Sony Xperia 1 VI review

Competition

The ultra-premium smartphone market remains as saturated as ever. Chinese smartphone manufacturers have also entered the camera-centric segment, intensifying the competition there. Until recently, Sony has steered clear of direct competition, opting instead to focus on professional content creators and carving out a unique niche for itself.

However, it's becoming increasingly harder to be the quirky one with some heavy-hitting cameraphones coming out recently. Camera-centric phones are in abundance. Aside from a few exotics like the vivo X100 Pro and the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, you can also get the camera-proficient Xiaomi 14 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which can be found almost everywhere in the world. These are some of the competitors Sony will have to face with its premium pricing strategy.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra • Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max • Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Starting at around €1,400, the Xperia 1 VI is one of the most expensive devices of the bunch, asking even more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. For the extra few hundred bucks, though, you get superior battery life, further zoom reach with the telephoto camera, a tad faster charging and arguably better speakers too. However, The iPhone 15 Pro Max beats the Xperia in every other aspect - camera quality, display brightness, raw performance, sustained performance and potentially build quality.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the other obvious candidate for your hard-earned money and it's now cheaper than the Xperia 1 VI too. It has the better display, same chipset, brings a stylus into the mix, offers longer software update and takes better photos, especially with its ultrawide and telephoto cameras. The only reason to choose the Xperia over the Galaxy is battery life and portability. The two devices are in completely different categories size-wise.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra also beats the Sony in camera performance with a set of carefully selected focal lengths. Plus, it supports telephoto macro mode with auto focus with both of its cameras. The Xperia's nicer speakers and longer battery life will not be enough to sway users but maybe the more compact size of Sony's flagship would.

Verdict

All in all, the Xperia 1 VI is the best Xperia yet. The standard aspect ratio, the lower resolution and the implementation of an LTPO OLED all play a big role in our assessment. The new display is probably the reason why the device got this impeccable battery Active Use Score. We also liked the loud and nicely-tuned speakers, making this phone the ultimate multimedia device.

However, the unremarkable video quality with the zoom camera, the uncompetitive charging speed and the underwhelming performance tuning of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 keep us from giving this phone an excellent score. Especially considering the launch price.

Then again, if you are a photography nerd, you will definitely appreciate the solid hardware at hand here coupled with excellent battery life and various Pro-oriented modes and settings for photos and, eventually, for videos (coming with an update this Fall). Whether that would be enough to give the Sony Xperia lineup the push remains to be seen.

Pros

• Functional and comfortable design.
• Energy-efficient 120Hz LTPO OLED, conventional aspect ratio.
• A single, overhauled camera app for all use cases.
• Unique pro-oriented photography features.
• Extreme telemacro capability.
• Exceptional battery life.
• Great sounding speakers.
• microSD card slot and 3.5mm jack.

Cons

• No charger and no cable in the box.
• Charging speed is behind the curve.
• Chipset's peak and sustained performance are lower than expected.
• The telephoto camera's video performance leaves more to be desired.