Every phone needs to do THIS! Sony Xperia 1 IV Review
The Xperia 1 IV is an interesting product because it really is a camera trying to be a phone. Now, this is not my first experience with the Xperia so I’m very familiar with its unique 21:9 aspect ratio which I still think is one of the most comfortable handset aspect ratios to grip.
One-handed grip
Horizontal-grip
It also has loud stereo speakers with spatial audio, that rare headphone jack for audiophiles and creatives, a bright 4k OLED display with a 120 hz refresh rate, tooless sim card / expandable storage tray. So you can quickly remove it to swap out microSD card.
But really, the Xperia 1 IV stands out as being the only phone that I feel comfortable using for my actual day to day work shooting product b-rolls, thumbnails, anything that before, I could only trust my Sony mirrorless camera to do. You see, most phones including the current flagships from Apple and Samsung, they shoot great pictures. But in this struggle to make tiny phone cameras shoot the “perfect” picture, they’ve been pushing “more megapixels”, sophisticated HDR, sharper lines, Bokeh on demand - just so that you don’t need any photography knowledge to shoot a great picture. So if you hand that phone to a child to snap that picture, it’s gonna be a reasonably great picture nine times out of ten.
Sample photo
Sample photo
But I’ve never been able to use those phones for my work because somehow, the pictures never look as natural or as clean as my Sony a6300. Often, the white balance is off and that throws off the color, areas that I want to be dark get overexposed. Lines are far too sharp so the pictures look overprocessed. If these are casual shots I’m taking for myself, they’re perfectly acceptable but often these are not suitable for my work. Plus I wanna have total manual control over my shot. Everything from adjusting shutter speed, ISO, aperture, manual focus, white balance… Yeah, I know, I’m a control freak. And the output has to be as clean and natural as my mirrorless camera. And so far, only the Xperia 1 IV came the closest to doing that for me. And here’s why. It’s got three focal lengths. 16mm ultra wide, 24mm wide, and 85-125mm telephoto. We’re talking real optical telephoto, in fact this is the first phone in the market to have something like this.
In Manual Mode. Focal length toggles on the left.
And this is the focal length that I use for shooting products. I shoot really small objects, and when I wanna zoom in and capture it, it really helps that it’s got Sony’s world-famous Optical Image Stabilization and autofocus technology, so I’m able to capture a sharp, clean image all of the time.
It also helps that the shutter speed on this device is insane, we’re talking 20fps burst mode. So you can shoot handheld like the pros, just fire off a burst, then pick the sharpest image out of the lot. And having used Sony cameras exclusively in my day to day, this phone really feels like a natural extension of that. Its camera interface, Sony’s famous Eye Autofocus, subject tracking, are more or less what you see on the Alpha cameras. (It even works for animals!)
Sony’s Eye Autofocus
There’s even a 2-step shutter button. Just like on cameras one step locks focus, full press takes the shot. All the rear lens elements are 12MPs, but they all shoot 4K video up to 120fps so whatever focal length you’re shooting you can achieve that cinematic, buttery smooth look, Peter Mckinnon style, or maybe you’re something of a Daniel Schiffer. Either way, the results are impressive, which is why I use this a lot for product B-Rolls. It’s just more convenient and I can achieve a similar look to my Sony a6300, in most cases. Even when shooting walkie talkie videos in 4K, the results are very usable. And the audio pickup is great. You can really use this camera for livestreams and vlogs just on its own.
But I’m not saying that this phone is just for pros. If you’re just getting into the game and you want more automation, the Mark 4’s Basic mode in the Photo Pro app is great for that. It’ll still capture fantastic pictures, very close to what I get when shooting in manual. But of course basic camera fundamentals are still essential. For example, lighting is important, don’t put your subject in front of a light source unless you’re looking for a different look, maybe to shoot a silhouette, cause unlike other camera phones these don’t try to auto balance individual parts of the picture to balance the scene exposure. It really behaves just like an actual camera would in that it compels you to be more thoughtful about your shot.
That is why I don’t really think of the Xperia as just another phone. Like I said, it feels more like a camera trying to be a phone. That being said, there are some things that I didn’t quite like that really stood out. For example, I appreciate having that fingerprint unlock on the power button. It makes a lot of sense having it there but I would rather have it under the screen like most flagship Android devices. That way it’s so much easier to unlock the phone with both hands. It’s got a 5000 mAH battery. Now, that’s a very decent capacity, and you can get a full day out of this, but not if you’re often shooting videos, snapping pictures, or gaming with this device. I’ve never ran out fully, but I noticed that it drains about 30 percent in just a few hours of heavy usage. It also does heat up easily too even when you’re just shooting photos. I mean, it gets so warm that even a burn warning pops up on the screen!
That can’t be good!
That might not be a problem in winter, but on a hot summer’s day, I recommend that you pay more attention to that heat warning. Clearly, more has to be done about that cooling. Personally I won’t really mind that the device could be a little thicker to accommodate better thermals. I mean, as a creative professional, somebody who’s clearly the target audience of such a product, I won’t really mind a bit more camera, for a little less phone. But what do you guys think? Leave your comments below.
