My mini review of Xperia 1 - in short: BEST PHONE I EVER HAD!

[Sensination]

Hi Guys, so I bit the bullet and got Xperia 1 and have some observations to share. I split it by main review categories to make it simpler to read. This phone is basically a PERFECT Z3  updated for 2019 😊

Also, just to give a bit of a background, I’m a huge Xperia fan and had the following Sony phones (excluding SonyEricsson): Z2, Z3, Z5, XZ Premium, XZ3 and now Xperia 1. My observations/gripes are:

Design/Build

I was afraid that the new screen format will be too awkward but oh boy...I was sooo wrong! After 10 minutes with my X1 I don’t think I could ever go back. Not only it’s super easy to use, you can fit much more content when browsing the web or apps that need scrolling. Of course, it’s impossible to reach the top of the screen with one hand but the one handed mode solves that problem completely. The build quality is also top notch! 

Battery

I was initially very concerned about the battery life considering its but I got VERY POSITIVELY surprised! I easily get 5-6 SOT with 2h of Netflix use on full brightness, 2h of Spotify in the background, 1h of WhatsApp, and 1/2h of Reddit browsing. Mind that I don’t use Cancer(face)book or do any gaming which both are massive battery drain. Also, I don’t care about wireless charging that much although it would be nice to have it ☹

Screen

I don’t know what to say, it’s so amazing I feel like I want to cry for joy The colours are perfect, and very natural. Mind that I always hated the vivid mode as it makes everything look grotesque and just ugly/fake. It could be a bit brighter though but it’s perfectly visible in even the brightest light. It also runs at 1080 during normal usage but its super sharp and you definitely have a feeling its much higher resolution than FullHD. Comparing it to my XZ3 with QHD screen you can’t see any sharp edges while on XZ3 or my wife’s S9 you can. Huge, huge win for Sony here!

Audio quality

While I’m not an audiophile, I do care about music quality and use quite expensive headphones. I can only compare to XZ3 but I do have a feeling that we got a better DAC as the music sounds better than on my XZ3.

Performance

Oh boy...this phone is lightning fast! No stutter, no lost frames whatsoever! Really amazing job here Sony. Also 6GB of RAM really helps with killing apps and comparing to my XZ3 (which was really bad in this regard) there is a lot of improvement.

Camera

Well...this is a bit of a mix. While in general the tonal range was much improved, you will really see the drop in amount of details captured and the overall photo quality. One good thing though is that they managed to remove a lot of noise that was present in previous Xperia phones. While I welcome the added zoom and wide-angle lens, it’s a real shame it come sat an expense of overall photo quality and details. Regarding the videos, the stabilisation is unfortunately not as good as it used to be and there is one thing that is a HUGE, HUGE let down. The HDR vide is practically unusable as the video stutters a lot and looses frames constantly making the whole video very difficult to watch and overall not a pleasant experience. The same issue was present in XZ3 and I was really hoping they will manage to fix it. Lastly THE OMISSION OF 4k 60 FPS is a real let down considering this phone is aimed and pro filmmakers. Last but not least, cannot comment on CineAlta app and videos as I didn’t have time to play with it.

[Rog-Mar]

Great review,i also purchased the device last week and i absolutely love it,the only two things i don't like about it is the relatively big bezel at the top considering the current slew of bezel less phones out now,i think they missed a trick there and would've made this serious competition for its rival devices.The other thing that let me down was the lack lustre bottom firing speaker,it lacks the bottom end that other flagship devices have,Sony have made sure the earphone side of things were the best in the game i thought it would sound much better from the speakers.