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Sony unveils new gaming phone: Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition and Xperia Stream add-on($1,225, 4K HDR display, 16GB RAM, 5,000mAh)

tommib

Member
It’s clearly made for streamers:
zOJ3zxI.jpg

6sFhCXd.jpg

puyCPgz.jpg
 
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gundalf

Member
Anyone here the target audience for this? Pls explain why you are going to buy this phone, I don't get it.

Phones overheat pretty fast, really the high-end CPUs are largely smoke and mirrors. I know this because I have to deal with this in a professional context and constantly need to explain those limitations to clients which is a huge PITA.

Too bad there is no cutout for the camera, otherwise I would had hamstered several of those.
 
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CamHostage

Member
$1200 and no built-in gamepad?????? Who is this for?

...For people who can afford the $100 Backbone One controller accessory. (*PlayStation Edition only available for iPhone.)

Wait... those aren't triggers on the top of the Xperia 1 IV? That's ridiculous, Sony, that's the best thing about Red Magic gaming phones (besides the performance, obviously) and trigger buttons are becoming a popular item with mobile gamers who actually consider mobile game a serious competitive gaming choice.

223GE_Product_intro_02_M


Dead on arrival.

Can't even buy these phones without Importing in Canada and they don't support all 5G bands. Nobody is buying this thing.

It's a shame too because after the last thread I've been considering the 1 IV for the video specs, and there's definitely a market for a PSP/Vita successor... but this is what they have spent their time on...😂

It's a different Sony. (We're talking Sony Electronic versus Sony Interactive Entertainment; the PlayStation division doesn't do a lot of dealings with the larger corp outside of synergitsically promoting TVs with good-looking games, though they did recently roll out VRR only on Bravia TVs I think?) Sony's PlayStation division has nothing to do with this, as is evident by how far away it is from a PS experience. "Jimbo" has nothing to do with this phone thing.

It's also a different audience. They're not making them for us (as you mentioned, it wouldn't even be compatible with mobile systems in Canada off the shelf; it's an Asian-market product, clearly) and they're not making them for PlayStation gamers.

...That said, I don't really see how this serves even the audience it is going for, much less the audience they could have expanded into if they considered expanding into PS realms. 120Hz is nice, but not novel for for phones (Android has had it as a standard since 2019 I believe... not that all games could use it, but not even all games will use it if they are too powerful for this phone to play at that framerate.) Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 but not 8+. No triggers, no buttons. Weird shape that's not great for a phone. $1200 cost. Just lots of aspects that are done better by others.

Why not make a phone with buttons and access to PS Store that would be able to play some PS4 games at like 720-1080p? No let’s make a super-expensive phone to play Clash of Clans instead.

I don’t understand this companys decisions sometimes.

Eh, a phone pretty much can't play PS4 games at 720/1080, even crappy games. You can port them over (there are a ton of even high-spec games like Genshin Impact and The Witness and soon Wreckfest which can be enjoyed perfectly well on your phone,) and you can build an infrastructure where phone games could be played on a PS4 (sort of like how PSP had the Minis and I think some "PlayStation Certified" products worked between PS3/4 and Vita, though those may have been original builds,) but to run an X86 app like a PlayStation game on a phone would probably not go so well.
 
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MacReady13

Member
Gaming on a mobile device never intrigued me at all. Gaming on my switch or the TV was ALWAYS a no brainer- my 55 inch TV ALWAYS wins out.
 

sainraja

Member
I'm thinking about it. I was going to go with an iPhone 14 Pro but now this has my attention. Being able to dock it for monitor gaming is kind of a big deal for me. I am tired of using bluestacks when I want to mess around on my monitor.

Edit to add - I thought about the built-in game pad too. Then I started thnking, if it is docked I would use a controller anyway.
Just go with the iPhone 14 Pro. :)
 

CamHostage

Member
The Playstation Phone is back baby !

xperia-play-1.jpg

If only it were. That would at least be fun (albeit still DOA, probably.)

BTW, this is PlayStation Phone, back(bone) baby.

image


Ethernet port on a mobile phone?

Especially since you could just convert Ethernet over USB-C. Do you even lose any stepdown in performance going into one of those adapters? (You'd want an adapter without the big box hanging right off the phone, do they not make inline cables with the conversion handled closer to the ethernet side just for weight and maybe you'd have a little nervousness about the USB falling out but otherwise, why?)
 
1200 for a gaming cellphone!?
Couldn't you build a nex gen gaming pc for that price?

You could almost buy two ps5 (depending on your country) for that price! For what, to play candy crush faster? Will you get better gotca pulls in Genshin impact? Do you get a discount in Diablo immoral?
It's a lot but it's not that out of the ordinary. iPhone 13 Pro Max starts at $1099, and the Samsung Z Fold starts at $1170 according to their website. Flagship phones are super expensive these days.
 
What im Thinking. Whos going to buy this? Might as well get just a decent smartphone + steamdeck/switch for less money.

HA

It's a $1,225 phone, a decent phone these days is $500 or $600 and you think adding a Switch at $299 or Steam Deck at $399 on top of those would be cheaper that that? When you add these up you get a price of-

fuck

Ok, Maybe Sony should think about the pricing here.
 
I haven't compared the spreadsheet in detail but it seems nearly identical to the Xperia 1 MK IV with some exceptions. The steam add on seems to be the real selling point here. Can't you use the original 1 MK IV with it?

The internals on the gaming edition give better framerates, color, speaker bass, and a slightly changed chipset for managing memory which goes along with the addition of 16GB of ram.
 
1200 for a gaming cellphone!?
Couldn't you build a nex gen gaming pc for that price?

You could almost buy two ps5 (depending on your country) for that price! For what, to play candy crush faster? Will you get better gotca pulls in Genshin impact? Do you get a discount in Diablo immoral?

This depends, you can't take the PC with you, but is it possible to get 4K HDR 120fps on a PC building from scratch or buying pre-built without spending more than $1200? In addition, the phone allows you to dock and output at 1080p 120fps.

1200$ and not even SD8+ Gen 1.

Dead on arrival.

Is the 8+ a significant upgrade form the 8?
 

01011001

Banned
wait, did I miss them mentioning it or does this not have shoulder buttons?

if it really has no shoulder buttons then they missed the mark here. gaming phones these days almost universally have shoulder buttons, either physical or touch buttons.

you typically map the fire and ADS buttons to them so you can aim and shoot independently without needing to move your thumb over
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
21:9 is pretty fucking useless for streaming tho all console games are 16:9 basically..

Cool for watching movies tho 🤓
 
Not much into gaming phones. I barely use my phone for anything gaming related. It seems a little overkill but I guess there is a market for Asian countries in the Mobile E-sport scene.
 

slade

Member
I'm at least interested because of the screen specs. Not a lot of phones out there that are full 4k, over 60 hz and can be had for under 1500 dollars.
 
Solid phone, as always. Would probably make a pretty good GamePass machine LOL... but making solid phone's have never been Sony's issue.

Their biggest issue is the time from announcement to release. This releases pretty quickly after announcement, at least in Japan. When it'll release to the rest of the world, who knows... and that's why they own SO little of the smart phone market. Their share is actually pretty laughable, IDK why they don't just stop if they can't nail down their production pipeline.
This will probably never come to the West. Well, at least not this version. I don't see it being a hit outside Asia. It looks like a neat piece of hardware that wouldn't take off here.
 

reinking

Gold Member
Just go with the iPhone 14 Pro. :)
Maybe, Maybe not. I went to android after the iPhone 8. I am considering going back to iPhone because of facetime and messaging. However, they kind of dropped the ball IMO on the iPhone 14 lineup. It might be worth it to stay with android at least another phone cycle. I'm still using my OnePlus 7 Pro. It is hard to give up that screen without a notch but it looks like I will need to sooner rather than later.
 
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Aenima

Member
Phone looks good, but that attachment with HDMI and Ethernet port should also had phisical buttons to work as a gamepad. Making it touchscreen only, dosent make it much more gaming than any other high end phone.
 
Most android phones do that - only 2 years of software support (that's basically what Google does with their own line) or has that changed?
It changed awhile ago now.

Most companies now offer 3 years of major Android version updates and 4 years of security patches. This includes Google themselves, plus most of the other manufacturers including Motorola, Oppo/Vivo, Xiaomi, etc.

Samsung has stepped up their game and now offer 4 years of major Android updates and 5 years of security patches, which means they are now ahead of everyone else and even ahead of the proposed new EU update requirements.

2 notable companies have not kept up with this: Sony and Asus. Both are still offering only 2 years, so fuck them.
 
Phone looks good, but that attachment with HDMI and Ethernet port should also had phisical buttons to work as a gamepad. Making it touchscreen only, dosent make it much more gaming than any other high end phone.

Yeah, I was expecting at least triggers on the add-on but many of the mobile gamers that play those type of games, especially in Asia, do use the touch screen so Sony might have though it wasn't worth it.

Plus, knowing them if they added them the accessory sold separately would rise in price from $160 to $230. It's only free when you buy this phone.


21:9 is good for gaming tho because your touch buttons are less obstructive since they're to the side while you still have a decent screen size between them

Yep. Sony got flak for 21:9 when they pushed it for movies, but it does work for gaming and less simplified websites because it gives you more space in the middle and your hands are out the way.
 
This thing is hilariously dumb, but some people will swear by this.

I enjoy crazy unique products. Products are so focus-tested and boring these days.
 
Japanese guy posted this on the phone on social media, and people are freaking out.
hqdefault.jpg


Uncharted 4 coming to mobile announced at state of play tomorrow??
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
I just don't really understand why. If you're serious enough about gaming to get this phone, are you really gonna be playing on a PHONE in the first place, rather than a console or PC?

I'm of the strong opinion that phones are good for simple casual games only. And you don't need this for that.
 
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