or all of them could be new.
There’s also now a hole for what’s presumably a microphone, but there’s no sign of the RGB IR sensor or the ToF (time-of-flight) sensor on the Xperia 1 IV. However, we would take this photo with a grain of salt.
Aside from that, there are indications that the camera could be a major focus for Sony.
For starters, Sony usually puts a lot of focus on its flagship cameras, but on top of that, the company has said it expects smartphone still image quality to surpass that of DSLRs by the end of 2024.
That suggests it expects major improvements to the smartphone’s camera in the coming years, and some of them are likely to be evident in the Sony Xperia 1 V.
One such improvement could be a new sensor – possibly a new 1-inch sensor the company has unveiled, which has already been used in the Xiaomi 12s Ultra, among others.
Sony Xperia 1 V: what we want to see
There are a few key things Sony can do to make the Xperia 1 V significantly better than the Sony Xperia 1 IV. They include the following.
1. A lower price
The Sony Xperia 1 IV is an amazingly expensive phone, with an even higher price tag than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
While it has some specs and features that Samsung’s and Apple’s phones lack, it’s also inferior in some ways, and certainly priced in such a way that it’s likely never to become a truly mainstream handset.
So for the Sony Xperia 1 V we want to see a lower price. This will still be a very expensive phone, of course, but if Sony can knock a few hundred dollars/pounds off the price, it could shift many more units.
2. A better fingerprint sensor
Paying a lot of money doesn’t guarantee a good fingerprint sensor, and that’s the case with the Sony Xperia 1 IV, which has a sensor that we found to fail more often than succeed in our test.
Plus, the phone doesn’t even have an in-screen phone – it’s side-mounted, which feels a little dated. So for the Sony Xperia 1 V, we want the fingerprint sensor to be much more reliable, and preferably also built into the display.
3. More polished software
In our review of the Xperia 1 IV, we found the software wasn’t quite as polished as the hardware, with apps crashing, an unfortunate amount of bloatware and – worst of all – video playback just wouldn’t work on some video recordings. apps.
This stuff can all be fixed with updates, of course, but for the Sony Xperia 1 V we want a slick and smooth experience out of the box.
4. Faster charging
The Sony Xperia 1 IV supports charging up to 30W, which isn’t terrible – in fact it’s beat Apple and most Samsung phones, but it pales in comparison to many other handsets, some of which can now reach up to 150W.
So for the Sony Xperia 1 V, we want a boost in charging power. We’re thinking at least 60W, but the more the better so we can charge the phone quickly.
5. Zoom further away
One of the main features of the Sony Xperia 1 IV is the continuous optical zoom, which allows you to zoom in to anything between 3.5x and 5.2x. This isn’t something you’ll find on other phones, but with such a nice feature we’d like to see Sony make the most of it and increase the zoom level to around 10x like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
That phone offers optical zoom at 3x or 10x, but if Sony can offer optical zoom at any level within that range, then it will beat Samsung – and any other phone maker – on that front.
