Sony Xperia 1 VII review

Competition

The Xperia 1 VII faces a tough crowd of top-performing high-end phones from all corners of the market, whether it's 'traditional' global competitors from Apple and Samsung, or camera-centric heavyweights from China that have also been happy to go international.

Indeed, if you want a particularly great cameraphone, you'd probably be best off looking at something like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the Oppo Find X8 Pro, or the vivo X200 Pro (going Ultra with the last two means Chinese software, unfortunately). Any of these options will give you vastly superior telephoto results than what the Xperia can muster (at long and short distances alike, mind you), and their main cameras are at least as good as that on the Sony, possibly better. The Sony's counter argument is the excellent ultrawide camera, so maybe it's worth prioritizing based on what you shoot most often.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra • Oppo Find X8 Pro • vivo X200 Pro

Not that the above models will leave you wanting in any particular way, but you could be after more of a 'western' style of smartphone experience. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is an obvious choice, and it too is lacking a bit in telephoto prowess like the Xperia. The Pixel lineup has lost most of its camera advantages over the years, and the 9 Pro XL is more of an alright cameraphone in today's context, but its main appeal is in being the best vehicle for Google's software. Perhaps the most complete alternative to the Xperia is the Galaxy S25 Ultra - it's as global as they come, and it's a mighty-capable cameraphone too.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max • Google Pixel 9 Pro XL • Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Verdict

Sony is so set in its own ways that the Xperia 1 VII doesn't quite conform to the standards that most current flagships more or less adhere to. Its quirkiness comes with advantages and downsides, predictably.

The continuous zoom action of the telephoto camera is indeed unmatched in the industry, but probably for a good reason - looking at the 1 VII's zoomed in image quality you can build a strong case for the alternative approaches - either with two discrete cameras, or just one with a very large sensor. We like the Sony idea in principle, but within the space constraints of a smartphone, the practical results are proving unremarkable. Video quality didn't strike us as particularly great overall either, on all cameras, though that's probably fixable in the future.

The Xperia 1 VII also charges too slow for our liking, and unless you're one to always charge your phone overnight (and do so religiously), you're bound to be left waiting for it to top up every now and then. Also, only being able to buy a 1 VII with 256GB of storage can be limiting for some members of the phone's potential target audience of video creators.

And that is a bit of a roundabout way of getting to the Xperia's strong points - the 256GB may be too little, but you can add essentially limitless storage through a microSD card and you can't do that on most high-end phones these days. Similarly, there's a headphone jack on the Xperia, and headphone jacks have mostly disappeared in the high-end too. Another long-standing standout feature is the two stage shutter release button, a proper mechanical one, instead of the pressure-based solutions we've been seeing lately from others.

The 1 VII does remain a capable photographic tool despite its less than perfect telephoto, of course. The main camera is plenty nice, the selfies are pretty great, and the new ultrawide is quite possibly the current top performer in its field. All that is operated from a feature-packed camera app with tons of controls and all the smarts you can think of. Perhaps it's not the best cameraphone altogether, but it could very well be the best cameraphone for a specific type of user.

Which, in fact, is what the Xperia 1 VII is in its entirety, probably more so than any other phone - a very specifically tailored device that may be a tough sell to the mass audience, but its feature set can be spot-on for you. And you know who you are.

Pros

• Functional and comfortable design, quite compact for the times; IP65/IP68 rating.
• Two-stage shutter release button.
• microSD card slot and 3.5mm jack like in the good old days.
• Full-featured camera app with both point-and-shoot and advanced modes.
• Extreme telephoto closeups.
• Possibly the best ultrawide camera on the market for stills shooting.
• Excellent selfies.

Cons

• Competitors already offering IPX9 rating.
• Only 256GB of internal storage in most markets.
• Charging is slow.
• The telephoto camera produces soft results in general.
• Videos aren't as sharp as we'd like.