Sony Xperia 1 MkIV

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Expected announcement on 11th May with alleged 48mp sensor.

Also expected are SD 8 gen 1 (not plus), 4k OLED screen, headphone jack, SD card slot and an unflattering price £1400 or so.

I've been a fan of Xperia 1 series and hope this improves on several key issues, namely launch date and announcement being months apart.


Would very much welcome a boost to camera MP, battery life and accuracy to fingerprint reader.

Any one else keen? Rumoured price is a definite worry!
 
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The 5 phones usually make more sense but they tend to come out later than the 1 series, usually when better phones are close to becoming available.

I don't mind them especially from UI/UX point of view as it's one of the closer ones to stock, but definitely on the more expensive side.
 
From experience with their previous phones, they really need to improve their software support to get away with charging what they do.

That also goes for their camera software, it's just consistently behind the competition. Yeah they have cool looking Alpha camera app but majority of their rivals have equivalent manual modes and also produce better results on simple point and click auto mode.

All a shame as perfect phones for me on paper but found myself disappointed both times across 2 generations. Screens were also on a dim side especially when using outdoors, not sure what III phones were like.
 
The Xperia 1 cameras have been decent. Unfortunately when 12mp is pitted against 48mp, it's always going to appear lesser but the photo pro app etc is very good.

The Apples, Samsungs and Chinese competitors rely on computational photography which appeals to Mr point & shoot but as I understand, Sony is trying to appeal to Mr enthusiast/pro/traditionalist.

As Sony make the sensors on the higher end phones, you'd expect them to earmark those for their own or at least get some advantage - apparently not!

I didn't bother with the MkIII but the MkII has been solid.
 
I always commend Sony on maintaining the whole headphone jack, microSD slot, no notch/holepunch, front facing speakers and physical camera shutter package, but their pricing is arrogant and illogical. They have a pathetic market share as it is, and increasing the price of an already very expensive phone just isn't it. They'll be going the way of LG at this rate. Increasing megapixel count is always a red flag too for image quality, but we'll see if they took any feedback from the 1 III.
 
My first android phone was a Sony (the Xperia z) and I've always had a soft spot for them... That pricing though - they really need to wake up to the fact that it's not the 80s any more and they can't really command that sort of premium over the competition.
 
Official price of £1299. It seems very incremental...certainly doesn't seem worth the price, and the camera samples look shockingly bad.

I'll be honest, I don't quite understand the whole "it's pre-release" excuse for cameras. It's the 4th generation of this product already, and Sony are one of the leaders in photography and imaging. How can you say the results are acceptable even for pre-release when you have horrifically over-exposed images like at 6:55? How are the results not at the very least comparable to the previous generation? Every increment of a product should build upon and improve, not stagnate and be the same, let alone be worse.

 
Have Sony even guaranteed updates. Needs to be Samsung level at this money

Based on when I had the XZp, it's at least two years of OS and security updates. I don't think they've announced anything longer.

Yeah that's just too expensive. No 5 IV either, but I'm guessing it's highly due to the 5 III only hitting US shelves in January earlier this year. Sony needs to stop with the early paper launches, only for the actual release to be many months later. They really needs to change the way they release phones.
 
And given the absolute premium nature of this handset you don't even get a cable let alone a fast charger.

Like Mr Mobile says, they need to nail the point and shoot aspect of the camera, not just fanny around with manual mode.
 
I'm disappointed - really, REALLY marginal improvements. I use the MkII and it still doesn't seem worth the upgrade.

The charger aspect doesn't bother me as I have 50x type C chargers floating around but I was hoping for a boost to something.

16th June is the launch date which is a marked improvement (speed-wise) but again, I'm left with a sense of 'meh'.

Also, the £1300 price is pretty nuts - IF it had the HDMI input that'd be something...
 
So looks like point and shoot still really bad, definitely poor for any flagship to fail to nail basic dynamics range shots.
 
The Apples, Samsungs and Chinese competitors rely on computational photography which appeals to Mr point & shoot but as I understand, Sony is trying to appeal to Mr enthusiast/pro/traditionalist.

Exactly - and the majority of enthusiasts & pros either have a pocket 1inch sensor camera they carry around (Sony RX / Canon G7x), or are happy with the P&S photo results from an iPhone or Samsung phone.
Not many people want to shoot on a mobile phone and then need to process the images to get the best look.


Also, an 85-125mm zoom range is pretty useless. Just go with a fixed 85 lens.
 
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I'm very curious about this phone, are I'm feeling the itch to upgrade.
But like everyone else, I'll need to see reviews first as it's a lot of outlay for just a phone.
 
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