Camera focus

Review: Sony Xperia 1 VII - Best in its own way

When the Sony Xperia 1 VII is at its best, you wish there were more mobile manufacturers like them.

Published 13 June 2025 - 15:03

Sony's mobile history is long, partly Swedish and at times brilliant. It is also very close to being just history. Last year they launched only two mobile models, and one of them, the Xperia 10 VI, has not received a successor a year later. But we have the Xperia 1 VII, Sony's latest flagship mobile that shows the company is still a mobile manufacturer. The phone is sold at the time of writing only via Sony's website (it will also be available on Amazon.se), which is not exactly a signal that Sony is here to stay in the mobile area. When I test the Xperia 1 VII, I think it's a shame, and I wish not only that they continue, but that there were more like them. Because Sony makes its phone as they always have, and then it becomes clear how templated other manufacturers are. It takes surprisingly little to stand out.

The design is quite conventional, straight sides, rounded corners, and a glass back. But the glass back has a special kind of ribbing that provides a very good grip in the hand and is good at keeping grease stains away while feeling strangely plastic. If you've seen the predecessor Xperia 1 VI, you'll recognize it, to the extent that it's hard to see the difference between the two.

Refuses to conform

Looking closer, you can see several examples of how Sony follows its own path. There is a 3.5 mm jack for headsets, which almost all other manufacturers have abandoned in their top models. Sony has instead invested in it and improved the components to reduce distortion since the predecessor. The SIM card slot does not require a pin to open, and the camera has its own shutter button, which you can press halfway for focusing and fully to take a picture.

Another detail is that the screen does not have a hole for the selfie camera. Instead, it is located in the black edge outside the screen. Considering how narrow that edge becomes, I wonder a bit why there absolutely must be a camera hole in the screen for other manufacturers. The frames also house symmetrical speakers that provide a rich balanced sound, improved since the previous model, making it clearly enjoyable to watch films with the speakers as the sound source.

A peculiarity that Sony abandoned with the previous generation was the 4K screen in a narrow 21:9 format. I don't know if anyone ever had eyes to perceive the difference in resolution, and the high resolution also seems to have interfered with the ability to have high brightness on the screen. Instead, they have dropped down to regular HD resolution and a 19.5:9 format on the screen and increased the brightness. Sony does not state how bright the screen is, only that it has 20 percent higher maximum brightness than the previous model. Not stating the brightness could be interpreted as the screen being dim, but that's not what I see when I compare the screen with other new models in direct sunlight. Xperia 1 VII, for example, has a visibly brighter screen than Samsung's new Galaxy S25 Edge. If the price for the high brightness is lower screen resolution, it's worth it.

Fast, of course

The top chipset Snapdragon 8 Elite is, of course, in the phone, making it one of the fastest mobiles right now. In daily use, you don't notice much of it; the predecessor was also as fast as one could wish for, but according to Sony, it means, among other things, that you can use more exposures from the camera when assembling the images. The phone is only sold with 256 GB of storage space, which may feel stingy for a top model costing 16,400 kronor, but on the other hand, it also has space for a memory card, another peculiarity that Sony is now alone in having in a top model.

Honestly, it's hard to find concrete news in the Sony Xperia 1 VII compared to last year's model; the phone feels mostly like a refinement of the previous year's model. This also applies to the camera setup. The main camera has the same 1/1.35-inch sensor, and the telephoto camera has variable zoom from 3.5 to 7 times magnification, but a rather small sensor at 1/3.5 inches. The wide-angle camera, however, is new, with autofocus and a 1/1.56-inch sensor. The cameras generally take pictures with excellent sharpness, good light sensitivity, and colour reproduction that feels natural, albeit a bit subdued. The images often have quite large contrasts so that dark areas really feel dark, but without them being underexposed. The telephoto camera with its variable zoom is another feature that Sony is alone with, and perhaps you can guess why from the image results. You definitely get images with acceptable sharpness across the entire zoom range, but they are not as good as the images from, for example, the telephoto cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The wide-angle camera is really good even in the dark, and you can take real close-ups with it.

Finds the Subject

This is where another of Sony's specialties comes in, and the one that really made me wish there were more manufacturers like them. Sony has put a lot of effort into autofocus and subject recognition, so that if you take pictures or film a person, the camera recognises it and keeps focus on the head even if the person moves. But it doesn't have to be a person, I notice this when, for example, I take a close-up of a flower. Here it is clear that with Sony's mobile cameras it is easier to both see where you have focused and maintain it. It really becomes sharp where I want it to be. These are functions Sony has had for a long time, but they are noticeably getting better and better as the phone gets more computing power.

Sony also uses the function to find the subject for a filming mode where you can lock onto the subject when you are filming and you not only get image stabilisation but the subject is centred even if it moves so much that you would have difficulty keeping up.

A variation of this is a mode called automatic framing. Here you can film with two different frames at the same time, one that uses the whole image and one that is zoomed in on the subject. They are saved as two separate films. You can, for example, use the two films to edit together a more dynamic film with different frames afterwards, or you can film a landscape YouTube video and a reel in portrait format at the same time.

The system in the mobile is Android 15 and Sony hasn't put much effort into modifying the system, so most of it is familiar from Google's user interface, including AI features like Circle to search and Gemini. Sony has added its own apps, such as a video editor and an app for creating music.

The battery life doesn't stand out in either direction, the phone manages well for the most part. Our screen time test gives more than 12 hours of video playback which is more than acceptable, but if the coverage is weak and you run demanding apps, the battery can drain significantly faster than that.

According to Sony, the battery should withstand four years of charging before the capacity drops to 80 percent.

Sony's Xperia 1 series has long felt like a mobile for camera enthusiasts, and not necessarily those who want the best pictures from the camera but those who want to feel familiar with their system or compact camera. It gives the characteristics that we discussed that Xperia 1 VII stands out on, and gives the phone a slightly unique niche. Hopefully, this won't be the last we see from Sony.

Questions & Answers

How fast does the mobile charge? No charger is included, but the phone supports USB Power Delivery with up to 30 watts, which gives about half a charge in half an hour. It can also be charged wirelessly with 15 watts.

How many system updates are promised? 4 years of system updates and 6 years of security updates.

How is the fingerprint reader? It is located on the side in the on/off button and has good responsiveness.