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I must admit to a certain element of surprise when offered the opportunity to review a particular Sony smartphone.  The model in question was the Sony Xperia 1 V whose launch has been announced nine months ago, which some might regard as a hefty chunk of some phone models life span.  But once the initial burst of surprise departed I was ready to take on the task of checking the capabilities of the Sony Xperia 1 V product when put to the test.

Fortunately my review unit arrived fully charged and ready for use as the accompanying package did not contain an appropriate charger or power cable. Sometimes accessory items can accidentally go missing when products have been used by different reviewers and maybe this was the case in this instance but it meant I was unable to fully test the handset's optimum charging features.  If, on the other hand, this omission  was due to a cut-back on Sony’s part, it did seem a bit mean as this product was launched with a price that was more than double what I paid for my first car.

But returning to more positive topics, the Sony Xperia 1 V gives you no reason to be ashamed of its appearance.  The product has a fairly standard look. This is made up of a full screen visual display which is covered by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, an aluminium frame plus Gorilla Glass on the back giving you a clear view of the Khaki Green backplane. 

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The Sony Xperia 1 V’s body dimension of 165 x 71 x 8.3 mm (H x W x D) does means that this handset is unlikely to be mistaken with any of those from various competitors.  The smaller width of the handset might give an impression that the Xperia could have been put on a slimming diet to reduce its width.  One aspect of this slimming might reduce any grip issues for those with slightly smaller hands. 

I felt no difficulty in switching from a larger width handset as the Xperia sat comfortable in my hand with its collection of accessible buttons within easy reach on the right side of the unit.  These buttons cover volume, power and camera facilities.  It did take some practice to get use to turning off power shut down which required a simultaneous press on two buttons to bring up this option rather than the one button pres I was more familiar.

Along with the side mounted buttons, the Xperia has a USB-C type port for charging purposes on its base.  Also mounted on the base is a pull-out tray capable of holding either dual Nano-SIM cards or a single Nano-SIM and memory card with up to 1TB capacity.  A 3.5 mm jack socket sits at the top of the handset for headphone connection.

Beating at the heart of the Xperia 1 V device is a Qualcomm SM8550 – AB Snapdragon 8 Gen2 chipset.  This chipset is made up of an Octa-core (1 x 3.2 GHz Cortext-X3 & 2 x 2.8 GHz Cortex A715 & 2 x 2.8 GHz Cortex A710 & 3 x 2.0 GHz Cortex A510 CPU and an Adreno 740 GPU.  Initially delivering Android 13, the Xperia 1 V smartphone is upgradeable to Android 14.  Apart from a tad slowish start-up process, following a complete shut-down, the Xperia 1 V managed all its tasks at a reasonable rate.

The Xperia 1 V has a triple camera arrangement mounted in the top left corner of its back plate.  The arrangement of lens does tend to protrude a little which some might find a little disconcerting but it does not affect performance.  The array of lenses is made up of a 48MP camera supported by a pair of 12MP cameras delivering ultra-wide and telephoto facilities.  There is also a 12MP selfie camera offering a wide capture to make sure you do not miss any subject matter. 

Full control over any adjustments can be carried out using the supplied Photo and Cinema Pro apps.  These apps can offer enough features to more than satisfy those of us who are compulsive fiddlers trying every setting available or more of a member of the point and shoot brigade.  I must admit that due to my two seasons as working as a photographer of holiday makers tends to steer me towards the latter option as the work entailed capturing as many slots as possible.

While offering its eye-catching visual output appeal, the Xperia 1 V supports a range of audio features delivered via its physical 3.5mm headphone connection and cable-free Bluetooth options plus the unit’s built-in speakers.  The Xperia 1 V supports hi-resolution audio wireless, Dolby Sound and 360 Reality Audio.  Whatever your audio tastes, the Xperia can delivered it with enough settings to satisfy any temptation to fiddle with its tempo and style of delivery.

As mentioned earlier, this handset arrived with its 5000 mAh battery fully charged giving just under two days of usage with a mixture of video watching, music listening and an occasional phone call thrown in for good measure.  The Xperia 1 V was generally easy to use (the two-button power-off press apart) and provide ample features that include excellent video and audio output.

When considering the Xperia 1 V, it might be best to think of what as it can offer rather than the hit it will make on your pocket when purchasing it.  The Xperia I V sits at the high-end range of price points for this handset displaying Sony's various high-end features and stylish appearance.  Currently I have seen this smartphone, with 256GB of ROM and 12GB of RAM, as reviewed priced at £975 from Amazon.  Shopping around might bring the reward of a lower cost.