**** The Official Sony Xperia 1 Thread ****

neoboy

neoboy

neoboy

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So after months of silence after the big reveal at MWC in February, it would appear that some UK retailers and networks finally provided us with a release date of 30th May and some juicy pre-order bonuses including free PS4 from Vodafone and Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones form O2 and Carphone Warehouse.

The current official specs for the phone can be found on Sony's website with pièce de résistance being the 6.5" 4K (1644 x 3840) OLED screen in what they describe as "cinematic" 21:9 ratio. It also packs the latest Gorilla Glass 6, HDR BT.2020 and DCI-P3 100%, however, there are some questions over battery life as they only put a 3330mAh cell into the phone with wireless charging missing from the included features.

Rest of the phone is as expected with Snapdragon 855, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage with expandable storage included up to 1TB. Fingerprint sensor remains on the side of the phone and there is no headphone jack.

There is also a triple camera setup on the back with an ultra wide and x2 zoom lens and I believe this is the first time they are collaborating with their Sony Alpha camera division. We may just see them bring their camera software experience up to the flagship competition with an inclusion of a physical Bionz X image processor found on their cameras.

Launch, however, is typical Sony with next to no buzz being generated. None of the usual sites or Youtubers are talking about it so little information on how this actually performs in real life with 11 days until release. As of the time of this post, all "hands on" reviews are from a heavily locked down handset at MWC in February so hopefully we see something before the 30th May.

Xperia 2 leaks have already surfaced as well with rumours point towards the usual September release, as per Sony's 6 month release cycle.
 
It just feels like no one particularly cares anymore and they are just going through the motions of releasing their phones before the lay offs.

Fair enough they might not have the budget for a big marketing campaign, but at least send out some review samples so can generate some buzz and pre-orders before launch on the 30th. Launch in US is almost 6 weeks after UK, with 12th July confirmed and only appears to be on sale in SIM free form.

I'm just interested in seeing how the cameras pan out on this, maybe Sony Alpha collaboration may count for something, like with Huawei and Leica.
 
Yeah only thing going for it right now is the price with O2, £630 and free headphones.

Basically O2 contracts are all split into phone and airtime portions, pay off the phone part and you're free to cancel the airtime any time.

Only thing is that if you want to claim the headphones you may need to keep the airtime for a month or so, as they wait 14 days to validate your purchase.

If they actually managed to get their camera software right this time with the Sony Alpha collaboration I may be mildly interested taking into account the price. Free headphones end on 29th May and so far it's just complete silence from any review site, not going to risk ordering one of this that stays the same.
 
It's basically no key at this point, nevermind low key :p

For the sake of a 3300ish mAh battery you would hope it downscales but biggest concern is the cameras. XZ3 didn't really set the world on fire in that department, with software behind most competitors. Big question is where this Sony Alpha, Bionz X talk is just marketing spiel or this time around they've actually made an effort to seriously improve camera performance.

Not really holding my breath to hear anything before the release day on the 30th and don't feel like going through returns. Also the leaks for Xperia 2, point to a smaller 6.1" screen so maybe there are battery issues with a larger screen or ergonomics are just off with 6.5" screen on this one. At 167mm I can see this feeling quite uncomfortable in your jean pocket when you take a seat, etc

EDIT:

So it would appear there was a strategy meeting at Sony and they are now pulling out of many markets and going forward will only be concentrating on Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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Looks like some markets like US, Russia and China will just have the option of buying the phone in SIM free form. Here's a slide of the phone from the meeting as well.

x2z6Oa9.jpg


Looks like there was a small launch in China with more info here, including some photos taken by the phone. As always these are to be taken with a pinch of salt. All in all we already knew Sony were downsizing the mobile division so if they are concentrating on just the key markets, it may just turn it around for them. You know as long as this phone turns out to be good :p
 
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Looks like some Chinese bloggers already have their hands on it, my language skills are non existent here but this appears to be one of the better videos:


Any native speakers are free to translate :p
 
I'm not that bothered, just trying to keep the thread up to date before release :p

Still midly interested in this because of the price and free cans, with 20% discount from O2 this is VERY competitive compared to other phones I'm looking at.

EDIT:

Looks like review units are making their way to various outlets, here's a hands on review from a Czech site.
 
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Not expecting miracles there with the low capacity, just a question of whether it's going to be acceptable compared to other flagships.

I am in a similar position though, think I might just take a punt at this with the attractive O2 and headphone offer if reviews come back positive.
 

Here's a video from a Russian Youtuber, battery wise it actually looks encouraging (for the size of it). You can see the battery go down around 8% after him playing various games for around 25 minutes (he speeds up the videos at some points). In the comments he mentions that with gaming he got 5 hours SoT and 9 hours for video watching, but I think it's just his estimates.

Geekbench 4 is at 3512 for single core 11159 for multi core score so looks to be up there with the rest of SD855 phones. Temperature wise the battery was at 40C after that gaming session and CPU at 45C.

In Antutu he mentions that original run got him 360194 and after 6 back to back runs it dropped to 327200 but throttling stopped around that mark.

Other than that just says performance in games is great and he likes the wide aspect ratio, but also mentions longish load times in Fortnite and why didn't they stick 8GB of RAM. Just wish someone would come out with a decent camera hands on by now.

EDIT: Follow up from the same guy, no complaints other than lack of wireless charging and some photo and video samples from 15m16s

 
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Looks like the guy above said too much and had his videos taken down :D

Must be a embargo in place still as none of the hands on reviews are mentioning battery life or camera apart from specs.

I'm actually now very certain I'll get this, originally was between S10 and OP7 Pro but for the sheer value of this thing with the free headphones and Quidco on top it is worth a punt. Worst case scenario, I'll sell it on after Summer when Note 10 and Pixel 4 are out.

Doesn't look like Spigen makes cases for this though, my last 3 phones had their cases so I'm going to settle for a Chinese knock off for under a tenner.
 
There was some kind of a smaller Sony event in Venice today so few more bits of information appearing, including a rumour that Sony are joining the foldable phone scene in 2020 with Xperia F.

Here are some camera samples from different little sites. Some images appearing with the #sonyxperia1 tag on Instagram as well.

Either way, need a phone quick now and compared to other competitors I've been looking at, this looks a bargain without too many sacrifices so pre-ordered for pickup on Thursday.
 
Martini1991 said:
I kind of want to use this as a gaming device.

OLED "4K" 21:9 on Steam Stream from my PC seems like an awesome way to game for some truly epic IQ.
Click to expand...

So it's all in Japanese but using Chrome translate, it looks like there's a rumour that this has 120Hz gaming mode. Seeing how previous Sony phones had a hidden 120Hz mode this may not be too far fetched. I'm guessing the reason it was turned off in previous phones was the battery life and Sony's insistence of having low capacity cells put in their phones.
 
I've no idea what's happening with my order, O2 just sent me bunch of T&Cs but no general email confirming what I ordered.

It says you can only track your order process after it's been sent? I don't even know if they accepted me onto the network heh, but they have taken the money out.

Had far superior ordering experience form many resellers I've used in the past, expected a bit more buying directly from a major network.
 
Yeah I went for collection as well.

Just weird that I can't track the status of my order, when I ordered online with Fonehouse could check my account straight away with quick updates. Took 3 hours to get accepted by the network and here when I login it just says I've no products or services with them.

I've never been rejected by a network but been more than 24 hours here with no word from O2. Bit messy for a company that claims to be able to get a phone to you the next day if you order before midnight.
 
Yeah hoping for that but still a little poor for a major network, all resellers I've used in the past were really good at letting me track things online straight away.

The new Techradar hands on for this is less the flattering though, hope they are just being overly critical as frankly everyone so far has been saying how good the screen is on this.
 
Yeah, I initially was going to hold off this but a family member's phone died for good so my S7 Edge with a new battery would be perfect for them.

Even if this is a lemon, probably manage to sell it on for not a huge loss after Summer when Pixel 4 comes round with hopefully more than one camera on the back. That and I get to have some hipster points for buying something different :p
 
Yeah different retailers have different offers, Vodafone are the ones with a free PS4.

Still no contact from O2 over here, I'd just be happy if they confirmed that I've been accepted onto the network as 24 hours definitely passed. Bit shoddy from a major network provider, my last two orders this year from resellers have all been great with confirmations and accurate ETAs in hours.
 
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