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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)

Tams

Member
The phone will be idiotically large if it had a built-in controller. It still needs to be a phone first.
What even was the Xperia Play anyway.

If you're going to make a gaming phone, at least give it features to play games well, and not just a decent, but stupidly big dock.
 
The phone will be idiotically large if it had a built-in controller. It still needs to be a phone first.

Slide out text pads with navigation keys or thumb pads, those that are left don't dramatically increase the size of the phone. A slide out gamepad wouldn't be impossible and today they could make it much smaller than what the Xperia Play had. However it's clear they just wanted to have a dock to display the phone on monitors and TV screens, and to have a cooling solution since the phone even with heavy non-gaming general use heats up.
 
More images, coming to US and west in 2023
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Packaging is a bit confusing though since the Xperia IV gaming edition has a few spec improvements over the original but look s like it's in the same box without any differing labels. I guess people can tell with the price (phone is also sold without the Stream although most of the time comes with it) but it seems a bit strange.

Anyway, the phone is already in Hong Kong and reportedly Korea and is moving west, so I expect parts of Africa and Middle East next before showing up in Europe. Or they may just go right to Europe as this phone is pushing the esports circuit.

Strange how Sony's only gaming event this year was for this phone, they must have a lot of confidence in it long term.
 

Larxia

Member
I'm really confused about phones having such high resolution screens now. Is there really any point at all? Can anyone actually notice resolutions like this on such small screen?
I already don't see the point of 4K on a laptop or a 24" monitor, so on a phone... :messenger_neutral:
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
I'm really confused about phones having such high resolution screens now. Is there really any point at all? Can anyone actually notice resolutions like this on such small screen?
I already don't see the point of 4K on a laptop or a 24" monitor, so on a phone... :messenger_neutral:
No they're absolutely stupid and the pixel density of even 720p on a 5 inch screen is absolutely bananas, these high resolutions on small displays is nothing more than another marketing point, and a dumb as fuck one at that as the processors in these phones would draw far less power and, as a result, would have much longer battery lives if they stopped this stupid high res on a tiny display bullshit and focused on features that actually matter. Quality cameras that produce high resolution photography with your phone is great, but a high resolution 5 inch display on the device itself is absolutely silly.
 
I'm really confused about phones having such high resolution screens now. Is there really any point at all? Can anyone actually notice resolutions like this on such small screen?
I already don't see the point of 4K on a laptop or a 24" monitor, so on a phone... :messenger_neutral:

It depends on the quality of the display and the color/blending/pixels.

You can easily tell apart a display from an Xperia 4K Display, to a Samsung S22 OLED or Iphone pro max 14, to a OLED quad HD HTC or Motorola, compared to a Full HD+++ OLED display, and then anything not using OLED.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
We're going to have a generation of kids who grew up gaming on phones who are going to dominate using touch controls.
 

Larxia

Member
It depends on the quality of the display and the color/blending/pixels.

You can easily tell apart a display from an Xperia 4K Display, to a Samsung S22 OLED or Iphone pro max 14, to a OLED quad HD HTC or Motorola, compared to a Full HD+++ OLED display, and then anything not using OLED.
But this seems like it has more to do with other qualities of the panels rather than pixel density. Even on TVs, you can have a high quality 1080p panel looking much better than a crappy 4K tv.
 
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But this seems like it has more to do with other qualities of the panels rather than pixel density. Even on TVs, you can have a high quality 1080p panel looking much better than a crappy 4K tv.

Right, but even when the panels are the same you can still tell the difference between a Sony 4K Oled display, and Samsung and Apple 1, and a Motorola one. So there are things being done to improve the visuals of the display but those things can't be done the same way of the res is lower.

Sure, they could figure out another solution but you also don't realize phone makers and carriers partner up and intentionally make it so you have a damaged or dead battery in 2-3 years to force you to upgrade. just recently in the US, several towers supporting other signals were taken down except 5G and LTE making most phones bricks overnight, and that's been gradually happening across other countries to. You'll have in one year a battery that loses 25% of it's capacity, wear and tear, processor slow down through intentional updates, and otherwise.

They don't want you to have a more stable phone, a more durable phone, or a phone with better battery. They want you to have to waste money and they had to kill a bunch of active phones recently to be able to finally deal with the problem of laggers.

Sony uses 4K displays constantly to justify the prices for example. So do other brands just having OLED whether it's 1440 1080 or 720p. Once you realize these companies aren't thinking about you realize why many don't ask the same questions you did. Because they know it's all a game to nickel and dime.
 

Larxia

Member
Right, but even when the panels are the same you can still tell the difference between a Sony 4K Oled display, and Samsung and Apple 1, and a Motorola one. So there are things being done to improve the visuals of the display but those things can't be done the same way of the res is lower.

Sure, they could figure out another solution but you also don't realize phone makers and carriers partner up and intentionally make it so you have a damaged or dead battery in 2-3 years to force you to upgrade. just recently in the US, several towers supporting other signals were taken down except 5G and LTE making most phones bricks overnight, and that's been gradually happening across other countries to. You'll have in one year a battery that loses 25% of it's capacity, wear and tear, processor slow down through intentional updates, and otherwise.

They don't want you to have a more stable phone, a more durable phone, or a phone with better battery. They want you to have to waste money and they had to kill a bunch of active phones recently to be able to finally deal with the problem of laggers.

Sony uses 4K displays constantly to justify the prices for example. So do other brands just having OLED whether it's 1440 1080 or 720p. Once you realize these companies aren't thinking about you realize why many don't ask the same questions you did. Because they know it's all a game to nickel and dime.
Oh I realized all this long time ago, I'm aware about how terrible our world is, it's terrible. I'm still using a phone that came out in 2013, they're definitely not doing good business on me :messenger_grinning_squinting: I will have to change it at some point though because even the steam app can't open anymore which is problematic for some verifications.
 
DOA

Aren't more customers opting for mid range phones nowadays? They were never going to be able to compete with Apple or Samsung anyways.

Wish Sony would just stop wasting money on the mobile handset market.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
Buttons?



:messenger_tears_of_joy:



I had one of these. Great little fucking thing.
Till you try and get that bruce lee game to run without skipping. and you closing all the apps to free some ram thinking thats why it was stuttering. or the pain in the ass to get the Playstation 1 games to run on that thing.

it was a cool looking hardware design back then, but the specs of that system were out of date even during that era, it was expensive like most sony products for no reason.
 
Oh I realized all this long time ago, I'm aware about how terrible our world is, it's terrible. I'm still using a phone that came out in 2013,

I'm assuming you aren't from the US or using a Samsung flagship because most 2013 phones are bricks now.

DOA

Aren't more customers opting for mid range phones nowadays? They were never going to be able to compete with Apple or Samsung anyways.

Wish Sony would just stop wasting money on the mobile handset market.

This is aimed toward gamers and Esports, Xperia is one of the leading phones for gaming competitions in some leagues. Their other phones are aimed at photographers or people who want a 21:9 media viewing experience.

They are primarily aiming for nicher markets now. So there's some slight margin of profits in the division sales, especially for the acessories for their phones. Unlike in the past where Sony could make billions in other areas and the phone division losses to that out. Sony has changed how they managed their mobile division to mostly avoid that.

I doubt they will stop wasting money on it because they probably believe they'll eventually slip through the cracks. They are also still the only company putting out phones with 4K displays, and now 4K Oled displays.

Till you try and get that bruce lee game to run without skipping. and you closing all the apps to free some ram thinking thats why it was stuttering. or the pain in the ass to get the Playstation 1 games to run on that thing.

it was a cool looking hardware design back then, but the specs of that system were out of date even during that era, it was expensive like most sony products for no reason.

it was fine for some PSX games (some emulated badly) and you kind of half shit game support of like 6 games unless you followed the hack tutorials to unlock the emulator on the display, but I never got why people keep hyping the XP.

It was horrible underpowered and didn't have an HD screen. It was a repurpose of a previous phone with a bit more ran, a slightly more powerful chip, and a slide controller with a then premium price. Sony didn't screwed up the launch and then pulled support really quick never delivering the promise of continuing game releases. It was worse than the Vita for early adopters. Much worse.
 
Memory card + headphone jack in 2022!!

With that bulge you could almost wear it in your pants!

My last Sony phone left me a very sour after taste, the xperia X10. Sluggish, horrible software and horrendous battery life... I have never touched one of their phones ever since.
 
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Memory card + headphone jack in 2022!!

With that bulge you could almost wear it in your pants!

My last Sony phone left me a very sour after taste, the xperia X10. Sluggish, horrible software and horrendous battery life... I have never touched one of their phones ever since.
I'm using the Xperia Pro-i, and while it's absolutely not for everyone, it's a terrific phone.

Clean, simple UI, fantastic camera if you're a photographer who needs manual controls, physical shutter button, gorgeous screen, no pinhole in the screen, headphone jack, memory card slot, and the fingerprint scanner is on the side - not in the screen.. Very good build quality.

Oh, and everything is lightning fast and snappy.

So they're really, really stepped it up. But there's very little mainstream appeal and they're fine with that. They happen to tick many of my boxes with solutions that nobody else is offering. They've gone niche.
 
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Soosa

Banned
Overpriced.

SONY better start making decent priced phones again.
Xperia 10 iv is often 299€ on sale, isnt that decent?
xperia 5 iv 799€
xperia 1 iv 999€

not really that different vs apple/samsung, apple high end is like 1400-2000€ and samsung 1500-2500€

I bought xperia 1 at launch, still working nicely. Before this I had samsungs/oneplus and they are started to fail after 2 years, Sony have always been high quality to me, their devices last "forever" at least in my use.

Yeah, they could still be bit cheaper, but they have nice features and 21:9 screen is superior vs 16:9
 
I am encapsulated in an Apple system nowadays because it just works nicely with the job I have. However, I think the Sony phones are the best Android phones available and am always impressed with the awesome specs and quality of them. If I'd buy Android devices again it'd be definitely a Sony Xperia one. In my opinion the devices make Samsung and other brand phones look like low budget phones. Sony just can't compete with them really, and I think it's because of the phone shape design itself. It's a bit boring looking compared to the others and the biggest customers (women) don't care about the insides of the phones, they just like to look pretty (Disclaimer: in general, there might be exceptions bla bla bla.)
 

Three

Member
I'm really confused about phones having such high resolution screens now. Is there really any point at all? Can anyone actually notice resolutions like this on such small screen?
I already don't see the point of 4K on a laptop or a 24" monitor, so on a phone... :messenger_neutral:
The only reason for it in the past were for things like Gear VR. Now though... 🤷‍♂️
 

Larxia

Member
I'm assuming you aren't from the US or using a Samsung flagship because most 2013 phones are bricks now.
I'm in europe (France), I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini :messenger_grinning_squinting:
I didn't know about this in the US, here if you pick any phone, even an old nokia or whatever, it will still work for calls and messages.
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
I'm in europe (France), I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini :messenger_grinning_squinting:
I didn't know about this in the US, here if you pick any phone, even an old nokia or whatever, it will still work for calls and messages.
It's the same here, don't know what he's talking about. I'm in US btw.
 
I'm sorry but that monstrosity is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. Power to whoever has the money to buy one without worry, lol.

Just buy a steamdeck, it's like half the price and actually has buttons.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
what is even the point of this shit anyways? any poor sap's android or iphone can run fortnite, and if you take video games so seriously you enlist in Esports you'd likely want to play on PC for the best competitive advantage, no?

It's crazy how clueless Sony's other divisions are when it comes to gaming
 
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