You have to admire Sony’s commitment to doing things its own way, rather than simply following current trends. It did with the Sony Xperia 1 V – a phone with a 21:9 4K display, large bezels and a continuous optical zoom – and probably with the Sony Xperia 1 VI as well.
There are pros and cons to this approach, but it certainly helps Sony’s flagship phones stand out from the crowd.
So far we don’t know anything about the Sony Xperia 1 VI, but we can make an educated guess about its price, release date and some of its key features. You can find it below, and as soon as information leaks out, we will add it too.
What we do know is what we want from the Sony Xperia 1 VI, so skip to the second half of this article for information on that.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Sony’s next flagship
- When is it out? Possibly May 2024
- How much is it? Probably at least $1,399 / £1,299 / AU$2,099
Sony Xperia 1 VI: release date and price
The Sony Xperia 1 V was announced in May 2023, but didn’t go on sale until late June in the UK and late July in the US. However, this long wait between the announcement date and the sale date isn’t unusual for Sony, even if it’s a bit unorthodox by industry standards.
There’s no news yet on when the Sony Xperia 1 VI will be unveiled, but as the Sony Xperia 1 IV is also set to be announced in May, our best guess is May 2024.
In fact, the last two models were both unveiled on May 11 of their release years. Now, that’s a Saturday in 2024, so it’s unlikely as a date, but something close to that around mid-May is probably likely. Of course, you’ll probably then have to wait until at least June to get your hands on it, based on previous form.
As for the price, the Sony Xperia 1 V starts at $1,399 / £1,299 / AU$2,099, so the Sony Xperia 1 VI will probably cost at least that much, which is a shame as that’s an extremely high price.
Sony Xperia 1 VI: news and leaks
We haven’t heard anything about the Sony Xperia 1 VI yet, but we can predict that it will inherit some aspects of the Sony Xperia 1 V.
That includes a narrow 21:9 display with a 4K resolution – as these are signature features of the line. It’s also likely to put a lot of thought into the cameras, likely to feature a continuous optical zoom lens that can move smoothly between different focal ranges, as that’s also one of the highlights of the latest model.
However, one thing that will almost certainly change is the chipset, with Sony likely moving from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so expect the Sony Xperia 1 VI to be more powerful than the Xperia 1 V.
Sony Xperia 1 VI: what we want to see
The Sony Xperia 1 V is a decent phone, but there’s plenty of room for improvement, as our Sony Xperia 1 V review shows. This is what we would most like to see from the next model.
1. Sharper zoom shots
Perhaps the most important feature of the Sony Xperia 1 V is its telephoto camera, which can move between optical zoom levels of 3.5x and 5.2x, rather than being locked to one zoom level like most smartphone telephoto cameras or two separate sensors on two different zoom ranges, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (which has both 3x and 10x telephoto sensors).
In our review, however, we found that the resulting images are a bit soft. This is one of the perils of offering a continuous optical zoom rather than a fixed focal length (the same goes for conventional cameras), but we hope this is something Sony can improve on for the Xperia 1 VI; so that zoom shots are completely sharp and clear.
2. Better thermal management
In our Sony Xperia 1 V test, we found the phone could get surprisingly warm even when doing very little. On a likely related note, we found – when using an app called CPU Throttling Test – that performance would drop quite quickly when the phone was pressed.
So with the Sony Xperia 1 VI we want better thermal management so the phone stays cooler and hopefully performance isn’t throttled as much as a result.
3. Faster charging
While the Sony Xperia 1 V has a fairly decent battery life, its charging speed is much less impressive than many of its competitors, topping out at 30W. That’s still a little quicker than an iPhone, but considering we have seen phones like the OnePlus 10T charge at 150W, and many handsets can charge at more than 60W provided only 30W charging isn’t really cut in 2023/2024.
That’s why we want to see a boost with the Sony Xperia 1 VI. It should at least be capable of a 45W charge like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but ideally we’d like it to charge even faster.
4. A better fingerprint sensor
One of the many unusual choices Sony is making with the Xperia 1 V is to put a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the side, in the power key, rather than using a – these days – more conventional sensor under the screen. This isn’t a problem in itself, although it’s a bit old-fashioned, but in our test we found the sensor to be slower, less responsive and less reliable than those found in most phones.
At this price point that’s unacceptable, so we’d like to see big improvements with the Sony Xperia 1 VI’s fingerprint sensor wherever Sony puts it.
5. A lower price
The Sony Xperia 1 V has all sorts of interesting features and advanced technology, but there’s no denying how expensive it is.
With a starting price that’s even higher than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or iPhone 14 Pro Max, it’s never going to be anything but a niche entry into the high-end smartphone space, but we’d love the Sony Xperia 1 VI to be a more mainstream prospect. The price has to be lower for that. Not drastic, but it should at least undercut the aforementioned phones.