So the good news is that Sony’s impressive new phone with a big, wide, high-res display is coming to the United States in July. The less good news is that while the Sony Xperia 1 has top-tier specs, it also has a top-tier price.

Sony says the smartphone will sell for $950 when it goes on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H, and Focus Camera.

That’s not exactly a shocking price. Over the past few years we’ve seen the prices of flagship phones creep upward, and Sony’s never been particularly competitive when it comes to pricing for its high-end phones. But it’s still likely to limit the appeal of this otherwise interesting smartphone.

If you need a refresher, here are some of the Xperia 1’s key specs:

  • 6.5 inch, 3840 x 1644 pixel HDR OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor
  • 6GB of RAM
  • 128GB of storage
  • Triple 12MP rear cameras (primary + wide-angle + 2x zoom)
  • 8MP front camera
  • Side fingerprint sensor
  • 802.11ac WiFi
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • GSM & CDMA network support (for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint)
  • NFC
  • Stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos sound
  • IP65/68 rated
  • 3,300 mAh battery

The phone supports slow motion video recording at 960 frames per second and it can shoot 4K HDR video as well.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,542 other subscribers

One reply on “Sony Xperia 1 coming July 12th… for $950”

  1. My previous phone was a (2014) OnePlus 1 (was $350) and I currently use a (2018) Sony Xperia XZ2 (was $300). What baffles me is the asking price of the Xperia 1 vs the OnePlus 7 Pro. For $950 the performance specs of the Sony are the same (855 CPU, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage) as the $670 base model OnePlus 7 Pro. OnePlus ups the ante with the 8GB/256GB for $700 and 12GB/256GB for $750. Oh and it has 3 rear Sony camera modules, too – one is 48MP. My Xperia shoots 24MP from one camera… Isn’t that good enough? 3x 12MP sensors doesn’t feel like enough for your phone at such a high premium.

    Motorola has their wacky Z series with modular attachments like a bigger sensor camera. Google offers carrier-hopping hardware for their meta-carrier (Project Fi). Samsung hits 5G with a new antenna and puts their selfie cam behind the LCD without taking away pixels.

    Of course I’m ignoring the 48MP / 10x optical zoom OPPO Reno for about $710 + someone to ship you the phone from China. That also has the Snapdragon 855 / 8GB / 256GB.

    My question is: Why buy the $950 Sony? What differentiates it?

Comments are closed.