Sony Xperia 1
Price: £849 from fave.co/2RBoErc
Just when we thought Sony had settled into a naming pattern for its flagship phones it changes track again. The grandly named Xperia 1 goes for broke on the latest Sony smartphone philosophy: do what we do best, and unapologetically so.
This means the Xperia 1 is a tall, thin purple 4K smartphone with pretty great cameras. It’s an odd, expensive mix of a lot of good things, with some things missing. It’s not for everyone, but for once, Sony is comfortable that it isn’t – and the phone is all the better for it.
Display
The screen is the place to start with the Xperia 1. After 2017’s Xperia XZ Premium boasted the world’s first smartphone with a 4K HD LCD display, the Xperia 1 brings you the first ever 4K HDR OLED. Sony loves to be first at smartphone achievements and the display is thankfully excellent.
The resolution is a staggering 3,840x1,644 and has 643 pixels per inch. It’s every bit as good as on the industry-best Samsung Galaxy S10, but does not have as good daylight visibility. I struggled to see the Xperia 1’s display in the brightest conditions.
The move to an incredibly uncommon 21:9 display is so that the Xperia 1 can playback in the same ratio many movies
