REVIEWS
Price: £1,299 from fave.co/3PjK6ki
You certainly couldn’t call Sony inconsistent. The Xperia 1 V is the fourth Sony flagship phone in a row to look essentially identical. It’s not just the design that’s stayed similar either, with a fundamentally similar ethos that means this shares the same strengths and weaknesses as the phones that came before.
Expect a slender build, a detailed display, and a powerful chipset at the heart of the phone – all held back by slow charging, a complicated camera and an excessively high price point.
If Sony’s idiosyncrasies line up with your own, then you might well love the Xperia 1 V, but if their former flagships have left you cold then this latest model will do nothing to change your mind.
DESIGN
From the front, the Xperia 1 V looks exactly the same as last year’s 1 IV. The phone is almost exactly the same size, shape, and weight – meaning you get an unusually tall, slim device that’s designed to be comfortable to use with one hand.
The only real change is to the back, where Sony has replaced its previous matte finish with a new textured effect. It’s still finished in toughened Gorilla Glass (Victus, with the newer Victus 2 standard on the screen), but the glass is now dimpled all over.
It sounds odd, but the effect is that the phone feels grippy and textured
