The rumoured Sony Xperia XZ4 is actually called the Sony Xperia 1, and it features one very distinctive feature – a very tall screen.
The name change signifies a change in direction for Sony, which – despite making some very good handsets – has struggled to get its phones noticed in recent years.
The Xperia 1 is different to its XZ-branded predecessors in that its screen has a new aspect ratio.
While the display itself measures 6.5 inches diagonally, just like plenty of other phones such as the iPhone XS Max, it’s narrower than those screens, making it taller.
Its aspect ratio is 21:9, meaning it stands 6.57 inches tall. That’s almost an inch taller than the 5.65-inch iPhone XS Max.
The screen is also the world’s first 4K OLED panel, which should mean absolutely stellar picture quality.
So what’s the point of making it so tall? Well, the chief advantage is that should be very useful for apps that display a lot of information vertically, such as Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines, as it can fit on more data, meaning less scrolling.
It’s also ideal for multitasking, as more screen acreage means more than one app can run at once.
Sony is bigging up its potential for films and games too, as it uses the same cinematic aspect ratio as feature films.
Though any content that isn’t optimised for the aspect ratio will have black bars above and below the picture.
It also supports Dolby Atmos sound, which is the kind of audio you get in the cinema.
The Xperia 1 is Sony’s new flagship, so the specs are suitably high-end. There’s a triple camera set-up with a trifecta of 12-megapixel sensors – one wide lens, one superwide and one telephoto.
A monster 6GB of RAM should keep films, games and apps humming along nicely, while 128GB of storage is pretty generous. You can supplement that with a microSD card up to 512GB.
It’s water resistant, and there’s a fingerprint reader built into the side of the phone. Sadly it’s not integrated into the screen, but you can’t have everything.
The Xperia 1 will go on sale in late spring. The price is currently TBC.
