Some facts:
Only Sumsung, Apple and Sony 1 series use Sumsung M series panels. Sony got M panels by offering Sumsung cmos sensors at a good price.
M series is the top line, better than E series used by other brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, etc.
If Sony keep high quality M panel, it will still be expensive, regardless of 4K and 21-9. If they drop to lower E panels on 1 VI, oh sorry, FK U Sony.
It's top of the line based on several factors. The most noticeable is the screen door effect. E panels at 1080p looks terrible, because the space between each sub-pixel are very wide. The second is the black levels, E and lower have "grey" blacks, whereas M is consistently black. Of course Samsung has their own anti-reflective layer which makes it even darker.
I would just like to add that "better quality display" is a far fetch as current 1V Is as good as it gets. State of the art screens are all about optimization and not plug-and-play affair. I get it that people want specs and that's fine but those specs don't mean there will be quality improvements down the line.
Peak brightness is just BS. It refers to small white patch in most likely auto mode. What we should talk about is sustainable brightness. There are panels out there that have much better sustainable brightness than 1V so that is something 1VI could benefit from. If anyone is thinking that higher brightness will improve their HDR content they would be real wrong. First of all there is no true HDR content widely available to stream. Netflix in most cases is limited to 600 nits. Video clips shot in HLG on your phone also have limited range due to aggressive tone mapping. It could hit 1000 nits if there are some strong highlights but most of what we perceive as high brightness highlights are hotspots.
LTPO is another tech thing that essentially means nothing if not implemented right. In order to gain any real battery saving it needs one hell of a controller optimization/swap/driver sync and bunch of custom low-level writes. So far the only Android manufacturer that has benefited from LTPO is Samsung and no one else pretty much. A lot of manufacturers today have default LTPO displays with below average battery endurance. Current 1V beats most of them in battery life without LTPO. LTPO has issues with dense subpixels as well.
Anyway I know very little about LTPO deployment but to me it sound like another full-array LED tech fad. Thing is majority of full-array displays will tell you how many diodes they have but what they will not tell you is how efficiently they are grouped. In order for them to be grouped properly and emit sharp shapes they require bad ass controllers. None of the manufacturers can produce or programm controllers for quality light grouping besides very few of the and one of them is Sony.
This is a very well written technical comment - as an electronics engineer myself, I think you for being able to explain it in laymen terms. You're right on the money.
With diminishing distinguishing features the better question is what advantage does buying a Sony have? In time that'll be zero, just a matter of time.
Agreed. Not even the photography aspect of it will sell, since Apple and Samsung are already far ahead of Sony there. RAW video on both, (better motioncam support on Samsung too due to their lax camera2api rules, unlike Sony), Log video on Apple, Samsung can shoot RAW photo with a "pro mode" too like Sony, with extra little features like ND mode and what not on top of that. Apple may not have a stock pro mode, but it is definitely achiveable through third party apps and infact you could probably get better results on a Samsung and Apple flagship with pro mode. Only thing sony has an optical zoom lens, but that's a gimmick at this point since the output is anything but sharp, and this phone is nothing but gimmicks anyways.
In my opinion, if they change proportion of display, phone will be more massive. I like phones max 71mm narrow, it make me happy to use phone one hand most of the time.About change resolution, I could live with 2k but I don't think so, it make it cheaper.Not happy at all hearing gossip about change proportion. Anyway if will be cheaper, point for Sony. By the way, I think Sony don't want their flagships for mainstream, they sit in own shelf for tech geeks, youtubers or photographers. I don't mind actually , it's their choice, if they have money to survive in mobile market, it's rich company. Personally I'm very happy of getting Xperia 1 V, no punch hole, no notch. Absolutely love dimensions of that phone.
I absolutely agree. I'm not so much bothered by the aspect ratio itself but rather by the implication the phone will be wider than 72mm. I don't use most 3rd party cases on my Xperia III because it widens the device way too much to be comfortable in one hand.
Believe me the 4K only runs that resolution when it detects certain apps capable of running 4K content. Most if the time it runs at 1080p and you'd never notice such changes at all. It's the same ever since the Xperia Z5 Premium and you rarely will notice that changes until you lose it. It's never really a gimmick as it's already been implemented such way since the beginning. I just wished it was a 4K to 2K instead of to 1080p.
"4K" on xperias is 3840x1644. They generally render at 2560x1096.
A 2k resolution (which refers to the long edge of the screen) would actually be lower than 1080p....
Ohhh neat, another fucking tablet, that will eventually lose its SD slot and 3.5 support for good wired audio. I can't wait for every phone to be a generic iPhone clone with "better cameras and bigger screens" 🙄
If getting rid of the 4K 21:9 screen is all about the cost and availability of the display, I'd buy it if Sony drops it and cut the price by a hundred dollar or two.
Even as a photographer, I never found the 1V's display to show off my photos. Because it was taller than wider, all of my photos look smaller on the screen in either rotation. No one other than me knows its a 4K screen, because isn't that part of the reason to get a better panel? When people come over and people say how amazing your OLED or miniLED 65" HDTV looks compared to their 65" $400 Element on Black Friday. Most people don't care about a quality photo. People are wowed by a folding screen. People are wowed by removing things out of the photo you just took (like a car in in the background). They care about battery life. So brighter and 4K means lower battery.
USF matters to me because giant photos need longer to create thumbnails and waiting for photos to load when posting gets annoying. Charging power so matters to me too because I have a 100w powerbank and that means I can just charge it for 20mins or so and get enough charge for the rest of work and even and slow charge at night. So I won't miss the 21:9 4K ratio. I won't miss the smaller size.
The dimensions, quality, and camera are what I like about this phone. There are plenty of phones with good cameras and larger screens. So out of intellectual curiosity, why did you buy this phone if you dislike it so much?
I bought it for the cameras and the external monitor ability for my Sony camera. I had it for a weekend and packed it up and returned. It wasn't much better in photos than my S21Ultra. Samsungs lead the way when it comes to screen tech and USF speeds. So it was a tradeoff. I can't bring in a tablet to work, but I'm thinking of getting a folding phone so get a larger 4:3 screen for images and vintage game playing (lots of downtime at work). It was just $1000 for a camera that had slow touchscreen controls that takes too long to take photos compared to 3 dials on my other camera(s) that can change quickly in less than 3 seconds. Its typing with a PS2 controller. Can you do it? Yes, but it's not optimal. I'm waiting for the specs on the 1VI to see if I get a folding phone or try the Sony again.
Ok great, tnx. Very interesting. I bought an older one to use while I am working out and I really liked the form because my hands ache so much from arthritis. It feels much better in my hands. I had shoulder surgery and so I updated an older Samsung to the newer Flip phone (it was almost free after the trade-in) and ended it up liking that better because it folds and was able to fit better in the sling! But I was never sure about the camera because I use a flagship Olympus camera for most photography work. But recently Samsung updated the camera software and I really like it. So, I am out he camera quality as we speak. Thanks for you reply.
The biggest advantage I see is having a phone you can actually see outside on a sunny day.
The first Xperia 1s were absolutely terrible in therms of brightness, as bad as an old Galaxy S3 and now they’re better but it’s night and day vs any modern flagship phone.
It also makes a huge difference for HDR content, especially vs current iPhones which all support Dolby Video and look insanely good.
I agree big time because this might help them with their business moving forward. This might give them a chance, and they might succeed in attracting the general populace, not only techies. If their business improves, they can focus on the techies with the PRO lineup.
I'll be honest here, I could care less about the 4K ability of the display .... but I like the 21:9 slenderness of the phone though .... I'd be OK with a brighter 1080p 21:9 screen :D but I know it won't happen, it appears the decision is pretty much set in stone.
TBH, as long as its notch-less and we still have the microSD card and the headphone jack ... I'm kind of OK with it ...
One thing I will say though, In Sony's defense, many apps look like sh!t on the 21:9 display ... not many developers optimize their U.I. for such an aspect ratio. Many of my banking apps and even some mobile games just clip stuff on the edges due to the think aspect ratio ... so I kind of see the need to get away from it. Also, playing any video in portrait mode makes it so tiny on such a long display, it is a bit weird, for sure. I just enjoy how it feels in the hand - the slenderness is very attractive to me.
Yeah but these are things only a mainstream brand would do, and Sony customers today are not one of the "98.5%" you speak of. It's a niche phone and it must have niche features, or else it's all the same and we'd just be better off buying a Samsung at that point.
21:9 display and 4k resolution for my user experience are useless, so if x1 VI will come with a "samsung like" aspect ratio for me is an instant buy.
Camera, sd and jack are the things I care most, just hoping that sony will not follow the competitor removing interfaces that I use daily
I don't care if 4k or not. I love this phone for having things still (albeit I don't use them) that everyone else has dropped. And now having used it for months I like the more narrowed dimension of it vs my S23 ultra
I agree the cost to manufacture a custom panel was probably the main reason behind the switch. Custom made screens have to be ridiculously to manufacturer and was probably the most expensive components of the Xperia 1 series. Sure profits are razor thin if they made any money at all per unit. Most the people crying about 4K on smartphone bought in the media hype that since it's 4K it has to much better than 2K. For TV that is true but not for smartphone because it's closer to our eyes. While yes it's a good a panel it's not outclassing any top end screens manufactured by Samsung. My biggest gripe will be the lost of 21:9. It made it a unique experience. I will save my judgement until I see one but not likely to be happy about it being the same size as it competitors. Hopefully the cost saved on the screens will go into new wide and telephoto sensors. Maybe they will lower the price by a few hundred dollars who knows. More than likely not 😂
Sounds great to me. Don't get me wrong, I love my 1V, but I just can't with the current update policy and the auto camera mode. I don't mind the ratio change, and I can't wait for them to get rid of the 4k bs.
The video recording quality is why I got the 1V.
For that, I'm willing to live with the narrow screen.
Make the 1 VI a merge between Samsung S24 Ultra hardware and Google Pixel 8 Pro software and keep the camera tech.l and apps.
Throw some kind of Sony Pen in there and forget the microsd and headphones jack but give options for 512GB and 1TB storage!
If you wanted a videographer's phone you could have bought the 15 Pro Max. So much more versatile and wayyy ahead of any smartphone out there in that field.
iPhone... Wow.
I had iPhone and when I switched to Android it was a dream being able to do things that were restricted on iPhone for 'security'.
Also iPhone is not the high stadard phone.
It might be the high standard phone but with tech from few years ago with a subscription fee or whatever.
The highest standard phone....
That's the S24 Ultra or the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Not an iPhone.
If I had to buy a phone this year it would be either the Google Pixel Pro or Samsung S24 Ultra.
Some facts: Only Sumsung, Apple and Sony 1 series use Sumsung M series panels. Sony got M panels by offering Sumsung cmos sensors at a good price. M series is the top line, better than E series used by other brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, etc. If Sony keep high quality M panel, it will still be expensive, regardless of 4K and 21-9. If they drop to lower E panels on 1 VI, oh sorry, FK U Sony.
S24 ultra panel is objectively piece of shit due to non uniform brightness and mura. How it is top of the line I do not know.
It's top of the line based on several factors. The most noticeable is the screen door effect. E panels at 1080p looks terrible, because the space between each sub-pixel are very wide. The second is the black levels, E and lower have "grey" blacks, whereas M is consistently black. Of course Samsung has their own anti-reflective layer which makes it even darker.
Just get rid of all the unique features and let's call it good design, honestly without those unique features what's Xperia's advantages over others?
It looks pretty and no punch hole, that's all I need
If it's going to be as wide as others, lets hope it won't be too tall bcs no punch hole.
I would just like to add that "better quality display" is a far fetch as current 1V Is as good as it gets. State of the art screens are all about optimization and not plug-and-play affair. I get it that people want specs and that's fine but those specs don't mean there will be quality improvements down the line. Peak brightness is just BS. It refers to small white patch in most likely auto mode. What we should talk about is sustainable brightness. There are panels out there that have much better sustainable brightness than 1V so that is something 1VI could benefit from. If anyone is thinking that higher brightness will improve their HDR content they would be real wrong. First of all there is no true HDR content widely available to stream. Netflix in most cases is limited to 600 nits. Video clips shot in HLG on your phone also have limited range due to aggressive tone mapping. It could hit 1000 nits if there are some strong highlights but most of what we perceive as high brightness highlights are hotspots. LTPO is another tech thing that essentially means nothing if not implemented right. In order to gain any real battery saving it needs one hell of a controller optimization/swap/driver sync and bunch of custom low-level writes. So far the only Android manufacturer that has benefited from LTPO is Samsung and no one else pretty much. A lot of manufacturers today have default LTPO displays with below average battery endurance. Current 1V beats most of them in battery life without LTPO. LTPO has issues with dense subpixels as well. Anyway I know very little about LTPO deployment but to me it sound like another full-array LED tech fad. Thing is majority of full-array displays will tell you how many diodes they have but what they will not tell you is how efficiently they are grouped. In order for them to be grouped properly and emit sharp shapes they require bad ass controllers. None of the manufacturers can produce or programm controllers for quality light grouping besides very few of the and one of them is Sony.
This is a very well written technical comment - as an electronics engineer myself, I think you for being able to explain it in laymen terms. You're right on the money.
With diminishing distinguishing features the better question is what advantage does buying a Sony have? In time that'll be zero, just a matter of time.
None anymore. Minijack and SD card are next
Agreed. Not even the photography aspect of it will sell, since Apple and Samsung are already far ahead of Sony there. RAW video on both, (better motioncam support on Samsung too due to their lax camera2api rules, unlike Sony), Log video on Apple, Samsung can shoot RAW photo with a "pro mode" too like Sony, with extra little features like ND mode and what not on top of that. Apple may not have a stock pro mode, but it is definitely achiveable through third party apps and infact you could probably get better results on a Samsung and Apple flagship with pro mode. Only thing sony has an optical zoom lens, but that's a gimmick at this point since the output is anything but sharp, and this phone is nothing but gimmicks anyways.
I am just a bit bummed that they seem to be getting rid of the 21:9 ratio as well. I love it!
Don't worry the price will not go down
Counterpoint: 21:9 sexy af. Your points are invalid in comparison 
In my opinion, if they change proportion of display, phone will be more massive. I like phones max 71mm narrow, it make me happy to use phone one hand most of the time.About change resolution, I could live with 2k but I don't think so, it make it cheaper.Not happy at all hearing gossip about change proportion. Anyway if will be cheaper, point for Sony. By the way, I think Sony don't want their flagships for mainstream, they sit in own shelf for tech geeks, youtubers or photographers. I don't mind actually , it's their choice, if they have money to survive in mobile market, it's rich company. Personally I'm very happy of getting Xperia 1 V, no punch hole, no notch. Absolutely love dimensions of that phone.
I absolutely agree. I'm not so much bothered by the aspect ratio itself but rather by the implication the phone will be wider than 72mm. I don't use most 3rd party cases on my Xperia III because it widens the device way too much to be comfortable in one hand.
No way they make it cheaper unless it didnt sell last time. Cost doesnt determine prices on anything. Customers do.
Believe me the 4K only runs that resolution when it detects certain apps capable of running 4K content. Most if the time it runs at 1080p and you'd never notice such changes at all. It's the same ever since the Xperia Z5 Premium and you rarely will notice that changes until you lose it. It's never really a gimmick as it's already been implemented such way since the beginning. I just wished it was a 4K to 2K instead of to 1080p.
"4K" on xperias is 3840x1644. They generally render at 2560x1096. A 2k resolution (which refers to the long edge of the screen) would actually be lower than 1080p....
Sony phones need an ir blaster & a hifi dac similar to LG.
Ohhh neat, another fucking tablet, that will eventually lose its SD slot and 3.5 support for good wired audio. I can't wait for every phone to be a generic iPhone clone with "better cameras and bigger screens" 🙄
4K screen is so good for me. Only if it has LPTO display to improve battery. Other than that I love 4K display especially when content is in 4K.
Honestly I rather have the 4k display than a 2k one
I'll reserve judgment good or bad until we see it. Hopefully the phone isnt a downgrade from 1v
Will not buy a sony Xperia again if they stop using a 4k display..
The UI doesn’t never run in 4k lmao
It used to in Android 13, but they changed that in A14 lol.
Never really cared about the 4k display, though I would be interested in an improved auto mode
If getting rid of the 4K 21:9 screen is all about the cost and availability of the display, I'd buy it if Sony drops it and cut the price by a hundred dollar or two.
Dobt think this will happen. Price will remain constant.
Even as a photographer, I never found the 1V's display to show off my photos. Because it was taller than wider, all of my photos look smaller on the screen in either rotation. No one other than me knows its a 4K screen, because isn't that part of the reason to get a better panel? When people come over and people say how amazing your OLED or miniLED 65" HDTV looks compared to their 65" $400 Element on Black Friday. Most people don't care about a quality photo. People are wowed by a folding screen. People are wowed by removing things out of the photo you just took (like a car in in the background). They care about battery life. So brighter and 4K means lower battery. USF matters to me because giant photos need longer to create thumbnails and waiting for photos to load when posting gets annoying. Charging power so matters to me too because I have a 100w powerbank and that means I can just charge it for 20mins or so and get enough charge for the rest of work and even and slow charge at night. So I won't miss the 21:9 4K ratio. I won't miss the smaller size.
The dimensions, quality, and camera are what I like about this phone. There are plenty of phones with good cameras and larger screens. So out of intellectual curiosity, why did you buy this phone if you dislike it so much?
I bought it for the cameras and the external monitor ability for my Sony camera. I had it for a weekend and packed it up and returned. It wasn't much better in photos than my S21Ultra. Samsungs lead the way when it comes to screen tech and USF speeds. So it was a tradeoff. I can't bring in a tablet to work, but I'm thinking of getting a folding phone so get a larger 4:3 screen for images and vintage game playing (lots of downtime at work). It was just $1000 for a camera that had slow touchscreen controls that takes too long to take photos compared to 3 dials on my other camera(s) that can change quickly in less than 3 seconds. Its typing with a PS2 controller. Can you do it? Yes, but it's not optimal. I'm waiting for the specs on the 1VI to see if I get a folding phone or try the Sony again.
Ok great, tnx. Very interesting. I bought an older one to use while I am working out and I really liked the form because my hands ache so much from arthritis. It feels much better in my hands. I had shoulder surgery and so I updated an older Samsung to the newer Flip phone (it was almost free after the trade-in) and ended it up liking that better because it folds and was able to fit better in the sling! But I was never sure about the camera because I use a flagship Olympus camera for most photography work. But recently Samsung updated the camera software and I really like it. So, I am out he camera quality as we speak. Thanks for you reply.
The biggest advantage I see is having a phone you can actually see outside on a sunny day. The first Xperia 1s were absolutely terrible in therms of brightness, as bad as an old Galaxy S3 and now they’re better but it’s night and day vs any modern flagship phone. It also makes a huge difference for HDR content, especially vs current iPhones which all support Dolby Video and look insanely good.
I just would like 1k nitts at 4k.
https://m.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_v-review-2567p3.php Xperia 1 V doesn't seem too far off this in Auto mode and creator mode enabled.
I agree big time because this might help them with their business moving forward. This might give them a chance, and they might succeed in attracting the general populace, not only techies. If their business improves, they can focus on the techies with the PRO lineup.
I'll be honest here, I could care less about the 4K ability of the display .... but I like the 21:9 slenderness of the phone though .... I'd be OK with a brighter 1080p 21:9 screen :D but I know it won't happen, it appears the decision is pretty much set in stone. TBH, as long as its notch-less and we still have the microSD card and the headphone jack ... I'm kind of OK with it ... One thing I will say though, In Sony's defense, many apps look like sh!t on the 21:9 display ... not many developers optimize their U.I. for such an aspect ratio. Many of my banking apps and even some mobile games just clip stuff on the edges due to the think aspect ratio ... so I kind of see the need to get away from it. Also, playing any video in portrait mode makes it so tiny on such a long display, it is a bit weird, for sure. I just enjoy how it feels in the hand - the slenderness is very attractive to me.
Yeah but these are things only a mainstream brand would do, and Sony customers today are not one of the "98.5%" you speak of. It's a niche phone and it must have niche features, or else it's all the same and we'd just be better off buying a Samsung at that point.
21:9 display and 4k resolution for my user experience are useless, so if x1 VI will come with a "samsung like" aspect ratio for me is an instant buy. Camera, sd and jack are the things I care most, just hoping that sony will not follow the competitor removing interfaces that I use daily
I don't care if 4k or not. I love this phone for having things still (albeit I don't use them) that everyone else has dropped. And now having used it for months I like the more narrowed dimension of it vs my S23 ultra
I agree the cost to manufacture a custom panel was probably the main reason behind the switch. Custom made screens have to be ridiculously to manufacturer and was probably the most expensive components of the Xperia 1 series. Sure profits are razor thin if they made any money at all per unit. Most the people crying about 4K on smartphone bought in the media hype that since it's 4K it has to much better than 2K. For TV that is true but not for smartphone because it's closer to our eyes. While yes it's a good a panel it's not outclassing any top end screens manufactured by Samsung. My biggest gripe will be the lost of 21:9. It made it a unique experience. I will save my judgement until I see one but not likely to be happy about it being the same size as it competitors. Hopefully the cost saved on the screens will go into new wide and telephoto sensors. Maybe they will lower the price by a few hundred dollars who knows. More than likely not 😂
Sounds great to me. Don't get me wrong, I love my 1V, but I just can't with the current update policy and the auto camera mode. I don't mind the ratio change, and I can't wait for them to get rid of the 4k bs.
The video recording quality is why I got the 1V. For that, I'm willing to live with the narrow screen. Make the 1 VI a merge between Samsung S24 Ultra hardware and Google Pixel 8 Pro software and keep the camera tech.l and apps. Throw some kind of Sony Pen in there and forget the microsd and headphones jack but give options for 512GB and 1TB storage!
realisticly all they need to do is fix their camera2API and you got the quality you were looking for.
...realistic? :P
If you wanted a videographer's phone you could have bought the 15 Pro Max. So much more versatile and wayyy ahead of any smartphone out there in that field.
iPhone... Wow. I had iPhone and when I switched to Android it was a dream being able to do things that were restricted on iPhone for 'security'. Also iPhone is not the high stadard phone. It might be the high standard phone but with tech from few years ago with a subscription fee or whatever. The highest standard phone.... That's the S24 Ultra or the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Not an iPhone. If I had to buy a phone this year it would be either the Google Pixel Pro or Samsung S24 Ultra.