Sony Xperia 1 VII review: flagship lingers on concessions

Sony Xperia 1 VII review

It was not a flawless start for Sony's latest high-end smartphone; the Sony Xperia 1 VII. Several users of the device experienced a device that turned itself off and also stayed off. Sony immediately swapped the devices and fixed the problem, which originated in one device's circuit board. The manufacturer is now back with the Xperia 1 VII and so we were able to get to work with it. The device should offer the best in terms of audio (Walkman), picture (Bravia) and camera (Alpha). Time to put it to the test in the Sony Xperia 1 VII review.

Unboxing and design

The packaging the Sony comes in is not particularly exciting. The device itself has more to compensate for that. Inside the packaging, we find a USB-C cable and some paperwork. A SIM needle is not present, as with the Xperia 1 VII you just open it with your finger.

The Sony's design has been refined with the new version, but still very recognisable as a device from the Japanese manufacturer. The screen edges are slightly more present than, say, a Pixel 10 Pro XL, but certainly not distracting. The device has some things that you have to miss on most smartphones today. For instance, the Xperia has a 3.5 millimetre jack for a headset and there is a physical shutter button on the right side of the device. You can use this as a shutter button for taking photos. The power button and volume button are also on the right, but in our opinion, the volume button is a bit on the short side. As a result, we still occasionally press the wrong side of the button.

The Sony Xperia 1 VII features a 6.5-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. This has not been at 4K resolution since the previous generation. Of course, you get a high refresh rate of 120Hz. The screen looks good and is perfectly readable even on sunny days.

At the bottom of the smartphone is the SIM holder, which you can simply open with your finger. No more fiddling with a SIM needle like that. You can even put a memory card in this slot. Where else can you find that? The USB-C connection can also be found there. At the back, the camera module with three lenses protrudes slightly at the back. Both the back and the frame are textured. This makes the device comfortable and firm in the hand. The smartphone is IP68 certified, making it resistant to water and dust.

The fingerprint scanner is on the right side of the smartphone. This is different from most high-end devices, where it is "just" placed in the screen. Personally, the placement as on the Sony is less my favourite and I also find it slower than, say, a Pixel 10 Pro.

Interface

The interface is as we are used to from Sony, close to pure Android, but still with the manufacturer's own "touch". You can customise various things in the interface, such as choosing a different grid size and theme icons, as you are used to from the Pixel. We see its own sauce reflected in, for example, the quick settings. Still, the interface feels a bit outdated somewhere, although that could certainly be personal preference.

Communication and multimedia

Calling and internet: you can expect a smartphone of this price to have these in order. And of course, here too, the Sony Xperia 1 VII doesn't drop a stitch. There is room for one physical nano SIM card. If you want to use dual-sim, the second SIM card will have to be an eSIM. So there is no room for two physical SIMs.

In terms of multimedia, the screen already does not disappoint, but the sound quality also shows Sony's strength. We can see the Walkman influences in the Sony Xperia 1 VII's speakers. The sound sounds well balanced with nice tones, both high and low. The volume can also be loud enough to enjoy your music. Of course, the device is equipped with stereo speakers. Interestingly, as we are used to from Sony, both speakers are placed on the front. This where most smartphones have the bottom speaker lined up with the USB-C port.

Camera

Sony also promises the best photo quality with Alpha's influence. In fact, Sony has been a serious player for years with its Alpha range in system cameras. In the process, many smartphone manufacturers use the Sony lenses in its devices. Remarkably, we know from the past that Sony devices are not always the best picture takers. How is that with the Sony Xperia 1 VII?

On board the Sony Xperia 1 VII, we find three lenses on the back. This is a 48-megapixel main camera, along with a 48-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. An LED flash can also be found at the back.

The camera app is largely self-explanatory. By default, you take photos in automatic mode. As you are used to from Sony, you can also opt for the extended Pro mode. Both for taking photos and videos. You can adjust the smallest settings here, so for the real gourmet this is a godsend.

We used the camera in varying environments. Overall, the Sony Xperia 1 VII manages to take fine photos. We see plenty of detail and sharpness. In larger contrast differences, the Sony has a harder time and can underexpose many things, making the photo too dark. So we see in photos of the grassland, in the photo of the church and the street with the moat. This is where the Sony goes wrong. We also notice that when taking macro photos, the phone does not want to focus directly on the subject. In the dark, it sometimes happens that a photo is out of focus. The photos can be found in the digital photo album.

In comparison

So the photos generally look pretty okay, but if we hold the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL up against it, we see some big differences. In the comparison photos, the Pixel still always comes out on top as far as we are concerned. So we see in the comparisons below. The turret behind the tree is more exposed on the Sony, while the exposure is much better distributed on the Pixel. We also see this with the photo of the Scottish Highlander, which looks much more natural with the Pixel. It is also noticeable that the zoom lens does not manage to take as strong photos as Google's phone.

Selfies, however, the Sony Xperia 1 VII does manage to take very good ones. This is thanks to the 12 megapixel front camera. A nice bokeh effect with lots of sharpness on the subject.

Video camera

The video camera also offers many options. If you want to manually adjust a wide variety of settings, that's possible. We shot the video below in automatic mode. The videos you shoot with the Xperia 1 VII are rich in colour and you can smoothly zoom between the different focal lengths and lenses. However, you can also see in the video, that zooming in doesn't always work out very nicely with the Sony.

Performance and battery life

The Sony Xperia 1 VII offers a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset from Qualcomm, along with 12GB of working memory. As such, we have little to comment on the speed and processing power. This is to be expected since we are dealing with a high-end smartphone here.

Battery

At the announcement, Sony stated that the device had made great strides in terms of battery life, among other things. Now, of course, we are curious how this is in practice. Under varying usage, we tested the battery life. If you have quite intensive use, mainly on the mobile network (WiFi is more economical), you will reach the end of the day quite easily. The screen time we noted is between 4 and 5 hours. With that, the Sony leaves a tidy score.

Charging is relatively slow at 30W; although we see with Samsung, for example, that this does not seem to be a problem for many users. Various modes are available to conserve battery power. Think of setting a time period between which you usually charge the phone for a few hours, or you can use Stamina mode to save energy.

Update policy

Updating wasn't Sony's best feature for years. With the Sony Xperia 1 VII, the path to improvement has finally begun. The smartphone was running on Android 15 at the time of testing, though the update to Android 16 was released a week before publication. In the article we published, we already said that no significant changes came along with this update.

The Sony Xperia 1 VII gets six years of security updates and four Android updates. This means that with Android 16, one is already finished. This while Samsung gives its top devices seven Android updates. There is still room for improvement here at Sony.

Energy label

Every device nowadays has to come with an energy label. In it, we also see the Sony Xperia 1 VII's score. The manufacturer promises a battery life of 43 hours and 30 minutes, and energy score B. In terms of repair, the device scores low; score D. Drop resistance is said to come out at 'B'. The smartphone has an IP68 certification.

Review

We were able to test the Sony Xperia 1 VII extensively over the past few weeks. None of it got really exciting. Now, with many smartphone brands, the successor is not very exciting (look at the Galaxy S25, iPhone 17 family or the Pixel 10, which are also not a world of difference from their predecessor). The smartphone looks comfortable in the hand and offers several extras that competitors do not offer such as the shutter button, 3.5mm jack and a memory card slot. Still, there is room for improvement.

Sony has such a big name in camera land, but in their smartphones they still leave stitches. Thereby, it is a shame that Sony still does not opt for an in-screen fingerprint scanner. If you want to buy the Xperia 1 VII in combination with a subscription because you don't want to shell out that much money in one go, then tough luck too. Sony only sells its device through its own website. Although the Sony Xperia 1 VII is a fine device, competitors show that you don't have to make as many concessions for this money. This also applies to the update policy, for instance. Because although the smartphone now happily runs on Android 16 soon, the update promise is less than with Google and Samsung, for example. Add to that the fact that the device still costs 1499 euros; and competitors quickly become much more interesting.