Sony's official Xperia 1 VI unboxing video shows off the changes made to the device

Just a few days ago Sony introduced its new top-of-the-line Xperia 1 VI smartphone. It is quite a shame that the manufacturer owns a puny .35% of the global smartphone market because as you can see from Sony's own "unboxing" video, this device has many outstanding features, and it still comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack! For all of Sony's prowess as a top-tier consumer electronics firm, it has always had trouble marketing the Xperia line and this phone is not coming to the U.S. which is still the third-largest smartphone market in the world.

The Xperia 1 VI (pronounced Xperia one mark six) offers users the best battery life of any Xperia 1-series phone and uses a vapor chamber to dissipate heat to keep the chipset from overheating. This should improve the experience of playing games on the device. Speaking of the chipset, the phone is equipped with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 application processor (AP). The SIM tray can be opened without the use of a special tool. Sony appears to be thinking of everything.

With an IP65/68 rating, the Xperia 1 VI is water resistant and can be submerged to a depth of 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) for up to 30 minutes. It also means that the handset can survive getting sprayed by jets.

Sony did make a big change to the screen's aspect ratio taking the phone from a tall and thin 21:9 aspect ratio to a shorter and thicker 19.5:9  which happens to match the aspect ratio of the Galaxy S24 series. The 6.5-inch display carries a resolution of 1080 x 2340 and offers a variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz. This will allow the phone to conserve battery life by reducing the rate when certain static content is on the screen. The display is also up to 50% brighter than last year's model. With Sunlight Vision, only the dark areas on the screen are made brighter allowing your content to always look its best.

Turning to the cameras, the 85mm-170mm True Optical Zoom periscope lens on the phone delivers optical zoom in the range of 3.5x to 7.1x. It can also take photos of extreme macro close-ups with a focus distance of 4cm.

Sony has released a new camera app that puts everything offered by Sony in Photography Pro, Videography Pro, and Cinematography Pro all in one place. Sony is allowing Xperia 1 VI users to snap photos using the full 48MP resolution available from the Exmor T for mobile sensor. Some of the real-time focusing features available in Sony's Alpha cameras are available on the new phone. AI is also used to improve the look of the display on the phone. Sony says that with the Xperia 1 VI's display, it's like having one of Sony's big Bravia televisions in your pocket at all times.

A new speaker module improves the front-facing stereo speaker experience. Even the headset jack has been improved providing 50% greater separation between left and right channels. Other improvements have been made to the gaming capabilities of the phone. New materials are used to manufacture the battery which means that while the capacity of the cell remains at 5000mAh, Sony says that you can get two days of battery life out of one charge. And you can charge the cell to 50%, or one day's worth of battery life, in just 30 minutes.

You probably won't get the opportunity to test drive the Xperia 1 VI, so if you are considering the purchase of this handset, check out the video to see if it is right for you. The phone will be released sometime next month (which is June according to the calendar) priced approximately at €1399 / £1299.