The Sony Xperia 1 IV is available to buy now in the UK and Europe, marking the latest flagship smartphone contender to hit the market.
This one’s a little different from the rest, though. As with previous entries in the Xperia 1 line, this is very much an enthusiast’s phone, as evidenced by its hefty £1,299 price tag.
While a 6.5-inch 120Hz OLED display might sound pretty typical, this is the only smartphone line to feature a native 4K resolution. Together with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and the fact that there’s no display notch interfering with the picture (it’s in the forehead bezel), it’s a cinephile’s dream phone.
Audiophiles are also taken care of with a pair of front-firing speakers (those chunky bezels coming in handy again) and a high-quality 3.5mm jack. That latter spec is something you more commonly see in budget phones.
Photographers will be particularly enamoured with the Sony Xperia 1 IV, with its no-nonsense triple-12MP sensors, advanced autofocus, and physical shutter button. Sony has introduced something new, meanwhile, in the form of a genuine optical zoom lens that can shift fluidly from 3.5x to 5.2x, and every step in between.
The phone’s design isn’t much different to the Xperia 1 III (or the Xperia 1 II before it), with a characteristically blocky, flat-edged look. It only weighs 185g, which is pretty light for such a flagship phone.
We’ve mentioned that the Sony Xperia 1 IV is available now in the UK and Europe, but our US readers will need to wait until September 1 for the Xperia 1 IV to make an appearance.
We’ll have our review to you soon.
