OCTOBER 2019 • TECH ADVISOR 35REVIEWProapponthephonetorecordfullymanualvideo.
Youwill only get good results here if you understand
howtousea fullymanualvideocamera.It’sfunto
playwith if you’re an amateur though, and a good
wayintolearninghowtogetgoodresultswithout
a£10,000+ cinema camera.
But,aswithvideocapturedin themaincamera
app,results suffer from lack of decent stabilization.
Despite Sony building in a hybrid of OIS and EIS, I
found videos shakier than acceptable in the regular
cameraapp(CinemaProdisablesstabilization,so
youcan use a tripod, slider or alternative).
An unfortunate side note is the appalling front-
facing camera. An 8Mp f/2.0 sensor sounds okay, but
Sony has built in infuriating beauty modes into it that
are not obviously disabled, and results are always
washed out and blurry. Selfies in any sort of low light
lookedabsolutelyawful.It’sa prettybigoversight
anddetractsfromthephone’sappealconsidering
thebeef of the rear triple cameras.
But then again Sony is really leaning into a niche
market here. If you love Sony, cameras and cinema,
then this is the phone of your dreams. And where other
companies might panic that they haven’t sold any
phones,Sonyseemscontenttobuoyitssmartphone
businesswiththemassivesuccessofitsTV,camera
andPlayStationbusinessesandproducequirky
products like the Xperia 1.
Performance
The Xperia 1 is like a short distance race winner. It
screams through every task with ease thanks to the