Sony doesn’t make many phones these days, but the models it does release are like nothing else on the market. With the Sony Xperia 1 VII the company has fixed some of the issues that fans complain about, but many still remain.
The Mark 7 promises 4 OS updates. After that, you won’t have the latest Android, but you will have a secure phone with patches for two more years. That’s much better than the Mark 6, which only got 3 OS updates and one extra year of security patches.
That longevity is important because the Xperia 1 VII costs a whopping £1,400/€1,500 in the UK and Europe and that is only with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage. Asia will get a 512GB variant, North America might not get the phone at all.
Sony Xperia 1 VII 5G
Yes, storage is expandable, but microSD cards are slower than internal storage and high resolution video at high frame rates (the phone does up to 4K @ 120fps) will be a pain to transfer from a slow memory card.
Speaking of video, we were hoping for better results. Also, the new ultra-wide camera is great and delivered some great shots, but the telephoto camera still has flaws – despite being the only one with proper optical zoom.
The Xperia 1 VII has features you won’t find on many (any?) flagships
Besides the microSD slot, the Xperia 1 VII stands out with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a two-stage shutter key. However, battery life is worse than last year and charging is quite slow. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is fast, but poor cooling significantly impacts sustained performance.
Read our review and watch our video review for more details. Before we ask for your thoughts on the phone, let’s introduce the competition.
With a €1,500 price tag, the Sony is up against the very best models from Xiaomi, Oppo, vivo, Apple, Google, Samsung and everyone else, really. And these Pro and Ultra phones are cheaper than the Sony.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra • Oppo Find X8 Pro • vivo X200 Pro
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max • Google Pixel 9 Pro XL • Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Of course, if you still use wired headphones or want to carry a few terabytes of data with you or want to use your phone as an external monitor for a Sony camera, there’s only one phone that can do all that – the Sony Xperia 1 VII. It’s a rather specific niche, but it’s a niche likely to attract people with spending money.
So, what do you think – would you buy the Sony Xperia 1 VII or has Sony completely lost the plot?