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Sony announces the Xperia 1 V with a revolutionary camera sensor

By Mariyan Slavov

Updated: May 11, 2023, 1:38 AM

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Sony

The Xperia family has a new flagship member, and in typical Sony fashion, it's all about camera innovation. Today, the Japanese company announced the Xperia 1 Mark V, a premium device featuring all the bells and whistles of the previous 1-series flagships but with a newly developed stacked CMOS image sensor with 2-layer Transistor Pixel tech.

Before we dive into what this actually means, let's run through the other, more or less conventional specs of this premium flagship phone.

You can watch the full announcement below:

Sony Xperia 1 V specs at a glance:

Size/Weight: 165 × 71 × 8.3 mm / 187g
Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
Network: 5G Sub6
Memory size: 12GB RAM / 256 GB ROM
External Memory: Up to 1TB microSD
Display 6.5” 21:9 4K 120Hz HDR OLED
Main Camera: 24mm, Full aspect: 52MP / Effective : 48MP / Recording (Still image) : 12MP, 1/1.35” 120fps OIS/AF
Ultrawide Camera: 16mm, 12MP 1/2.5” 120fps AF
Telephoto Camera: 85-125mm Optical Telephoto Zoom, 12MP 1/3.5” 120fps OIS/AF
Front Camera: 12MP 1/2.9”
Audio: Full-Stage stereo speakers (New amplifier)
Battery: 5,000mAh (typ)
30min 50% charge with 30W Charger / 3 years long-life
Wireless Charging support
IP65/68, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

Design and Display

No radical changes have been made to the design of the Xperia 1 Mark V; the phone sports the trademarked 21:9 aspect ratio with uniform bezels on the top and bottom of the screen, front-firing stereo speakers, a pill-shaped camera bump on the back, and a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner.

There are subtle changes to the frame, it features gentle ridges going around it to help with grip. The back of the Xperia 1 V is made of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 but it features a special treatment that makes it feel like the surface of a pro camera.

Sony calls this “functional tactile design,” and it has a unique grippy, almost rubbery, feel to it. Other than that, the Xperia 1 V looks and feels like a typical Sony flagship, you won't mistake it from miles away, which speaks volumes about the brand carving out its own identity in the smartphone world.

The display itself is a 6.5-inch OLED panel with 4K resolution, the already mentioned 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio, a real-time HDR drive, and a 120 Hz refresh rate.

Performance and Software

Under the hood, there's a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the latest Qualcomm has to offer, paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The microSD card slot is still present, supporting up to 1TB cards, so you can expand the 256GB easily if you run out of memory.

Sony has redesigned the heat dissipation sheet inside the Xperia 1 V, so the cooling should be improved compared to the previous generation. The phone comes with Android 13 out of the box and features minimal bloatware. Instead, you'll find Sony's pro-grade creator-centric apps: Photography Pro, Videography Pro, Cinema Pro, and Music Pro.

Camera

The main star of the show, just like with previous Xperia flagships, is the camera system. Sony has kept the variable periscope zoom camera, offering continuous zoom between 85mm and 125mm. It is sitting over a 12MP Exmor RS sensor, just like the 16mm ultrawide shooter.

But the real innovation is happening under the main 24mm lens, which features the aforementioned newly developed Exmor T sensor. The pixel structure of this sensor is a bit different from conventional image sensors in mobile devices.

Sony has divided the photodiode and the transistor and put them on separate layers stacked on top of each other. By doing so, the company was able to fine tune the size of both independently of one another. The result? Greatly improved amount of light captured and minimized noise levels.

The sensor itself is 1.7 times bigger than the one found in the previous generation (it's a 1/1.35", so no 1-inch goodness here), and Sony also says that it can perform 2x better in low light than its predecessor. Which will, of course, be tested thoroughly; watch out for our full review!

The pixel count is 52MP but due to the specific aspect ratio of the shots only 48MP are effective, and the sensor use pixel binning to produce 12MP images.

Sony claims that it has amped up its AI computational photography game, and you can now expect better results in modes such as Night Portrait, Daylight Portrait, and Night View. Of course, all the tech from Sony's Alpha camera department is onboard as well—the high-performance real time AF, real time Eye-AF, burst shooting, etc.

Battery and Charging

There's a 5,000 mAh battery inside the Xperia 1 V, which should allow for 20 hours of video playback on the 4K screen. The Xperia 1 V supports wireless charging, and the wired fast charging tops out at 30W. According to Sony, this should be enough to charge 50% of the battery in 30 minutes.

Price and Аvailability

The Xperia 1 V will be available in late June for approximately €1399/£1299. It will be available in black, platinum silver and khaki green.

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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.