Sony Xperia 1 V review

Daylight photo quality

The main camera saves 12MP binned photos, and those are among the best we've seen from a smartphone. Alright, we have written that a bunch of times in the past few months as we have reviewed some of the best cameraphones on the market. And yet it's also valid for the Xperia 1 V and its camera(s), even if it doesn't have a 1"-type sensor.

The daylight samples we took with the Xperia 1 V offer abundant detail, even in the extreme corners, and there is no visible noise. The white balance is spot-on across all scenes, and the colors are accurate.

The dynamic range is very good, though on some of the photos, the contrast could be higher. On these photos (the first image below for instance, and a few others), the highlights appear pushed down and not as bright as they could be. A quick look at the histogram confirms this. It's not related to the new sensor, because it's also visible on the ultra-wide camera as well.

Still, Sony's mature image processing deserves huge praise - everything is rendered in a very natural way, especially the fine, intricate details. There is no over-sharpening, unnaturally popping colors, or unrealistic dynamic range.

Main camera, 12MP

The higher resolution of the sensor could help for higher-quality zoom, in theory. We shot a few 2x zoomed photos, and those look cropped and upscaled from the default 1x output. There is some smoothing, which did not reduce the overall quality (as opposed to heavy over-sharpening on some competitors), but the processing is not enough to be considered lossless. The resolved detail is obviously less.

2x zoom main camera, 12MP

The ultrawide camera (12MP, large 1.4µm pixels) and photo quality are identical to the Xperia 1 IV's. The 12MP photos from this imager offer plenty of detail, excellent sharpness, and proficient noise reduction. The white balance and the color rendition are consistently accurate.

The contrast is high in most photos, except the ones where the highlights oddly are suppressed (look again at the first image but also a few others).

Sony's processing is evident on the ultrawide camera, too, as everything, from foliage to buildings and cars, looks true to life. Even the most demanding scenes gave us lovely photos. Oh, and the extreme corners are also processed and straightened out very well.

Ultrawide camera, 12MP

Even though the ultrawide camera supports autofocus, it cannot do macro as its minimal focus distance is about 20cm or so.

You will find two fixed zoom shortcuts on the viewfinder - 3.5x and 5.2x, but you can use any zoom level in between. Optical zooming starts at 3.5x with an f/2.3 aperture and ends at 5.2x with an f/2.8 aperture. You can go north of 5.2x zoom, of course, and there is a 10x shortcut visible, but everything beyond 5.2x is digital zoom.

Let's talk about the 3.5x zoom first.

The telephoto camera has the smallest sensor among all four cameras, and that's why its photos have the least impressive level of detail and absolute sharpness. The detail is enough, don't get us wrong, but it's just adequate.

The rest of the image properties are as excellent as on the other cameras - the dynamic range is great, the colors are accurate, and the noise is minimal. The contrast is very good, too - unlike with the main camera, the highlights are nice and bright.

The rendition is solid, though there are spots where you can see the detail out-resolving the sensor, and hence - some detail gets smeared.

Tele camera 3.5x zoom, 12MP

Each zoom level you go up from 3.5x will introduce a minor drop in detail and sharpness. The least detailed photos naturally come from the farthest zoom available - 5.2x. Let's explore them now.

Their colors, dynamic range, contrast and rendition are a match to the 3.5x zoomed images, though the resolved detail is a tiny bit less, and so is the sharpness. We are glad that Sony didn't try to mask that with excessive over-sharpening, and the photos are still very good for 5.2x magnification.

Tele camera 5.2x zoom, 12MP

Honestly, the breakthrough continuous optical zoom, it isn't much of a big deal when going from 3.5x to 5.2x. In fact, we are pretty sure a similar level of quality could have been achieved by cropping and upscaling from the 3.5x photos. This technology would definitely make sense if it went from 5x to, say, 10x, or 3.5x to 7x. But it's rather pointless at this small magnification scale, and we don't see its benefits at the current level of image quality.

And here are some 10x zoomed photos, which are cropped and upscaled from the 5.2x ones. The presented detail is quite poor.

Tele camera 10x zoom, 12MP

There is no dedicated portrait mode on the Xperia 1 V, and this year, the ToF sensor has been retired in favor of an AI-powered depth map. The Bokeh option is present, of course, and it's the mode we used to shoot some portraits.

The ones we took with the main camera offer outstanding subject separation, so we can see why Sony felt confident to ditch the ToF camera. The bokeh is quite nice, too.

The subject in the photos is well-exposed, detailed, and colorful. The noise is low, if any, and the dynamic range is wide enough.

Portraits, main camera

The portraits we took with the telephoto camera are somewhat unimpressive. The detail is average at best, even low at times, and the photos are a bit brighter than they should be. The separation and the faux blur are great, but the photos in general are just average.

Portraits, tele camera

Finally, the 12MP photos from the front camera are top-notch - there is plenty of detail and great sharpness, the colors are accurate, and the dynamic range is wide. The rendition is quite natural, and the subject is well-exposed. Sometimes HDR kicks in, too, and restores parts of the blown background.

Selfies, 12MP

Low-light photo quality

Low-light photography has gotten a massive boost since the Xperia 1 IV. First - the new sensor is capable of capturing double the light and reducing noise in the meantime. Furthermore, Sony has enabled Night View, or Night Mode, but it is automatic and works only in the darkest of environments.

The Night View, if triggered, adds additional 1s or 2s to the 4s needed to capture a regular photo. Yes, no matter if there is Night View or not, the Xperia 1 V needs about 4s to capture a photo. There is an indicator for the Night View, but it is not shown in the Basic photo mode, only in Auto and Pro.

The Night View triggered for the first four scenes and not for the other five. It doesn't work exactly as on the competing smartphones coming from Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi. It's more like HDR - it offers better highlight retention and sometimes - brighter sky. And that's about it.

So, the photos taken with the Auto Night View are incredibly good - they are rich in detail, some of the sharpest we've seen, and the noise is impressively low. The color saturation is lovely, and the dynamic range is good.

The natural rendition is notable once again, and every photo looks just right without any excessive overprocessing or over-sharpening.

Main camera, Auto Night View

And these are Night View OFF photos, counterparts of the scenes where the Night View actually triggered. Here you can see the blown highlights and, sometimes - the slightly darker skies. The rest is a close match to the Night View output.

Main camera, Night View OFF

And here are some 2x zoomed photos from the main camera. While they are nothing special, it is one of the better digital zoom outputs we've seen, so should you happen to use 2x zoom, or similar, you won't be disappointed. Sure, the detail is less than on the default images, but still enough for night photography.

2x zoom, Auto Night View

Moving on to the ultrawide camera. Here Night View triggered in the scenes, and it does the same as on the primary camera - restores blown highlights, but also brightness the skies and may also expose some detail in the shadows. All of these goodies, at the expense of some minor noise spike.

So, the Auto NV ultrawide photos are superb - they are well-exposed, with good detail level, adequate sharpness and wide enough dynamic range. The color saturation is great, too. As we mentioned, the Night View photos are a bit noisy, but nothing that intrusive.

Ultrawide camera, Auto Night View

The ultrawide photos taken with disabled Night View are noise-free and a bit more detailed. Their dynamic range is narrower, though, and there are blown highlights, but their overall look is a bit darker.

If you don't like the noise in the default ultrawide photo, just disable the Auto Night View, and you will get the desired improvement.

Ultrawide camera, Night View OFF

The 3.5x zoomed photos from the telephoto camera taken with Auto Night View are good. There is enough detail and good exposure, excellent color saturation and overall good dynamic range. The noise reduction is gentle - hence the retained detail and good sharpness - and we don't find the visible noise that intrusive.

Some of the photos have a bit washed-out look, and this is where the Night View actually triggered.

Tele cam 3.5x zoom, Auto Night View

And here are the Night View OFF samples; you can compare them with their Night View counterparts in the batch above. The NV OFF images are a bit sharper and more detailed, though with a narrower dynamic range and darker skies.

Tele cam 3.5x zoom, Night View OFF

The same goes for the 5.2x zoomed photos - they are a bit noisy, but otherwise with sufficient detail and good colors and dynamic range. The washed-out look is present on the Night View samples.

And just like with the daylight photos, the low-light ones also exhibit a minor drop in the detail and absolute sharpness when increasing the zoom to 5.2x.

Tele cam 5.2x zoom, Auto Night View

Turning the Night View OFF will offer darker but sharper photos.

Tele cam 5.2x zoom, Night View OFF

Here are photos of our usual posters, taken with the Sony Xperia 1 V. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Sony Xperia 1 V against the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and the vivo X90 Pro in our Photo compare tool