Sony is not done with its smartphone business just yet, and has just debuted its latest flagship, the Sony Xperia 1 VII. True to Sony’s tradition, this smartphone does not look too different from its predecessor, but it does pack some new goodies and retains some features we believe Sony fans will be happy with.
Sony Xperia 1 VII gets Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, new 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera
Like previous Xperia 1 devices, the Sony Xperia 1 VII continues to sport a glass and aluminium build, and is rated at IP65/68 for dust and water resistance. It comes with three colour options, namely Slate Black, Moss Green, and Orchid Purple.
At the front, you get a 6.5″ Full HD+ (2340×1080) HDR OLED display that’s laid out in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio with a 120Hz refresh rate. This panel is also said to be the brightest Xperia display ever, although no official peak brightness figure has been published just yet.
At the heart of the Xperia 1 VII is Qualcomm’s latest flagship smartphone chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It also packs a 5,000mAh battery that is said to last up to two days on a single charge, and can be charged at 30W via USB-C.
Camera-wise, the Sony Xperia 1 VII is equipped with a tri-camera setup at the back, consisting of the same main and telephoto camera units brought over from the Xperia 1 VI:
- 52MP f/1.9 (48MP effective) main camera with 1/1.35″ Exmor T sensor
- 12MP f/2.3-f/3.5 telephoto camera with 85mm-170mm zoom range, 1/3.5″ Exmor RS sensor
What’s new though is the 50MP f/2.0 (48MP effective) ultra-wide-angle shooter with a 1/1.56″ Exmor RS sensor. Sony says it has fitted this camera unit with a new minimal-distortion lens for reduced distortion. For selfies, you get a 12MP f/2.0 camera up front.
Working with all of these cameras is a camera shutter button that’s been with Sony smartphones (and even feature phones) for many years. But this button has been enlarged with the latest Xperia 1 VII. As usual, half-pressing the button triggers Eye AutoFocus, while a full press helps you snap the picture or start recording a video.
Sony’s latest smartphone continues on with a headphone jack & microSD card slot
Unlike most flagship smartphones out there, the Sony Xperia 1 VII remains one of the few and rare ones to pack a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. Therefore, if your smartphone usage still requires these two features, the Xperia 1 VII is made for you.
The Xperia 1 VII also gets a pair of “Full-stage” stereo speakers up front.
Xperia Intelligence is Sony’s smartphone AI tech for visual, imaging, audio
Unlike Samsung’s Galaxy AI or Apple Intelligence, Xperia Intelligence does not include AI-powered productivity features. Instead, it packs features to help improve the phone’s visual, camera, and audio performance, using Display AI, Camera AI, and Audio AI. Display AI is said to be Sony Xperia’s AI remastering technology, assisting in reproducing colour, contrast, and texture.
Camera AI introduces features like human pose estimation, which analyses your subject’s form, AI Camerawork, which keeps your subject centred always, as well as Auto Framing, which helps keep your subject in frame after cropping your horizontal video into vertical, for instance. Other Camera AI features include Real-time Eye AF, as well as features that help maintain accurate exposure and natural white balance.
Audio AI comes with DSEE Ultimate, an AI upscaling technology Sony Xperia has developed in collaboration with Sony Music to reproduce “near high-resolution audio quality”.
Sony Xperia 1 VII promised with 4-year major OS & 6-year security updates
The Sony Xperia 1 VII will ship with Android 15 out of the box. But unlike the Xperia 1 VI, which was only promised with 3 years of OS updates, Sony has promised to provide the Sony Xperia 1 VII with 4 years of major OS updates and 6 years of security updates.
Though this is still no comparison to the 7-year update Samsung and Google have promised with their recent flagships, a small improvement is still better than none.
Sony Xperia 1 VI to come to Malaysia in July 2025
Sony Malaysia has confirmed that the Xperia 1 VI will be coming into Malaysia in mid-July 2025, with all three colour options to be offered.
The phone will come in its 12GB RAM and 256GB storage guise. If you find the storage not enough, you can expand it easily using the microSD slot the phone comes with.
