Unlike most of its rivals, the Sony Xperia 1 V is as much a discrete cine-camera with calling as a phone that can shoot video on occasion. Begin with the size miracle: Sony managed to shoehorn a 6.5-inch 4K/120Hz OLED, 5,000mAh cell, microSD slot, 3.5mm jack and—wait for it—a notification LED into a body that's only a hair taller than an iPhone 14 Pro, yet 12g lighter. Also worth a pause is the frosted glass back, which haughtily derides fingerprints and stays cooler than sunscreen-slick in the sun.

Power it up and the lineage of the Bravia family is immediately apparent. Colors are calibrated —not lurid, the 4K resolution is one pair of glasses from absurd pixel density, even the Netflix menus are razor sharp, and battery life gets you through a trans-Pacific flight. Outdoor visibility is excellent; the panel peaks at over 1500 nits and Sony's white-balance tuning compensates for the searingly bright noon without lightening skin tones to seasick levels.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 also hums beneath the hood seemingly unnoticed. Sony's near-stock Android 13 is a godsend as a result too, there's minimal bloat and 12GB RAM means that I never, ever saw an app card reload when multitasking furiously between Lightroom, Spotify and Slack. Gaming is capable if not particularly impressive: Genshin Impact maintained 60 fps at high settings for a solid 35 minutes before dropping to around 45 fps, but the phone never got uncomfortably warm, due in part to a new vapor-chamber cooling film the goes across the entire frame.

What really separates the 1 V is its camera philosophy. The headline is the new 48 MP Exmor T sensor behind the 24 mm lens: physically larger than last year's 12 MP unit, but with the same dual-layer transistor tech Sony uses in its full-frame mirrorless line. Daylight photos outtexturize brick walls and fabric that other phones blur into watercolor, and the 85-125 mm periscope zoom can go smoothly from portrait to candid street photos without the jolting jump of a second sensor. It's at night where the phone earns its keep though, with handheld shots of a dark, gloomy night market still retaining neon signs and readable menus without the forced HDR glow you see most rivals need.

Still, compromises exist. The fingerprint reader is fast yet awkwardly low enough that you have to stretch your pinky. The speakers are loud but only a bit tinny sounding, with none of the chesty bass you get from Samsung's twin-barrel setup. And though Sony promises two OS upgrades, it's trailing behind Google and Samsung on the timeline.

In summary, it's the first phone in years you will put in a jacket pocket with no case on it, assured that between the two of you, you can make it through the day unharmed, and will take photos along the way. The Sony Xperia 1 V is nice and good on the whole, you can have a try, may be you will encounter surprises, just buy and purchase it.