Renders once again show Sony sticking with the same old design
The recipe for making one of the best Android smartphones feels almost set in stone, and after so many years of seeing companies experiment with materials, and balancing price-to-performance ratios, by now we pretty much know what to expect. Sometimes that leads to manufacturers suffering from a bit of lock-in, where they resist big changes to their designs — just look at the new Samsung Galaxy S23 phones. Sony has definitely been part of this trend in recent years, and now the latest discovery suggests 2023 will be no different.
Notable leaker OnLeaks shared a few initial renders of the Sony Xperia 1 V (via Green Smartphones), touted as the replacement for the Xperia 1 IV we saw last year. All the key design features from the current generation seem to carry forward to the upcoming one — the vertically stacked triple cameras, headphone jack, fingerprint reader in the power button, SIM tray placement, and the USB-C charging port.
The CAD info that’s presumably behind these renders sets the Xperia 1 V’s display as 6.5-inch panel. We also get the approximate dimensions of the phone: 161 x 69.3 x 8.5 mm, which is a tad bit smaller than the 1 IV, but sufficiently large. Other details mentioned here include how Sony outfit the upcoming Xperia 1 with a 5,000mAh battery, a single 12MP selfie shooter, and a rear triple-camera array with a 12MP primary camera, a 48MP ultrawide, and another 12MP telephoto camera. Finally, we just might get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip paired with 16GB of RAM, making this a powerful performer, at least on paper, just like then Xperia 1 IV.
Based on this leak, the Xperia 1 V seems like a great phone, albeit one largely indistinguishable from its predecessor. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is also a splitting image of the S22 Ultra, but we aren’t complaining as long as they deliver good value to prospective buyers. Sony should unveil the Xperia 1 V in the flesh sometime later this year, but we aren’t aware of a concrete timeline just yet.
