Sony’s new smartphone could distract Apple and Google

Sony used to be a pretty major player in the smartphone space, but its offerings never made a splash in the US. However, the company pumps out an annual refresh of its line of Xperia smartphones and looks like the perfect device for both amateur and professional photographers. Sony, after all, is no slouch.

The sixth generation of the company’s flagship smartphone is packed with so many camera-centric features that it might actually lure people away from rival iPhones and Pixel devices. It has true optical zoom, AI-assisted autofocus, and a telephoto camera for taking macro shots.

This splits into three cameras on the back, in the form of a 24mm main camera with a 48MP Sony Exmor T sensor, a 16mm ultra-wide and the aforementioned 85-170mm telephoto camera with variable zoom. The latter provides a magnification of 3.5x to 7.1x compared to the main camera. The ladybug in your yard is begging for its close-up.

As for AI-assisted autofocus, Sony touts a technology called “human pose estimation” that can recognize a person’s body and head position to ensure perfect focus. The camera system also supports 4K HDR video recording at 120fps. All of these features work together within Sony’s new unified camera app, so people don’t have to constantly jump between different software to get the job done.

Of course, this is a smartphone, not just a bunch of cameras attached to a rectangle. The Xperia 1 VI boasts the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB of RAM and a choice between 256GB and 512GB of storage. Sony says the integrated 5,000mAh battery should allow up to two days of use before requiring a charge. To that end, the device supports both 15W wireless charging and wireless battery sharing with other devices.

It has an OLED display, which is nice, but it’s 2220 x 1080 and . The aspect ratio takes a hit here too, dropping from 21:9 to 19.5:9. However, this display now offers a variable refresh rate between 1Hz to 120Hz and can achieve 50 percent higher peak brightness compared to last year’s model. Also, the 4K screen resolution on the phone is kind of unnecessary, and this thing can shoot in 4K, which really matters.

Sony Xperia 1 VI is now available for pre-order in the UK, starting at an impressive $1,640 USD. There’s more bad news for American consumers. Unlike previous versions, the company has no current plans to launch this phone in the US.

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