- Sony has launched the new Xperia 1 VII flagship smartphone
- Hardware improvements include a new ultra-wide camera, while software sees the introduction of Xperia Intelligence
- The phone costs £1,399 in the UK, with no US availability at the time of writing
Sony has launched the Xperia 1 VII smartphone, bringing a slew of hardware and software updates to the company’s creator-focused flagship handset.
The Japanese tech giant is keen to emphasise the incorporation of technologies from its various tech brands in the new phone, specifically Alpha-branded photography tools, Bravia display tech, and Walkman-branded audio.
It’s good to know that Sony has thrown the full weight of its tech talent at the Xperia 1 VII, especially considering the phone is no cheaper than its predecessors – at £1,399, it’s one of the most expensive flagships on the market.
As well as sporting the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, the phone’s headline hardware features include a new ultra-wide camera, an upgraded headphone jack, and improved display calibration.
Sony has given the Xperia 1 VII a new 48MP ultra-wide camera with a 1/1.56-inch sensor, up from a 12MP 1/2.5-inch camera on the previous generation Xperia 1 VI.
In the official Xperia 1 VII product page, Sony states that the new ultra-wide camera can achieve "clear night shots equivalent to full-frame cameras", and while a larger sensor should increase low-light performance, this claim seems dubious given that full-frame sensors are more than twice the size of the Xperia 1 VII's ultra-wide sensor.
This new ultra-wide sits alongside two cameras carried forward from last year’s Xperia 1 VI – a 48MP main camera and 12MP telephoto camera with continuous 3.5x-7.1x telephoto zoom. The camera system is controlled by a dedicated shutter button with half-press focus, the same as prior iterations.
As mentioned, the Xperia 1 VII is one of the only phones on the market that still has a headphone jack – an elegant feature for a more civilized age. The phone has inherited components from Sony’s line of Walkman media players to enhance wired audio quality, while AI-enabled DSEE Ultimate processing can add clarity to compressed audio streams.
And in collaboration with Sony Bravia, a light sensor has been added to the rear of the phone to assist with brightness and color calibration in indoor and outdoor conditions.
Even bigger steps have been taken on the software side – the Xperia 1 VII is the launchpad for Xperia Intelligence, a suite of tastefully subtle AI tools centred around photography and filmmaking.
For example, the AI Camera Work tool assists in keeping video footage stable, while the AI Auto Framing tool keeps a human subject in the center of the shot. That Auto Framing tool also allows users to film a second vertical close-up video of said subject while filming a wider horizontal shot.
The phone also comes with Google Gemini installed, with access to tools like Circle to Search.
The Sony Xperia 1 VII is out now in three colors – Moss Green, Slate Black, and the eye-catching Orchid Purple option. It’s likely to top our list of the best Sony phones, but let us know if you think this £1,399 handset will be worth its high price in the comments below.
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