Sony’s new smartphone may appeal to photography enthusiasts from Apple and Google

Sony was once a major player in smartphones, but its products never made a splash in the United States. Still, the company releases yearly updates to its Xperia line of smartphones that look like perfect devices for both amateur and professional photographers. After all, Sony is no slouch.

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

The back is divided into three lenses, a 24mm main camera with a 48-megapixel Sony Exmor T sensor, a 16mm ultra-wide-angle camera, and the aforementioned 85-170mm variable zoom telephoto camera. The last one offers 3.5x to 7.1x magnification compared to the main camera. The ladybug in your yard is begging for its close-up.

As for AI-assisted autofocus, Sony has introduced a technology called “Human Posture Estimation” that can identify a person’s body and head position to provide perfect focus. The camera system also supports 4K HDR video shooting at 120fps. All of these features work together in Sony’s new unified camera app, so people don’t have to constantly jump between different pieces of software to get work done.

Of course, this is a smartphone, not just a bunch of cameras attached to a rectangle. The Xperia 1 VI has the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and storage options of 256GB and 512GB. Sony says the integrated 5,000mAh battery can last up to two days before needing to be recharged. To this end, the device supports 15W wireless charging and wireless battery sharing with other devices.

There’s an OLED display, which is nice, but it has a resolution of 2220 x 1080, and the aspect ratio has also suffered, shrinking from 21:9 to 19.5:9. However, the monitor now offers a variable update rate between 1Hz and 120Hz, which allows it to achieve 50% higher peak brightness compared to last year’s model. Also, 4K resolution on a phone screen is a bit unnecessary, and this thing can shoot in 4K, which is what really matters.

The Sony Xperia 1 VI is now available for pre-order in the UK, with prices starting at an eye-watering $1,640. There’s also some bad news for American consumers. Unlike previous versions, the company currently has no plans to bring this phone to the US market.

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