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
GPU Performance
3D performance of the Xperia 1 is dictated by both the SoC’s GPU and power efficiency, as well as the device’s thermal dissipation design. I found Sony’s design quite weird in this regard as there’s some discrepancy in terms of the resulting thermal performance. For one the SoC is seemingly located on the right next to the cameras which is by far the phone’s hottest hot-spot during heavy operation. I found that however this heat isn’t nearly as well dissipated to the whole body of the phone as other designs, and there’s a big delta between the skin temperature near the SoC and the bottom half of the phone.
In the 3DMark physics test, the CPU throttling situation was actually quite dire as the phone lost more than half of its peak performance during prolonged thermal loads, which is the worst showing of a Snapdragon 855 phone yet, at least in terms of the CPU behaviour.
However when looking at the GPU behaviour, we’re seeing the Xperia 1 not faring nearly as badly, with the phone only trailing the OnePlus 7 Pro which had exemplary throttling behaviour.
The figures continue in a similar pattern for all our other GPU-bound 3D tests, showcasing that the Xperia 1 is surprisingly able to maintain quite high GPU performance even though its thermal dissipation design isn’t the best. It’s an interesting juxtaposition between how the CPU throttles and how the GPU throttles, and it’s obvious the GPU is being given more leeway in terms of the peak temperatures it’s allowed to reach.
Overall, unless your game is quite CPU intensive, the Xperia 1 should offer still quite excellent gaming experience. It’s to be also noted that even though the device does have a 4K screen, games will be rendered at 1440p which is less demanding. Sony doesn’t offer any gaming tools which could further optimise performance or the experience – for example I think the phone would have greatly benefited from a 1080p gaming mode, however the Xperia 1 has to rely on actual games resolution scaling to further improve performance if necessary.
Another gaming aspect of the Xperia 1 that is unique to Sony’s phones is the fact that the phone out of the box supports PS4 remote play, in which your PlayStation 4 is able to stream the game to your phone. You’re also able to pair up with the DualShock 4 game controller - the combination definitely is an interesting. (Note: Yes it’s also possible to do this on non-Sony devices with a modified APK)
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
75 Comments
View All Comments
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.