The Sony Xperia 1 IV was one of the most interesting phones of 2022 in many ways, as it has features you won’t find anywhere else.
But it’s also a phone with flaws and a very high price tag, so there are certainly changes we want to see in the Sony Xperia 1V, and we’ve listed them below.
Earlier, however, we gave details of when the Sony Xperia 1V might launch, how much it might cost, and what specs and features it might have. We haven’t heard much yet, but as more leaks and rumors emerge, we’ll be sure to update this article.
To the point
- What is this? Another Sony flagship phone
- when is it coming out? Probably in mid-2023
- How much does it cost? Expect a very high price
Sony Xperia 1 V: release date and price
Sony hasn’t been very consistent with its Xperia 1 line releases, so we can’t be too sure when the Sony Xperia 1 V will land, especially in the absence of any rumors.
In comparison, the Sony Xperia 1 IV was announced on May 11, 2022, then hit UK stores on June 16 – but the US won’t get it until September 1, and Australia won’t get it at all.
The announcement of the Sony Xperia 1 III was only slightly earlier last year in April 2021 – but the phone didn’t actually go on sale until August. For the two earlier models, we saw a February announcement and a May sale date.
So what can we take from this? The Sony Xperia 1 V will likely be announced in the first half of 2022. Potentially in May, as it would be a year after the Xperia 1 IV, but that’s not guaranteed.
The actual release date is even harder to guess as there is sometimes a long delay after the announcement, but some regions may get it in or around June, and Australia is unlikely to get it at all.
As for the price, the Sony Xperia 1 IV costs $1,599 in the US, which gives you a model with 512 GB of memory. In the UK, only the 256GB version is available, and that costs £1,299.99.
So the Sony Xperia 1V may have a similar price tag, but we’re not sure. Let’s hope it won’t be more expensive anyway, as the Xperia 1 IV is already one of the most expensive non-foldable phones you can buy.
Sony Xperia 1 V: news and leaks
There aren’t many Sony Xperia 1 V leaks yet, but we’ve now seen a leaked image that purports to show the back of the phone. You can see it below and it looks very similar to the back of the Sony Xperia 1 IV, except this time all the camera sensors are housed in the camera block.
The changes also apply to the choice of available lenses and sensors. It’s still a triple-lens camera, but those lenses look bigger, so some or all of them may be new.
There’s also now a hole for what’s probably a microphone, but there’s no sign of the RGB IR sensor or the ToF (time-of-flight) sensor found on the Xperia 1 IV. But let’s take this picture with a grain of salt.
We’ve also been treated to some unofficial renders of the phone in black and purple, which you can see below. A reliable source has posted some photos and a video of the Sony Xperia 1V, matching the leaked image we already mentioned.
Again, it doesn’t look like much has changed from a design perspective. The same source also mentioned a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery capacity.
Beyond that, there is evidence that the camera could be Sony’s main focus.
Firstly, Sony usually puts a lot of emphasis on the cameras of its flagships, but otherwise the company said it expects smartphone image quality to surpass DSLR image quality by the end of 2024.
This suggests that big improvements to the smartphone camera are expected in the next few years, some of which are likely to be seen in the Sony Xperia 1V.
One such improvement could be a new sensor – perhaps a new 1-inch sensor the company has unveiled that has already been used in the Xiaomi 12s Ultra among other phones.
Sony Xperia 1 V: what we want to see
There are a few key things Sony could do to make the Xperia 1 V much better than the Sony Xperia 1 IV. They include the following.
1. Lower price
The Sony Xperia 1 IV is an astonishingly expensive phone that comes at an even higher price than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
While it has some specs and features that Samsung and Apple phones lack, it’s also inferior in some ways, and certainly priced in such a way that it’ll never be a truly mainstream phone.
So for the Sony Xperia 1V, we want to see a lower price. It’s obviously still going to be a terribly expensive phone, but if Sony can drop the price by a few hundred dollars/pounds, it could push a lot more units.
2. Better fingerprint reader
Paying big bucks doesn’t guarantee a good fingerprint sensor, and that’s the case with the Sony Xperia 1 IV, which has a sensor that turned out to be more failing than successful in our review.
Furthermore, the phone doesn’t even have an on-screen display – it’s side-mounted, which feels a bit antiquated. So with the Sony Xperia 1V, we want the fingerprint reader to be much more reliable, and ideally, it should also be built into the display.
3. More polished software
In our review of the Xperia 1 IV, we found that the software wasn’t as polished as the hardware, with app crashes, an unfortunate amount of bloatware, and – worst of all – video playback simply didn’t work on some video apps.
All of these things can of course be fixed with an update, but with the Sony Xperia 1V, we want it to run smoothly and smoothly out of the box.
4. Faster loading
The Sony Xperia 1 IV supports charging up to 30W, which isn’t terrible – it actually has an advantage over Apple and most Samsung phones, but it pales in comparison to many other phones, some of which can now go as high as 150W.
That’s why in the Sony Xperia 1 V we want to increase the charging power. We’re thinking of at least 60W, but the more the better so we can charge the phone quickly.
5. Zoom to a greater distance
One of the main features of the Sony Xperia 1 IV is the continuous optical zoom – allowing you to get any magnification from 3.5x to 5.2x. It’s not something you’ll find in other phones, but with such a fancy feature, we’d like Sony to make the most of it and increase the zoom level to around 10x like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
This phone offers 3x or 10x optical zoom, but if Sony can offer optical zoom on every level within that range, then Samsung – and every other phone maker – will beat that front.