Sony Xperia 1 V 256GB 5G Factory Unlocked Smartphone [U.S. Official w/Warranty], Green

I'm writing this from the viewpoint of someone who's upgrading from the OG Xperia 1.In this case, I can see all the amazing features that they added into the line of phones from the first flagship. I held off on the 1 IV because of the overheating issue when it came out, and now I get to experience this phone that is basically a culmination of all the little things that they wanted to do with the line.1. The 4k oled display is gorgeous as usual. The classic Xperia tall slim profile rocks.2. The sound upgrade is amazing and way louder than my 1. The forward facing speakers really make a huge difference to the quality when watching videos or playing games.3. I really appreciate the materials in the back - the textured gorilla glass helps with the fingerprints and grip (But I would probably keep using a phone case just to be extra safe anyway).4. The night-scene ability is better than previous versions and although Sony is a bit slow on this compared to other phones, I'm glad it's finally made its way here.5. The metal edges of the phone feel premium, and the textured buttons only add to that. Again, the shutter button is very unique to this line of phones and the double-press feature makes it work like a dedicated camera.6. Speaking of taking pictures (probably the biggest reason anyone would get this phone), the suite of apps for professional capture and editing is amazing. I'm no professional photographer, but with the official website's quick tutorials, I can pretend like I am.And of course, the headphone jack, the expandable microSD slots, etc.. the list can go on for the small things as well!Some of the disappointing things are:1. So we get a nice bokeh effect now, but still no macro mode.2. Night-scene is a thing, but it's still kind of underwhelming.3. You really do need to know your way around the camera apps to capture great photos. The automatic mode doesn't really do much to impress.I have very few qualms about the quality of this phone. It's a really impressive piece of tech and for me at least, it's a great step up from the original flagship. It might not be worth the price to upgrade from the previous mark IV (especially since they fixed most of the problems that plagued that), but they also lower their price so it could be a worthy investment. All in all, I love this phone so far and I hope to be using it for many years to come.

I just upgraded from the two-year-old Xperia Pro-I (same generation as the 1 iii) to this, and I'm very happy I did!First, they plugged some of the glaring holes that Sony had vs. the competition.* The 1iii/Pro-I had "5G", but was limited to low-band (n5) on Verizon, and none at all on AT&T. (On T-Mobile you'd get low-band n71 as well as mid-band n41). It was "fast enough" - I got around 300 Mbps down / 75 Mbps up on Verizon. With the 1V, I also have n77 on both Verizon and AT&T (I measured ~900 Mbps the other day), as well as UW. In theory it should also support NR SA (standalone 5G), but no US carrier has deployed this yet.* Display brightness has improved from "ho-humm" to "excellent", and is now clearly visible in direct sunlight.* The camera was primarily intended for professional users who tend to post-process a bit; for casual use vibrancy was a bit lackluster. With the new "creative effects" Sony has finally added a bit of AI processing for more "instantly sharable" photos and video. Also the main camera sensor is larger than the 1iii or 1iv (1/1.3), which helps with detail, natural bokeh, etc.* Front camera went from ho-humm to best in class.* Sony had a bad rep for overheating after prolonged video recording. Turns out this is common among phones with the Samsung chipset that was used in the 1iv - in fact, while the Google PIxel 7 would not give an equally obvious warning about overheating, it would actually shut down sooner with the same video settings when compared to the Pro-I (or even 1iv). In any case, with a newer chipset from TSMC, those issues are largely gone - you can now record 4K/60 fps video for well over an hour before you get any kind of warning.* The industrial design changes are subtle, but elegant. The sides and back each have textured surfaces which not only looks and feels great, but helps to prevent slipping. Sony's own case for this phone is also excellent, covering the back and surrounding the 4 corners without adding much of a girth at all. (Except for at the bottom where the kickstand is located). The updated camera stack also looks fantastic - better than any phone I've seen thus far.* Also on the Pro-I, but not on the 1iii or 1iv: A third voice-optimized microphone.* Improved front-facing speakers. They were already excellent before but didn't score very high on "loudness tests" (as if anyone ever really use phone speakers for volume). Certainly beats the imbalanced iPhone/Samsung/Pixel setup where one of the speakers blows out from the bottom.As before, the things unique to Sony include:* A hardware shutter button to open the camera. (Though unlike the Pro-I, there is no dedicated button to launch Video Pro - you'd have to open the app from the launcher instead. Or you can capture a quick video by launching the camera; the Basic mode has a button that switches to "standard" video capture).* Expandable storage, with a couple of caveats. (1) The US version of this phone does not have built-in eSIM, but instead two physical SIM slots. The 2nd SIM slot is shared with the µSD card, so you can only expand memory if you use a single SIM. (2) Built-in storage on the US version went down from 512GB in the Pro-I and the 1 iv to a "meager" 256GB. Still plenty for most people, but beware that the bitrate for video capture is higher on the Sony than on other phones, given similar resolution/frame rate/file format.* 3.5mm headset jack; no USB DACs required. Superb quality.* 21:9 screen aspect ratio, which is perfect for movies & gaming. (This turns out to be a 2.33 ratio, whereas movies tend to be 64:27, or 2.35.) To me this is also more ergonomic, since it makes the phone slim enough for one-handed operation.There are of course rumors that Sony might release a Pro-I update soon ("Xperia Pro-I ii" or something equally confusing I gather), but as far as I'm concerned there is little they could improve upon from the 1V without making the phone significantly bigger.