Sony Xperia 1 V review

Android 13 with clean Xperia UI

The Sony Xperia 1 V boots Android 13 skinned with the most recent version of the Xperia UI, which got a very stock Android feel, though there are in-house bits if you look deep enough.

Starting with some of the basics, there's an always-on display feature (AOD) that goes by Google's Ambient display name and has a fairly limited set of customization options.

The lockscreen is business as usual with a clock (that you can customize), a shortcut to the camera and another one for Google Assistant.

Always on display • Always on display • Always on display • Lockscreen

The homescreen, too, is as standard as they come. The Google feed is the leftmost pane, but you can disable it if it's not your thing. The quick toggles/notification area is Google's stock too. With this version of Android, you get Notification history, and the Bubbles shortcuts as part of the Conversations features - both available on the Xperia, unlike some more heavily customized UIs.

Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Quick toggles • Notification settings

The Android OS is highly customizable via the Wallpaper and Style menu. Here you can choose from a number of static and live wallpapers. A cool thing about the live option are the various effects that are applied to the wallpapers in real-time - for example, a cool disturbance during charging.

You can choose from the typical color palettes, depending on the wallpaper. You can customize them, too. And you can opt for Themed Icons - the system icons will match the color palette, but the feature is still in beta and may not always work as intended.

Wallpaper and style • Wallpaper and style • wallpapers • wallpapers • change system icons

This brings us to one of the Sony exclusives, which deserves a mention even though it's not new - Multi-window switch. You can access it from the task switcher or from the dedicated shortcut icon on the homescreen, and you get sort of like two stacked task switcher rolodexes with your currently opened apps to pick one for the top half and one for the bottom half of the screen. The rightmost pane in each half lets you launch another app, not just pick from the already running ones.

The phone remembers three previously used pairs, so you can access them directly. It's worth mentioning that the window split can be done in almost any arbitrary ratio, not just 50/50.

Task switcher • Multi-window switcher • Pop-up window

Side sense is another of the in-house Sony features. A handle on the side of the phone opens up a menu of shortcuts to apps and features, most of them user-configurable. The 21:9 multi-window pairs can be customized here, but they don't go into the three pair shortcuts in the regular task switcher. A recent addition to the menu is a widget to control the Sony headphones app - handy if you have a set of those.

Side sense

There's a fairly standard set of gestures for call handling, as well as a one-handed mode and smart backlight control. It's in this menu that you'll find the navigation options with the two basic types available - gestures or a navbar.

Gesture settings

Pros can enjoy the occasional game too, so the Xperia has Sony's Game Enhancer as part of its software package. It's a comprehensive utility with two main interfaces - a game hub/launcher, and an overlay you pull out from the side while in a game.

Game Enhancer

Performance profiles (or Game Mode) can be set on a per-game basis, and it's here that you get to set the screen refresh rate and lock it at 120Hz regardless of whether the game supports it (though you will still get 60fps if the game does not support HFR). Additional sliders let you select Touch response speed and touch tracking accuracy.

Game Enhancer

There is also a 240Hz setting, which inserts a black frame between each 120Hz frame. This reduces the blur, and Sony recommends using this option in games that support 120fps.

There is also H.S. power control - a setting that deals with power management. When the feature is enabled (look for it in Settings while in-game), and the phone is plugged in, it won't actually charge the battery but will only essentially meet your current power consumption so as to avoid unnecessary heat generation - H.S. stands for Heat Suppression.

The Focus setting is an array of toggles that let you disable pesky notifications, turn off adaptive brightness, disable the camera button and the side sense functionality - limit distractions.

There are also screenshot and video capture features.

The phone uses Google's own Photos and Files for gallery and file management purposes. It does come with Sony's own Music player, though.

Music • Music • Photos • Photos

Bravia Core has been exclusive to Bravia TVs until last year. It offers a rich Sony Classics movie catalog, and you can also watch a few of the blockbuster titles for free on a trial basis. The service offers movies up to 4K60 quality, and some titles even have MAX enhanced audio. And the best part is that you get 1-year free access to Bravia Core with your new Xperia 1 V (the offer is market dependent).

Sony's Music Pro is a paid service that allows you to record singing and instruments and upload this recording to the cloud for processing. The audio will then get processed as if you've used a high-quality condenser mic in the acoustic environment of a professional studio. New for the Xperia 1 V is the support for piano and podcast types.

Bravia Core • Music Pro

The Creators app that allows easy connection to Sony Alpha cameras is also available.

Creators app

Performance and benchmarks

The Sony Xperia 1 V uses the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, the mainstream version, not the one exclusive to Samsung. It is coupled with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS (probably 4.0) storage chips.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 packs an octa-core processor with one prime core, four performance ones (2+2), and three efficient cores, a.k.a. 1+2+2+3 configuration. This means the CPU contains 1x3.2GHz Cortex-X3 + 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2x2.8GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.0GHz Cortex-A510 CPU cores.

Then there is the Adreno 740 GPU - the most capable mobile GPU on the market right now.

There is only one model of the Sony Xperia 1 V, and it packs 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone offers microSD expansion, probably the only top-tier smartphone to do it.

And now, let's run some tests.

The Xperia 1 V and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset do very well on the CPU tests, and you can tell the phone has the latest technology even if its scores didn't top the chart (still in the same ballpark as the rest of the SD8G2 devices).

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  5049
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  4927
• OnePlus 11
  4899
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  4759
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  4652
• vivo X90 Pro
  4273
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  4096
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  3608
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  3448
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  3403

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1537
• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  1477
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  1459
• vivo X90 Pro
  1387
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  1313
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  1233
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  1166
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  1160
• OnePlus 11
  1150
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  1060

GeekBench 6 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  5556
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  5082
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  5077
• OnePlus 11
  5043
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  4916
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  4422
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  3913

GeekBench 6 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  2000
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  1956
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1913
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  1758
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  1532
• OnePlus 11
  1527
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  1399

The same goes for the GPU scores. Do bear in mind that the Xperia 1 V ran the GPU tests at 1,096 x 2,560 resolution, which gave it an edge over 1440p-packing devices like the Samsung and Xiaomi Ultra models.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia 1 V
  71
• vivo X90 Pro
  68
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  60
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  56
• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  55
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  55
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  54
• OnePlus 11
  53
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  51
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  31

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  69
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  69
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  68
• OnePlus 11
  68
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  54
• vivo X90 Pro
  54
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  51
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  48
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  38
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  26

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia 1 V
  96
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  74
• vivo X90 Pro
  74
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  67
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  65
• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  63
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  63
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  60
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  60
• OnePlus 11
  57

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  129
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  126
• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  126
• OnePlus 11
  126
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  113
• vivo X90 Pro
  105
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  104
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  101
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  79
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  70

The compound AnTuTu 9 tests puts the Xperia 1 V on par with the OnePlus 11 and close to the rest of the SD8G2 gang.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X6 Pro
  1294797
• Xiaomi 13 Ultra
  1268538
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
  1241531
• vivo X90 Pro
  1228735
• OnePlus 11
  1140661
• Sony Xperia 1 V
  1127931
• Huawei P60 Pro (perf. mode)
  1031328
• OnePlus 11R 5G
  953897
• Sony Xperia 1 IV
  838832
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  835038

The Xperia 1 V features the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset by Qualcomm, par for the course for any self-respecting flagship.

The previous Sony Xperia models have been known for their notorious overheating and throttling, and not only for the chipset but for the display as well.

Sony claims it has worked on that, and the new Snapdragon chip, combined with an improved thermal sheet will offer reduced power consumption and better heat dissipation.

We have explored this extensively, and there is both good and bad news. Let's start with the bad one.

The CPU and GPU stress tests haven't improved since the Xperia 1 IV - that is the bad news. The Xperia 1 V scored 53% stability, which is not bad - you can see the CPU locked at about 60% performance after the first 15 or so minutes.

The GPU test is unimpressive with 45% stability - the throttling began after 6 minutes of running at peak GPU performance.

CPU test • GPU test

Now, the good news.

First, the Xperia 1 V never became hot, warm - yes, but never uncomfortably hot.

Second, there is no display throttling; the screen refresh rate remained at 120Hz even after prolonged benchmark testing.

And third, the most important news is no more camera overheating! It was incredibly awful for a cameraphone to overheat after just 5 minutes of 4K video recording (Xperia 1 IV, we're looking at you), but that's a thing of the past. The Xperia 1 V is not even warm after shooting for 30mins in 4K, which is excellent news.

The camera overheating warnings are still there in the menus for some features, but we never experienced them, and we hope you will never do, as well.

We played a game for half an hour, too, and the Xperia 1 V was not hot and did not throttle, not obviously, at least. That's why we think most gamers and photographers alike would be happy with the improved thermals even if this was not reflected in the synthetic tests.