The Sony Xperia 1 Review: A 21:9 Take of the World
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 26, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Sony
- Smartphones
- Xperia 1
Video Recording & Speaker Evaluation
Video recording on the Xperia 1 is a prime feature. Sony promises HDR recording in HLG and BT.2020 colour space. The phone can record in various modes and Sony make available H.264 and H.265 codecs.
| Xperia 1 Camera Modes & Features HDR Recording |
|||
| Capture Mode | Main+Zoom | Wide Angle | |
| 1080p | ✓ | ✗ | |
| 1080p60 | ✗ | ✗ | |
| 4K | ✓ | ✗ | |
There are some limitations as to the HDR feature however; the phone can’t use it in 1080p60, and for whatever reason also not in 720p. Furthermore it’s also not available on the wide-angle lens module. Sony has other features such as video object racking and their well-known video stabilisation that can be turned on or off.
HDR recording on the Xperia 1 is excellent and rivals that of some of the best phones in terms of picture quality. There’s still the big question of format and display compatibility; video playback on the phone itself looks excellent while the YouTube upload here likely doesn’t quite do it justice.
EIS on the other hand was a complete and utter disaster on the main camera: The picture had massive amounts of left/right jitters and jump which are so annoying in that if Sony doesn’t fix the issue, I’d rather recommend just leaving EIS turned off.
Wide-angle video recording is alright, but without HDR, it’s not too great in scenarios where there’s lot of light and shadows.
It’s to be noted that the wide-angle lens cannot be used in combination with the other two modules, and the video recording between the two sets has to be separate. It’s very likely that Sony is multiplexing the MIPI-CSI interfaces between the cameras and the SoC and thus can’t easily switch between modules. For what it’s worth, transitions between the main sensor and the telephoto is quite fast, but the wide angle is separate. This is also valid for photo captures where switching to and from the wide angle has a notable delay that’s much longer than any other phone.
Sony was the first vendor to introduce 960fps video recording on their phones thanks to its integration of DRAM onto the image sensor. The Xperia 1 continues this feature and it’s still as good as ever.
Alongside the standard camera app, Sony ships the phone with the “Cinema Pro” app which essentially is a full manual video recording app.
The thing is that this might be very useful for professional users – but the limiting factor that when in this recording mode you do not have any kind of auto-exposure and that you’re meant to control ISO and exposure yourself manually means that this is a very niche use-case for most users including myself, and I don’t see a lot of people bother with as it’s a lot of work to get any kind of reasonable video out of the app.
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doungmli - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
I do not think that the creator mode of x1 is supposed to respect a norm but to create a new one trying to reflect the content of the creator if the translation has been done. There was an interview about it here: https://www.phileweb.com/interview/article/201907/...vortexmak - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
I opened this article with cautious optimism. Sony trying to make a comeback, maybe they learned from their past mistakesScrolled down: No 3.5mm jack, no microSD. Never learn Sony , enjoy your fall into oblivion
No headphone jack , no microSD = no consideration.
qwertymac93 - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
The phone does have a microSD slot.khanikun - Monday, July 29, 2019 - link
I wouldn't say Sony is trying to make a comeback, they never left. It's just them combining divisions. They've been making smartphones every year.Also all their flagships have microSD slots and this one doesn't change that fact. 3.5mm jack was taken out the last generation. I wish they wouldn't have though.
Sp12er - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
Nice concise, but detailed and easy to understand review, it sums up what's the strength an weakness of the device with clear proof given, I start to like this one, IMO you did it better than Gsmarena does.So it's all software eh? Sony seems to hav tee hardware nailed on so many levels, but the software feels like it's trying to catch up, no computational imaging, weird calibration, overexcited marketing.
All overall makes it an underperforming device for the price.
But, it makes me excited for their future. I hope they'd continue add soldier on with their software, getting it closer to the standard with more time.
1_rick - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
"the screen is 6.5” in diameter"A round cell phone--that's pretty innovative! Not sure if it's a good idea, though.
qlum - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
I think we should really stop using screen diagonal for size as it really only works if aspect ratio is fixed. screen surface area would be a much better measurement.Lord of the Bored - Saturday, July 27, 2019 - link
Yes, but how would marketing departments make screens sound bigger than they are?kendytan - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
https://youtu.be/sJk7XeX1uJ8Please watch YouTube video on the link above 10:09 mark. Hong Kong expert tested Xperia 1 and get average 0.53 value using CalMan. Suggested white balance to achieve D65 by expert: Red 72, Green 68, Blue 0
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, July 26, 2019 - link
He's measuring the saturation against a higher gamma target and that's why gets gets a lower dE. Furthermore he's in the standard mode.Lastly, his result are very likely wrong depending on how he measured them. The issue with the calibration is the luminance factor which is affected by APL. I measured the greyscale and saturations at APL50 window 50 to minimize the impact, and the GMB tests are done on a single static image pattern which is 100% accurate.