Sony Xperia 1 V

Sony's flagship smartphone is still about as cinematic as a phone can be

Sony’s Xperia 1 has long been our go-to recommendation for a flagship Android smartphone that prioritises AV, and every generation since 2020 has earned five-star reviews. The Xperia 1 V has upgrades to build, features, picture and sound, and we are pleased to see the phone’s price stay the same as last year. It remains a rather expensive piece of kit, though.

The 3.5mm headphone jack makes a welcome return, as does Xperia 1’s trademark 6.5in 21:9 aspect ratio display, with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for enhanced protection. That 21:9 screen means the device is taller and skinnier than your average smartphone. It uses Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset backed by 12GB of RAM. There are two storage options: 256GB and 512GB, and storage can be upgraded further via MicroSD.