Sony Xperia smartphones look so good on paper. So why is it that we don’t recommend them? Here’s our answer to that and a brief 2023 review of the Sony Xperia 1 IV.
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Why People Arent Buying Sony Xperia Phones
because they are fucking expensive
There you have it folks. Its expensive and you pay upfront. Most people don’t have $1500 laying around to wing at a phone yet alone a $500 emergency budget sadly. Especially these days.
S24 Ultra isn’t any cheaper and it’s selling well.
how much of that is due to people actually being able to actually buy a s24, or because that just what happens to be their phone carrier’s option? when selling phone it’s extremely important distinction, most people can get their phones “significantly cheaper” so to speak, via their carrier.
As an ex cellphone salesman I have never seen any carriers here in canada selling phones in like, pretty much the last decade almost now. Canadian here. Rodgers, Bell, Koodo, Fido, off the top of my head, none sell sony phones.
Now I did often try to sell cellphones to folk out right since IMO it’s far better to own the device and pay for a cheap plan, but to do that, phones need to actually be affordable.
And they have a remote control like shape factor
What, because you can use them with one hand? As opposed to all the fat bricks out there?
Yeah and you can read 2 pages of an ebook on the same screen, they fit one on top of the other lengthwise. A win-win situation! Definitely worth the premium price now that you said it. Anyway, good luck reaching the top part of the screen with your stubby thumb without using the other hand on that land strip type of a form factor.
What kind of sasquatch ass hands do you have where you can reach the top of any phone?
I miss my Xperia 5iii, but those screens are too expensive to justify replacing when I get a brand new device for the same cost.
It’s not about the size of the hands that matter but how you use them. ;) Hands size shaming must come to an end. But yeah I can pretty much grab a basket ball single handedly and throw it accurately, no problem.
Yikes. lol
Poor updates (policy), overpriced for the specs. I mean, 400-500 for a phone with a SD695 and 60hrz? Come on… Such a shame, because they are the only ones with a screen without a punchhole/camera cutout…
And they quit making the compact. I rocked 3 or 4 new old stock Xperia xz1 for YEARS. Smallest phones I could get at the time. Now I’m doing the same thing with the s10e which I still feel is too big.
Yes. I loved the compact! Small size is still a major criteria when I look at phones, but they’re unfortunately just getting bigger and bigger… Plus, yeah they were sorta expensive, but super solid. Would buy again anytime.
I miss my Droid Mini so much. i loved that tiny little thing.
Yea if they hadn’t cancelled the compact back then, I would’ve went with it instead of the S10e I got af the time.
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2 Years of updates was my reason. Samsung is up to 7,Apple is about 5 or 6 and Google is 7 years.
Note this is based off of my memory so I could be wrong.
Have Samsung & Google actually delivered 7 years yet - or is that still just a promise on paper to continue supporting existing products?
Apple for all its faults has at least delivered on this premise.
Google and Samsung both have a track record of delivering updates even past the promised date so far.
iPhone 6s (2015) received a security update this month, they have delivered indeed
Samsung made that promise last year and limited to the higher-end lineups, I believe.
Google still update their pixel 6 phones from years ago (not sure about the pixel 5 or below).
Apple is a complete different story since they owned the entire ecosystems and keeps making money from the devices being in use.
Pixel 6 came only came out near the end of 2021, I would hope all companies support phones for more than 3 years, but maybe I’m too optimistic.
A15 is probably the last major update for P6P.
Not sure about security patches though, which are arguably more important.
Also there’s always custom roms for Pixel phones.
Apple supports phones 7+ years and basically has always had the longest support of all the OEMs
IPhone 6s received updates in the past year and it’s from 2015
Fairphone is minimum 8 years.
Who the fuck keeps (and uses) a phone for 8 years?
It would be more realistic if they made batteries easily swappable. If I could just pop off the back of the phone and swap a battery in 20 seconds I’d keep that phone forever.
Back in my day, you don’t need 20 seconds to replace a battery. And battery is not just replaceable, but also interchangeable. Multiple phone models could be using the same battery, making it cheaper and more available.
We’ll see how that comment ages once apps need more horse power because the apps are yet again peogrammed as a glorified browser window
Me.
Honestly, who doesn’t? And, importantly, what does the demographic of one-year phone people tell us?
People who prefer to not release toxic waste for no good reason?
5 years and still going strong. Not planning to replace any time soon.
If you swap it out for Lineage problem solved. I agree & strongly recommend against using a stock Sony ROM. It kind of defeats the point of buying one.
No entry level options, relatively lower specs for the price asked, mediocre software support. That being said, they are one of the few OEMs in their price segment to still offer headphone jacks.
Yeah headphone jack is a nice bonus, my only method of playing audio from my phone in the car is the aux cable
Me too. I bought a ugreen Bluetooth to aux adapter. Just a USB stick with wire an 3,5mm headphone jack on. Works great and I payed 20€.
They’re also comparatively “small” in this world of bricks.
I just bought a new phone. I went with a Galaxy again. I really wanted the Sony because it has a great feature set. However, I was not confident in long term support, which Sony has said will be much shorter than competitors. And it also cost about 30% more than the other flagship phones. I can’t justify spending more money for a phone that will last me half as long.
I got an Xperia 5 IV very recently when my Galaxy S7 died. Been happy with it. Smallest phone I could find with an SD card slot, and while it’s still larger than my old phone, the screen is the same width, just taller. Overpriced? Probably a bit. In the end though, I like it.
The size is why I keep them in the back of my head. Because when my Pixel 4a dies I’m kinda screwed with how humongous (what?) all those phones nowadays are.
Right, like people want to develop wrist pain over a damn phone. 5&6" is hard to come by.
I upgraded from an S7 in the past year… I ended up going with a Samsung XCover 6 Pro since Sony doesn’t sell their flagship phones in Canada…
Shit updates, expensive, terrible marketing (since ever). I used to buy Xperia phones exclusively, the compact ones to be precise, then Sony decided that compact phones and affordable phones had to go, I bought an Xperia 10 (I or II, can’t remember) and it absolutely sucked. When it broke I bought a random Chinese phone from the store, ended up with a Realme. Works better, with worse battery life tho.
Stubborn ideologies, slow to changes, devices get abandoned after 2 years.
Used to be a big fan of Xperia phones up until the Xperia 5.
I loved my XZ premium . Would still use it if it hadn’t come down with an unfixable charging issue.
I’m gonna be real, I thought Sony stopped making these 5 years ago. Probably because I haven’t looked into buying a phone since that long ago
They used to do great phones though. The Xperia Play (and its slimmer Arc cousin) and the Walkman feature phone are still personal favorites of mine.
Where’s the article?
There’s an embedded video above the headline. It’s easy to dismiss as an ad. I did, too.
It’s easy to dismiss as an ad. I did, too.
Well, Vivaldi’s built-in in adblock apparently agrees with this categorization. The video shows up if I disable it. Lol
It isn’t much better either. HTG went from a great site publishing tech articles to riddled with paywalls(you will encounter sign in screens if you read multiple articles quickly), Premium options, ad affiliated newsletter links and just constant churning of low quality filler mostly.
Their phones are far too expensive and their software support is horrible.
My favorite phone was a Sony Xperia Compact. If they still have SD Card slots my next phone will be Sony.
Marketing and availablity. Unless you watch Phonereviews you probably have no idea these phones exist.
I probably would consider them, but their phones tend to have lackluster US carrier/band support and lack of security updates. Coupling that with the high price tag, no go.
I loved my Xperia XA2, but when the next android update came down the pipe I literally lost features.
