Following the teaser from late last month, Sony has finally unveiled the Xperia 1 IV flagship smartphone. It is jam-packed with just about every feature that a phone can have, which borders on excessive. And both expectedly and unfortunately, it has the price to match.
To start, Sony touts the Xperia 1 IV as the first phone to offer true 85-125mm optical telephoto zoom. Being a triple camera setup, the other two include a 24mm wide lens and a 16mm ultra-wide lens. All three feature a 12MP “Exmor RS for mobile” sensor, and all three are capable of shooting in 120fps, 4K HDR, with real-time eye autofocus and tracking. They are also capable of 20fps bursts. And finally, all three come with ZEISS T coating. Even the front-facing 12MP camera can shoot in 4K HDR.
It’s not just the camera hardware as well. The Xperia 1 IV also sports the Videography Pro software, though it’s unclear if this is the same one or a tweaked version of the one found on the Xperia Pro-I. As before, you can also use the phone as a second screen for Sony Alpha cameras.
Sony is also giving the Xperia 1 IV something new in terms of software, in the form of the new Music Pro. The company touts this as the software that can give music creators near-studio quality recording. Though part of this involves cloud processing, the use of which will incur a monthly fee.
Surprisingly though, Sony is also putting the Xperia 1 IV down the gaming route. The phone sports not only 120Hz refresh rate for its 6.5-inch 21:9 4K HDR display, but also a 240Hz touch-scanning rate. Then there’s the Game Enhancer software that also comes with features that make livestreaming game footage simpler.
Other items on the Xperia 1 IV spec sheet include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space and a 5000mAh battery. As usual, it also sports an IP65/68 rating.
Where past Xperia models have an obvious focus on photography, the Sony Xperia 1 IV looks like it wants to be able to do everything. Which reflects on its price. While there’s no local pricing yet, the phone was announced with a price tag of US$1599.99 (~RM7006). Which is only a little under the launch price of the Xperia Pro-I. But for what it’s worth, Sony Malaysia says that the Xperia 1 IV will be available locally in early July.
