Sony’s Xperia 1 IV smartphone features ‘the world’s first true optical zoom lens’

Sony has heavily leveraged its camera expertise to create its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 IV, it announced. It offers a slew of innovative, image-oriented features including what it calls the “world’s first true optical 85-125mm zoom lens, true 4K at 120fps, livestreaming and external monitor capabilities and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform chip. 

The key feature of the Xperia 1 IV is the telephoto zoom that offers an 85-125mm equivalent zoom range, enough for sports, wildlife and more. Sony didn’t say how it achieved that, but other companies like Huawei have used 90-degree periscope style systems to create optical zooms on smartphones.

On top of the telephoto zoom, has 16mm and 24mm lenses (35mm equivalent), along with a time-of-flight sensor, and all cameras use a 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with readout speeds of up to 120 fps. That allows the phone to record 4K 120 fps video, or the equivalent of 5x slow-motion at 4K. 

Other camera features include real-time Eye AF and real-time tracking with every lens, along with an Optical SteadyShot system. All the lenses use Zeiss optics with a Zeiss T* coating designed to boost contrast and sharpness while reducing reflections. The front camera uses a new 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor that’s larger than on previous models, allowing you to shoot selfies with less light. 

Sony also added some apps and software features to add video content makers. Much like on the Xperia 1 Pro, that allows users to manually adjust settings like focus, exposure and white balance, even while recording. It also features 4K HDR multi-frame shooting, allowing for videos with wider dynamic range without any loss of resolution. 

Sony is also promising “the ultimate mobile gaming experience” with the Xperia 1 IV, thanks to a 120Hz HDR display with 240Hz motion blur and a 240Hz touch-scanning rate. It’s powered by a Snapdragon Gen 1 Mobile Platform and uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite Gaming to improve performance. It also has what Sony calls “Heat Suppression power control” that automatically reduces performance at high temperatures, “even during gameplay when connected to a charger.” 

It’s designed to simplify livestreaming as well, as you’ll have access to the Eye AF and object tracking features when using the Videography Pro mode. It can also be used as an external monitor if you’re livestreaming from any compatible Alpha camera and when paired with Sony’s Vlog Monitor, “users can livestream content by using the rear cameras,” Sony said. 

Other features include 5G with sub6/mmWave, WiFi 6E, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage with a microSD card and a 5,000 mAh battery. The price, as you’d expect from all that, will not be cheap. It’s arriving on September 1, 2022 for “approximately” $1,600 to Sony dealers around the US, with the purple color available exclusively at Sony’s website.