Sony Xperia 1 IV review

11 May 2022


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As an owner of 1 II and 1 III, I'm glad to see that Sony finally improved the battery life and selfie camera on 1 IV. However, the fire dragon 8G1, already triggers the overheat warning at 18~22 C, so how about summer? In 2020 nad 2021 summer, both II and III didn't get the overheat issue (and yes, 1 III is hotter than 1 II while photoing). I don't take video much but do like photo. I would wait for the next generation to see more improvements and a cooler processor.

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    • gringo
    • rX}
    • 11 May 2022

    SuuperBaka, 11 May 2022I think I might be upgrading this year, it's a solid p... moredid you read the test ???
    this phone overheats in every usage ...
    read pros & cons again

      Hildr, 11 May 2022The screen is always 4K, all the pixel are still lit, it�... moreSony puts X1 for mobile into 1 series, definitely doing the upscaling trick well.

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        • mXr
        • 11 May 2022

        YUKI93, 11 May 2022I'm also waiting for the Mk4 Xperia 5. If the camera p... moreThat's like saying no need for BMW M3, while 335

        I'm not happy with my Sony Pro-i, I want 800ppi 2160 4k , with 18gb Ram and Xneon flash and ceramic or carbon fibre back or Titanium for extreme heat dissipation and throttling and also 6000mah and 20mb off L3 cache instead off 8mb, and ir blaster, and 2x A76 Arm cores instead off 1

        People love power and spec feutres and torque
        S22ULTRA is selling more than garbage s22, because it has more features and Ram, in Samsung forums thousands have complained for 16gb ram

        Why you worried and don't like 4K, don't speak for others,

          Even though I can still spot some serious corner softness, the primary camera seems to have improved lens quality over that of the Xperia 1 III (which was laughably bad to say the least). It's nice to see Sony listening to the complaints and improving upon what they were lacking.

          I have a decent amount of concerns regarding the new telephoto lens though - as innovative as the technology is, the execution seems to be so flawed that it translates quite poorly in real life. In many of its sample photos, there's barely any difference in sharpness or the amount of details between 3.5x and 5.2x zoom because the lens sharpness is very poor across the frame.

          I find how GSMArena describes this camera in this article questionable - for instance, if it uses the longest possible shutter speed all the time unless the scene is decently lit then you should just as well call it a night mode that cannot be turned off (In fact most other phones' night modes are far more conservative in terms of exposure time). In other articles, GSMArena often complains about the darker rendition of shadows, like when they say they would "take a bit of a boost in the shadows" in the Xiaomi 12 Pro review, but apparently that's not really an issue here for some reason. The way the article describes the UWA camera is also odd, saying that its nighttime shots "look somewhat underexposed - **not that they are**" literally after giving the main camera a shower of praise on its "natural rendition" for its already conservative exposure metering is quite contradictory.

            thats most likely not the box that you get when you buy the phone, since its a review unit from them, from what i heard you'd get a charger in the box.

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              • mXr
              • 11 May 2022

              Sony please bring back the boxy rectangular sharp corners like the Sony Z5, XZP, XZ1C Z1 design back , just like Samsung copied from Note10 and S22ULTRA and ZTE40, and Nokia Lumia series.

              hate curved edges

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                • OnePlus User
                • Gxb
                • 11 May 2022

                LOL, 11 May 2022Great hardware, terrible software and postprocessing, no ni... moreI can only dream of that day. Sony Pixel would be light years ahead of other phones.

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                  • mXr
                  • 11 May 2022

                  AnonD-546724, 11 May 2022The whole 4K screen is just bragging rights The phone i... moreNot true, I have the Pro-i and YouTube premium I pay £12 monthly.
                  I have the S22ultra, and watching 2160p 4k videos on both you can tell the difference, the Sony is much detail more vibrant and sharo resolution and no loses off pixels when zooming

                    Anonymous, 11 May 2022How is S22 Ultra charging significantly faster at 25 W than... moreBecause 25 and 30w are only the peak not 0 to 100%

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                      • Anonymous
                      • mA{
                      • 11 May 2022

                      On youtube tests against s22 ultra and 13 pro max doesn't seems to be ahead at all. I suspect that others are on par or better also.
                      Maybe with some updates will get better.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • iF4
                        • 11 May 2022

                        Tann Hauser, 11 May 2022Serious improvement in every single aspect of content creat... moreAre you able to finally be honest about their camera processing from previous phones, though? This is the first Sony phone _ever_ to have decent processing. You, and other similarly biased users of this site, have claimed over the years how Sony had the best camera of each year, even though the reviews clearly pointed out the flaws. This is the only one that comes close to being the best available phone camera image processing, doesn't have major issues.

                        Battery life isn't quite good enough to cover the slow-as-hell charging, but overall it seems they finally made a decent phone (way overpriced, though - like many other phones recently)! That's something I thought never would happen. Weird times.

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                          • AnonD-546724
                          • 8p3
                          • 11 May 2022

                          B52, 11 May 2022Finally, Sony put a superb camera in their flagship! And t... morePrice tag is relevant considering the on-board innovation & features.

                          That's the first exciting & innovating device we've seen on GSMA in ages.
                          It's neither boring nor generic.

                          You can tell it was designed by a team of people who is freed from sales targets.
                          They don't care to appeal to the maximum number of people (Which can only be achieved with boring & generic devices).

                          They're just out there doing their own thing, designing and crafting devices out of pure engineering passion, for us engineering enthusiasts.
                          I love that, I think that's beautiful, and I'm 100% buying one.

                          Just hope they hired in the logistics dept so I can get one before 2023

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                            • IRT
                            • 3pC
                            • 11 May 2022

                            LOL, 11 May 2022Great hardware, terrible software and postprocessing, no ni... moreDo you have one? Xperia 1 III definitely has a night mode, so I'm sure the IV has one as well.

                              Anonymous, 11 May 2022That's not the explanation. So Sony is advertising 30 ... moreIt is an explanation, has been an explanation for 5 years now.

                              Battery charging AI preventing battery overheating.

                              And Last 10% charges much slowly than other OEM phones.
                              Dont compare charging speeds to other OEM phones ,but to previous Xperia same model. It charges faster.

                              Benefit?
                              Sonys way of charging Keeps the battery at near 100% health, for 3 yrs minimum.
                              You dont get that from other phones.
                              Cost?
                              Slower daily charging.

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                                • AnonD-546724
                                • 8p3
                                • 11 May 2022

                                Anonymous, 11 May 2022I'm gonna be completely honest, I'm disappointed ... moreYeah right because S22U comes with a charger, of course.

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                                  • ExXperiaUser
                                  • mJe
                                  • 11 May 2022

                                  Does it still feels like hot immersion rod after 10 mins of call like Z1 ,Z3 ?

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                                    • Wertzius
                                    • p%R
                                    • 11 May 2022

                                    Anonymous, 11 May 2022That's not the explanation. So Sony is advertising 30 ... moreThere is a difference between maximum rated charging speed and average charging speed. The charging curves are important.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 64i
                                      • 11 May 2022

                                      "So, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the first alternative that comes to mind. The 256GB flagship Galaxy costs as much and impresses with one really bright and large Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel and an integrated S-Pen. The S22 Ultra offers excellent photo and video quality across the board, and it has two tele cameras - one for 3x and another one for 10x optical zoom. Its rendering is not as natural as Sony's, but the Night Mode, the 10x high-quality optical zoom, the better portraits, and the 8K videos, among many other tricks, may tip the scales for mainstream users. Not everyone needs to shoot like a Pro with Pro-oriented apps, which takes away some of the features like 4K60 mode that other phones offer in their basic apps."

                                      You basically explained why this phone doesn't make make much sense - except for a very small group of people who need to use the Pro app, S22 Ultra is basically a superior device in pretty much every aspect... Why such a high rating 4.4 then? Sometimes I feel like even reviewers are fanboying Sony a bit, I guess out of fear of Sony LG'ing itself...

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                                        • AnonD-546724
                                        • 8p3
                                        • 11 May 2022

                                        Hildr, 11 May 2022The screen is always 4K, all the pixel are still lit, it�... moreThat's called downscaling, and no, it's doesn't turn half the pixels black.
                                        You can downscale resolutions while keeping all your pixels lit.

                                        No way this phone would pull 100h on the battery test with 4K @ 120hz.
                                        4K is triggered by 4K content, that's it, and that's perfectly fine.
                                        Most apps can't even run in 4K so 4K 24/7 wouldn't make sense.
                                        You can have your 643PPi once you have content that can exploit them.

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