Xperia 1 IV four months later
I’ve been a Sony Xperia fan for a few years now. My first device was the 1 II, and since then I’ve had the 1 III and Pro-I, before now having the 1 IV. I’m going to break down my thoughts while also pulling from my experience with previous versions of the 1 lineup.
Form Factor:
Differing from both the 1 III and Pro-I, this phone feels great. It has a new shape along the edges and is easy to hold while still feeling nice. The 21:9 screen is something I’ve fallen in love with since the 1 II.
Screen:
I won’t be the first to say it, but 4K on a phone screen is completely overkill. There will always be that one person who says it makes all the difference to them, but to the rest of humanity it is unnecessary to an extreme degree. It puts extra strain on your device by having to push that many more pixels. That being said, this screen is gorgeous. 6.5 inches of unadulterated beauty. The updated screen on the 1 IV means it gets plenty bright in sunlight compared to the likes of the Pro-I. Creator mode is also a welcomed feature, toning down the saturation a bit and helping to show the content that creators intended.
Battery:
Battery life has been stellar in my experience. I went from a little bit of battery anxiety with the Pro-I to absolutely none at all with the 1 IV. I can easily get 3 hours of screen on time (without heavy camera use) over the span of 24 hours, and only lose about 40% battery life. I usually charge my phone to only 80% unless I know I’ll be pushing it, so this usually means my battery is around 30-40% by the next time I charge. Charging has also been great for me. I use a 65W PD charger and can get from 30-40% to 80% in about 30 minutes. Nothing earth shattering like some of the Chinese competition, but it’s enough for me.
Speakers:
They are wonderful. They sound full and pack a very nice punch for being on a phone. Having dual front-firing means you get to hear more of what you want with cleaner stereo separation.
Cameras:
This is where I might get some backlash. The cameras on the 1 IV are definitely an improvement over the 1 III in that they can all shoot 4K120 now (minus the selfie cam), but the telephoto on the 1 IV is just an absolute disappointment. Even after all of the updates, more often than not it’s a soft, smudgy mess. Even in the best of lighting conditions. There’s no point in being able to optically zoom from 85mm to 125mm if it looks terrible at every single focal length in that range. Even my 1 III took cleaner images than this. It’s great tech don’t get me wrong, but for this price we should really expect something better. Other than that, the main and ultrawide are mostly the same between the 1 III and 1 IV, bar the faster readout speeds on the 1 IV. This allows for 4K120 video recording like stated earlier, as well as being also to shoot HDR burst JPEGs. The updated selfie camera on the 1 IV is a joy to use compared to previous versions. Not only is it “acceptable,” but it goes above and beyond in my opinion. Maybe I only think that because I’m comparing to the garbage-ware that comes installed in the 1 III and Pro-I.
Side Sense:
Loved it from the start and always will. I have my opacity set super low, so it’s non intrusive unless I tap it. I have double tap to open most used apps, swipe up for multiscreen, and swipe down for screen shot.
Gaming:
I’m not a super big gamer when it comes to phones, but I do still like to play some from time to time. Notably “Torque Drift” and COD Mobile. I have had no issue connecting and using both a Dual Shock 4 and Dual Sense 5 controller. I use a little mount to attach the phone to the controller and it works out great. Other than these two, I love using my Xperia as a Gameboy emulator. I get to relive my early Pokemon days and even play some great modded versions. The controller and phone emulator combo is great during longer commutes. Not to mention Sony’s built-in game enhancer, which allows live-streaming to services such as Twitch and YouTube (although you’ll need to meet certain YouTube requirements as a channel before being allowed to go live on mobile).
Thermals:
This seems to be a large discussion around the 1 IV in particular. Being one of the people to get the phone on launch, I can confidently say that it was unusable at that time. However, updates have made a huge improvement to thermal performance and throttling / overheating. Only twice in the past couple months has my device overheated. One being out in the blistering 35 degree + sun, while screen recording and shooting photos at the same time. After about 10 times of the Photo Pro app shutting down and telling me to wait, the whole device itself finally decided to just give up. The whole device itself crashed and had to be hard restarted. After coming back, about the last 10 minutes of photo / video was no longer saved. The other time I’ve faced overheating was when purposefully trying to see when it would overheat. Several minutes of 4K120 recording is more than enough in my book, and I hadn’t even taken all of the steps I could to minimize overheating risk (such as turning of radios, removing case, etc). Other than that, the phone has done wonderfully in day to day use as well as taking photos and recording long videos. I often go 20+ minutes in 4K without even getting temperature warnings, and I haven’t had the screen refresh rate throttle in months.
Conclusion:
The 1 IV is overall a great device that sadly falls short on telephoto performance. If you’re on the edge about purchasing due to fear of poor thermal performance, I say give it a try. Unless you live in a desert region you should be fine. And if not, that what 30 day returns are for!
Check out my latest video / vlog about the 1 IV here
