The Sony Xperia 1 IV is a premium smartphone for professionals. With a high price tag, it's certainly not the phone for everyone, however if you take photography and filmmaking seriously, there's simply no other phone that has a better camera right now.

Currently available on EE, O2 and Vodafone, there are plenty of Sony Xperia 1 IV contracts to choose from. As always, we'll show you the cheapest pay monthly deals available.

Display

As with previous Sony Xperia phones, the Xperia 1 IV has the current best display technology available, packing an incredible 6.5 inch 4K OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate.

The 21:9 aspect ratio delivers a wide cinema like experience, with HDR support for vivid pictures and incredible depth with a 10 bit panel.

Sony claims the Xperia 1 IV has 50% improved brightness over the previous Sony Xperia 1 III.

Furthermore, with CineAlta technology, the Sony Xperia 1 IV is able to reproduce accurate colours, with precise whites and deep blacks. The professional grade display has a massive 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Performance

The Sony Xperia 1 IV has flagship performance, with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip from Qualcomm.

With an upgraded processor, Sony claims to have made performance improvements up to 20% from the previous iteration, with 8 cores for best in class gaming performance.

In addition to the new CPU, memory has been increased to 12GB, which will be able to deliver desktop-like multitasking performance.

The Xperia 1 IV comes in either 256GB or 512GB internal storage options. Unlike most flagship phones, Sony has retained a microSD slot, for expandable storage up to 1TB.

Camera

The Sony Xperia 1 IV has a top of the line camera system that can shoot film-like video, with 4K resolution up to 120fps.

With Videography Pro, the camera can be manually controlled, allowing you to adjust the scene to achieve a Hollywood look.

The Xperia 1 IV uses the same Sony Eye AF and Object Tracking technology as used with professional grade video cameras. The camera is able to automatically lock on and focus, and can even track eyes to keep subjects in frame.

There are a total of 4 cameras on board, featuring triple 12 MP cameras and a 0.3 MP depth camera. On the front, there’s a large 12 MP wide camera, which also supports HDR recording.

Operating System

Shipping with the current Android 12 version, the Sony Xperia 1 IV has all the best and latest features from Google’s operating system.

Sony have promised at least 2 years of major security updates, meaning the Xperia 1 IV will also receive future Android 13 and Android 14 versions.

Design

For the Xperia 1 IV, Sony is sticking with its traditional design language, with a focus on minimalism and ergonomics.

Sony have managed to minimise the sharpness of the edges from the previous Xperia 1 III, for a phone that feels more comfortable to hold.

On the rear, there’s a beautiful frost glass material with a metal frame, which delivers a premium matte like finish.

Battery life

The Sony Xperia 1 IV is packed with a huge 5000 mAh battery, which is able to deliver more than a day’s worth of average usage.

With 30W fast charging, you will be able to charge the Xperia 1 IV to 50% in just under 30 minutes. Furthermore, there’s also wireless charging, with reverse wireless charging to keep your other devices up and running on the go.

Recent tests show the Sony Xperia 1 IV can deliver 27 hours talktime, 11 hours and 30 minutes of web browsing and 15 hours of video playback. This is a significant improvement over the Xperia 1 III, and is in line with current flagship phones on the market.

Free Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones

If you pre-order the Sony Xperia 1 IV on O2, EE or Vodafone on contract, you will receive free Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones worth £279, with wireless and noise cancelling technology.

You must pre-order between the 12th May 2022 and 15th June 2022, and you must be a UK resident.

Colours

The Sony Xperia 1 IV is available in Black, Purple and Ice White.

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