Sony Xperia 1 VII review
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- Chris T.
- St{
- 13 May 2025
Honestly, pretty much one of the s(h)ame, especially at such high price!
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- S
- EqZ
- 13 May 2025
EugenM, 13 May 2025I can't believe Sony with talks about AI didnt freakin... moreHas to do with the sensor size. 1vi and 1vii sensor size is 1/3.5" which is quite small for 2025. I hope Sony will increase the sensor size of their zoom cams next year, to at least 1/2.0". Then 1ix will be an excellent smartphone. 😊
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- User935
- ijy
- 13 May 2025
Anonymous, 13 May 2025You know you can register multiple fingerprints so why are ... moreBecause I am human and we don't have any finger that can close to naturally be used to tap on the display in such an angle that the garbage underdisplay sensor recognizes it and unlocks.
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- EX SONY Misery
- 6wL
- 13 May 2025
same stupid phone from 2013
same shit camera from 2013.
same shit processing from 2013. sony is out.
same engineers with the same stupid camera execrable. look at vivo, oppo, samsung and others.
sony is out. just a garbage of camera with a tons of prices.
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- WhatMatters
- EqZ
- 13 May 2025
When Samsung launched S25U, it upgraded the ultra wide came from 12M to 50M, and left main and telephoto cams unchanged. It also downgraded functionality of the S-pen. Your review rating for S25U remained at 4.6 stars, same as S24U.
When Sony launched Xperia 1vii today, it also upgraded the ultra wide came from 12M to 50M, and left main and telephoto cams unchanged. Your review even said it's one of the best ultra wide cams.
Yet your review rating for 1vii was downgraded from 4.5 stars (1vi) to 4.3 stars.
Do I detect a certain bias for Samsung and against Sony?
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- PcM
- i8u
- 13 May 2025
The telephoto shots look (much) better compared to last year Xperia VI. Please make a comparison session between the two. It'd have been nice to have a larger battery though.
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- kvgel
- 0xy
- 13 May 2025
Been using xperias (from 5II to I V) for quite some time. As I am a professional photographer, these were the perfect phones for reviewing work, quick workflow and some occasional mobile photography. Bus ever since mk VI, when sony dropped the worderful 4K screen and hit the brakes on photography advancements, I was forced to switch brands. I would really like to come back to sony. The form factor and no nonsense android was great. But for now, xiamoni ultra 14 works for me (although quite ugly). Hope to see a sony with a proper "1 camera and a 4k screen in the near future.. as for now, I am disappointed
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- Ottonis
- JHh
- 13 May 2025
First of all: I always liked the concept ot the Sony Xperia line: sleek design, comfortable to hold in your palm, very natural rendering of their cameras, long battery life (mark vi providing one of the highest battery life scores ever recorded), and of course: the SDXC card slot which provides a memory extension possibility that is just obligatory in every videocentric cameraphone used by creators.
That being said, the mark vii seems like a "net-downgrade": 2 steps advanced and 3 steps backwards: better SoC, much better UWA camera module, but worse battery life and probably one of the worst thermal throttling performances ever observed (going down to like 50%).
And they are falling behind the competition in terms of telephoto performance. While a Xiaomi 15 Ultra offers just mind-blowing 3.5x optical tele performance with a large 1/1.4" sensor sitting behind a bright lens, Sony is playing games with the puny 1/3.5" sensor and a optical zoom lens, which - from an engineering point of view - might be a marvel, but from the perspective of photography it just delivers subpar sharpness and too low of photon catching capabilities.
So, all things considered, if the predecessor (mark vi) can be had for like 900 EUR, then it would definitely be the better price-performance-ratio than the new mark vii at around 1400-1500 EUR.
And I am saying this with sadness, because I really wanted Sony to make the Mark VII a winner.
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- Anonymous
- iAB
- 13 May 2025
Outdated specs, unimpressive specs in almost any category, a former flagship in the mid-range now. My 7y old XA2 has better dpi 424 vs 396 of this 'flagship'. So this is it? The end of Xperia Era? Xperia joins Vaio? But I will buy it, if priced reasonably as a mid-range, as the last Sony smartphone.
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- Anonymous
- vV5
- 13 May 2025
Nick Tegrataker, 13 May 2025"my garbage S23 with its underdisplay sensor and it mo... moreUsing a Samsung phone with an optical sensor and it works fine.
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- Anonymous
- vV5
- 13 May 2025
User935, 13 May 2025I didn't expect such nonsense from GSMArena, but ok...... moreYou know you can register multiple fingerprints so why are you performing acrobatics with an underdisplay sensor???
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- Bobber
- mE0
- 13 May 2025
Where's the PWM results??
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- Anonymous
- pQ7
- 13 May 2025
Kuba, 13 May 2025I prefer jack and sd card over any AI useless gimmicks.and non-AI gimmicks, like slightly more conductive solder?
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- Anonymous
- pjh
- 13 May 2025
Well, I am seriously considering to get a Sony after my old S20 dies. I kept this old S20 since the time for the simple fact there is a memory card reader, yes, 512Gb and I was planning to upgrade to 2Tb.
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- Marxone
- 0yS
- 13 May 2025
Now I want to see a tear down of this phone if it is at least good on repairability/durability scale. Feature list covers all I want but not sure if I can justify expected 1200€ inc. tax for this.
I hoped for 1Hz iddle for the display and a bit better camera setup. Not sure how popular this model of Xperia will be between rom modders. I already know Sony's sw will be piece of goo so dev community for the rescue or bust.
- YUKI93
- KZK
- 13 May 2025
Anon, 13 May 2025Is this real? the battery performance is WORSE than last ye... moreMy guess is that it's still using Li-Ion battery, just like Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The likes of Xiaomi 15 Ultra, Oppo Find X8 Ultra, and vivo iQOO 13 fares much better because of the newer silicon carbide battery.
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- RecoveringSonyFanboy
- awU
- 13 May 2025
They seemed to have taken to conformity where it isn't needed and neglecting where it is. Sony was amongst the first manufacturers to even have waterproofing in their phones now they can't match the industry standard for flagships. The competitors have caught on to the shutter button, so it is no longer a USP for sony. They removed the notification led to nobody's liking, especially not to ye olde sony fans. The side mounted fingerprint needs to go in the way of the dodo it isn't overly convenient and limits the options of using some phone cases. All of that delivered at a price point that gutt wrenchingly surpasses even iphone is just a lose lose situation both for the average potential flagship consumers and the sony enthusiasts.
-bring back notifaction led
-under-screen fingerprint scanner is the clear winner for phones
-at least match the years of software support with your price point to compete with other manufacturers that provide more for less (7 years)
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- Boldpixel
- fnY
- 13 May 2025
That ultrawide looks usable. I find android ultrawide just poor. Only the oneplus 12 had a decent one so far. Nice to see another. Why is the throttling always so bad XD. Still a nice phone if you don't have the 1 VI already.
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- Nick Tegrataker
- Xpg
- 13 May 2025
User935, 13 May 2025I didn't expect such nonsense from GSMArena, but ok...... more"my garbage S23 with its underdisplay sensor and it more often than not just doesn't want to unlock."
You see, the problem here is the fact that you're using S23, not that you're using a phone with an under-display FPS - I'm saying this as a fellow S23 Ultra user lol.
Phones from Xiaomi, Honor, and BBK don't seem to have any issues with FPS accuracy or speed, but embarrassingly enough Galaxy flagships have been struggling a ton in this regard. I prefer an under-display FPS over a side-mounted one because I wouldn't have to pinch the chassis every time I want to unlock the phone on a table. To me it just feels a lot more natural.