Sony Xperia 1 VI: Photographer's Review

My Camera Gear ⬇️

[aratafreecs]

Photographer/ videographer using Sony gear here. This is my new smartphone and I absolutely love it! The only features I really cared about were the excellent headphone jack, the expandable storage and awesome battery life.
I don't always want to carry my Bluetooth DAC/amp with me when using headphones. I like having my best work on my smartphone and those 60MP files quickly take up a lot of space (I only transfer the edited ones, not all my raws, except when I need to quickly edit on my phone). And lastly, who doesn't like more battery life?
I do have some minor gripes, but I would buy it again in a heartbeat!
After testing out the raws, I decided to stop packing my 16 and 20mm lenses for now and using my phone when I want to capture something that wide.

[PixWaxGB]

Great review. I have been using the 15 Pro Max for a while and have my trusty Sony A6700 for dedicated photography. I used the Xperia 1 V a while back and loved the manual controls but for (phone) reasons switched back to iPhone. Recently picked up the Xperia 1 VI and have been extremely impressed with the cameras and phone overall. 
The standouts for me are the Macro Mode, amazing 24mm lens, the best battery life in a phone since the Nokia era and the new brighter screen. Telephoto is ok if you use a tripod or rest on a stable surface, but at maximum zoom whilst holding in your hands - nope, super difficult to get a crisp shot. But taking the RAW shots into LightRoom is just great!!! Taking Apple ProRAW images into LR was always a "how has the iPhone messed up this image" scenario and then straight to Adobe Colour presets. Taking an Xperia Raw is (minus the white levels always at +15 by default) a joy with loads to play around with in post and none of that over-sharpened this is how your image should look AI rubbish! 
A couple of updates and the phone will be as near perfect for the times I don't have my A6700 with the exception of lacking my 75mm-350mm G lens (which I love to use).

[kolaj]

The photo button isn't added. It's been there for ages.

[olesheim]

Sony Xperia 1 iv is a great news videographers tool that can stream RTMP right out of the box. Perfect that I can connect my Sony a7R5 to it when I need even longer telephoto reach or XLR audio connectivity. It’s using USB-C so a very easy and secure connection. Far better than small HDMI-ports. Sony Xperia 1 iv is the best news gathering phone ever!

[lionelb]

I've had iPhone, Xiaomi and Sony. Among all of them, i prefer the Sony pictures.
The iPhone processed pictures too much and the Xiaomi had a weird color science.

And in general, the Sony hardware is pretty good, it never let me down. I can't say the same about my iPhone...

[ronansorgdrager]

I love how "honest" the xperia photos look and feel.

[llIlllllIll]

the Raws are kind of underwhelming in my opinion. I figured out that shooting in 48MP with the "natural" profile has the best results and still allows for a decent amount of editing. It's doesn't quite have the actual 48MP level of detail, but if you convert them to 12 or 24MP in post and slightly soften them, they can pretty much keep up with something like an aps-c camera, obviously only at 24mm and good lighting conditions

[joelconolly]

I completely agree with you. The telephoto is good but only very occasionally. It really doesn't like not enough lighting. At this point I'm just waiting for it to reach 1/2 inch just so it can flex more. It could still be better.

[fotosvond_]

What really stands out in comparison to, for example, Apple is that if you shoot RAW only in Pro mode, your RAW will look like what you see on the screen. On iOS, your exposure aids show you that you are exposed properly and afterwards the image is way too dark which makes it very hard to capture a RAW based on what you would refer to with your regular camera.

What I really like is S-Cinetone. That is a lot more usable than iPhone video which is just the usual crap.

Concerning exposure, well, yes, but I just lower the brightness and it's okay. I would rather go with an overexposed sky than with oversharpened Apple-HDR-images.

As far as telephoto is concerned, I would probably say it would be more beneficial to use a fixed 85mm lens and put the same Exmor T sensor in for all 3 lenses with f/2. However, if you really need reach, this 170mm is nice to have if you don't want to bring your camera with a big lens. :D

[montaereese]

Wish you could review the OnePlus 12 and do a Photography review. It would be super awesome I know it.

[RaniJoensen]

I have had the Sony Xperia 1 IV for two years, and it has exactly the same issues, i don't understand why they kept going with the optical zoom telephoto lens again and again it's extremely hit and miss (80% miss) and the software support is not too good either, i had to manualy download APKs to update my camera app to make it similar to the newer models. The IV has had Cinema Pro app from release and it was the highlight of the phone, insane 4k 120fps for all lenses, and you don't have that on the new model yet.. I wish Sony had better software support then i'd buy a Sony phone again.

[jonasolofsson]

The Xperias are very special, good and bad. I was recently sorting out my google photos and reached where I got my 5IV. And good damn did the portrait photos blow my Note20 ultra out of the water! In good lighting that is. When the circumstances was not ideal it didn’t perform well at all. Blurry and soft. But then the autofocus and fast shutter speed is among the best I’ve experienced on a smartphone. But the videos is no where near the quality of my iPhone. And so on and so on.

[AJ-yrbz]

Interesting take, I couldn't agree more. I've had the 1 VI for a few weeks now and am debating on keeping it. On the one hand, the hardware is superb - IP65/68, Micro SD, 3.5mm audio jack with LDAC/LPBT/DSEE/Atmos, stereo speakers, best call quality of any device I've had, Snapdragon 8 gen 3, and the camera HARDWARE is just impressive. I'm no photographer, but wanted a phone without AI nonsense that gave me the classic Android experience in great hardware. This phone does do that!

But at the same time, it just feels lacking in other ways. Stock Android isn't bad per se, but for $1300 it just feels stingy. Even with Nova launcher there's too many features lacking for this class of device - can't customize lock screen shortcuts, the side sense dock doesn't trigger right, fingerprint sensor is reaaaally inconsistent; I've had nothing but positive experiences with my S21 ultra in-display and many other phones I've tried so it's bizarre to me that a side mounted one is this bad.

Worse, there are no "pro" apps aside from Music Pro which you have to go AND FIND in the play store - the marketing team is asleep at the wheel! The unboxing experience was an insult - I tried a $400 Nothing Phone 2a and was thrilled at the attention to detail in the packaging and included accessories; it felt like the company actually cared about their product. I know the camera's are excellent here, and the audiophile-pleasing DAC with audio jack is the combination where the cost comes from, but for the love all that is good this phone costs 3X what that 2a did and offers NONE of the software "quality of life". And the Sony's camera takes steady hands and photography knowledge to get all the value out of it, as shown in this video...

Really debating keeping this thing. Even with a $200 discount, it just feels like the Sony is missing too much despite the hardware on offer.

[brettmansfield]

Watched about 5 other reviews which were obviously paid for by Sony before finding this one, so glad you pointed out how mushy the telephoto looks.

[impacttoinfinity]

Coming from xperia 1-4 and 5. I think the color science of the 4 was the best but the overheating was atrocious. 5 started having processing and it didn't feel so natural. I think 6 marks the end if my Sony run. I liked using the video pro and camera pro apps (even though sometimes froze).

[ZotmundSzele]

I think Sony is just failing to get both the phone and now the camera part right in their Xperias.

[remi]

Sony xperia 1 vi 512gb internal storage with microsd slot up to 1.5tb.
Only for that take my money! 😜

[junkster]

what about other aspects of the phone? you only talked about one of them. what if taking snapshots isn’t that important to the user?

[r.t]

Thank you for preventing me from spending another £1, 200. I am having some problems with the telephoto of my Xperia 1v when taking shots on the street at night. I expected a massive camera upgrade from a V to VI, but it's minor. I guess I will have to wait two more years.

[MienLeHoang]

actually the tele macro mode was started a few months ago with huawei pura 70, I think. Lots of Chinese phones has this feature this year, from a few months ago. Vivo, Honor, and recently is Xiaomi too. Sony isn't the first one, but I glad they include it to their xperia.