Sony Unveils Xperia 1 VI And Xperia 10 VI Smartphones
Sony Unveils Xperia 1 VI And Xperia 10 VI Smartphones
Sony’s Xperia line of smartphones is getting another year of new models – both the Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 10 VI are getting the latest ‘Mark VI’ treatment in the latest launch.
The latest Sony flagship has a few significant changes internally, with the most obvious one being its footprint: the Xperia 1 VI no longer has a 21:9 aspect ratio display with a cut-down 4K OLED panel. Instead, it is replaced with a more pedestrian 19.5:9 FHD+ (2340 x 1080) LTPO OLED with a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate and a brighter 1,300 nit peak brightness. This should greatly help with battery life, as the old model’s 4K-class resolution simply is overkill for a display this size.
Another big upgrade comes from the camera department. The 12MP periscope telephoto lens now has a magnification factor of 7.1x (equivalent to a 170mm lens), and AI – 2024’s hottest buzzword – is here to help the smartphone to better detect subjects for focus tracking. It is paired with a second 12MP sensor for ultrawide, as well as the 52MP main shooter with a 1/1.35″ Exmor T sensor.
While Sony’s camera app is highly advanced given its Alpha lineage, the learning curve can be steep; on that front, the company has updated the UI to better cater to novice users while still retaining the high levels of granularity that Xperia users have come to expect.
On the performance side of things, the Xperia 1 VI is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Longtime Sony faithful will know that one of the standout features of the Xperia smartphone is the onboard microSD card slot and – you guessed it – the 3.5mm headphone jack, and both are still present on this model. A 5,000mAh battery keeps the phone running for up to 2 days on a single charge, and 0-50% takes just 30 minutes.
Moving onto the mid-ranger Xperia 10 VI, it retains the 21:9 aspect ratio which, funnily enough, has more pixels on the display than the Xperia 1 VI does. It is physically smaller, however – the chassis measures just 155mm long and 68mm wide, weighing 164 grams – making it a very slim and light phone, especially with a small 6.1-inch OLED display. That being said, it’s still a 60Hz panel, which is admittedly lagging behind other competitors in this segment.
Inside the Xperia 10 VI, you can find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and just 128GB of onboard storage. Again, storage capacity is lagging behind competitors here, so it’ll be interesting to see how the value stacks up by the time it launches later this year. That being said, microSD card continues to be a staple here – provided you have the funds to buy it, you can fit any uber-expensive 1.5TB microSD card into it to accommodate practically unlimited amounts of images and data.
Camera-wise, it has a pair of rear cameras: the primary 48MP sensor is responsible for 26mm and 52mm focal length (in layman’s terms, 2x optical zoom), while the ultrawide 12MP sensor is designed to take 16mm shots. Built-in OIS and AI scene detection help further simplify the shooting process.
In terms of availability, Sony Malaysia says the Xperia 1 VI will be available starting July 2024, featuring two colors (Black / Khaki Green); the Xperia 10 VI will come in Black and Blue versions, available starting August 2024.
Pokdepinion: Didn’t expect the Xperia 1 VI to downgrade the display all the way down to FHD+.
