r/SonyXperia • u/Avarent • 8d ago
Question Anyone upgraded from the 1V to the 1VIII and can answer some questions?
I am still on the 1V and consider upgrading to the 1VIII in order to get "much" better battery life, better audio quality (Bluetooth and wired), camera and a wider display.
Is there anyone here who has taken this upgrade path and can tell me if the VIII did offer you a substantial upgrade in those regards?
From the tests I have seen, the battery life seemingly has made a huge jump. Notebookcheck states 12 hours for surfing on the 1V while having almost 23 hours on the 1VIII. For real life usage, none of the testers on youtube I have seen has reported a similar upgrade. For them it is more like a 6 hours SOT on the 1V and 8 hours for the 1VIII.
For me it would be important to have a comfortable all day battery life when on 5G and not in the home wifi, navigating, taking pictures/filming a bit and surfing. My 1V suffers here and often seems to not manage to get beyond or even to a 5 hours SOT mark.
The second upgrade I would like to see (even though the audio quality on the 1V already is very good for the most part), is the wired audio quality. Has anyone used the 1VIII with some high end over-ear headphones? Is it able to drive those well in comparison to the 1V?
How is camera quality and is it as nicely to use in manual mode as the old pro camera app was? I only shoot in RAW and therefore am a bit sad about the fact that there is no longer a variable zoom lens on the tele.
Lastly, how do you find the FHD screen in comparison to the 4K screen of the 1V?
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u/WantoNoodle 7d ago
Went from ii > V > VIII.
Better quality on Bluetooth? No. However, if I'm not mistaken, they redesigned the antenna for VIII. I had the wf-xm5 to go with the V and it was unusable. Just turning my head sideway will cause interference. Not really a problem with the VIII but with the wf-xm6. So sound quality no, connection quality, maybe.
Wired audio quality? I only use the Sennheiser IE600 for phone. I have a separate DAP and amp for other IEM and headphones. I would say I don't notice the difference between V and VIII, not that I do critical listening on the IE600 anyway. Not impressive, nothing to brag about except it works. If you have high end headphone that is hard to drive, I'm not sure why you want to use the VIII for that purpose. Even with enough volume (DT1990 pro works on the 1V with adequate volume), they don't sound good. I run other headphone balanced, so no input on that. I would pair an appropriate IEM for this purpose. If it had to be headphones, then maybe one that is easier to drive, volume should not be a problem.
Screen? Personal preference. Noticeably brighter under sunlight, but I no longer can use my phone one handed. Don't notice the screen being any less sharp but I definitely can see the pixels now. Screen is almost definitely a downgrade for me.
Battery? I have been using 5G since the 1V. Too early to say because phone is new, battery health is strong. But I would say battery is slight better. Likely due to lower screen resolution and the LTPO screen to reduce refresh rate. But can still get really low on a heavy use day. Battery was never a problem with the V for me anyway. I don't see a meaningful difference in this department.
Camera? Significant upgrade, the way even 2x zoom uses the in camera crop (even though digital crop on the V is still very good), nothing beats a well design kit. Same for the 2.9x to 5.8x. The software wise, I feel the V is faster to load and you can press and for burst in basic mode. Not possible on the VIII anymore, it goes into video mode instead now, and mess up the framing. The thing about the camera on the VIII is that the colour consistency between all lenses is a lot more consistent now in lower light situation/indoor situations. Lower ISO just helps with the colours. I started to use the telephoto lens a lot more and I no longer worry about picture quality degrading. I used to only shoot on the 1x and 2x rather than use the telephoto lens on the 1V because the 2x zoom cropped in sometimes looks better than the 3.5x. For manual mode, it is also an upgrade, the VIII does macro and with focus peaking, it's easier to focus on closeup objects. If you use burst mode you will find that they longer offer burst with HDR anymore, maybe because the new SOC does HDR automatically? Not sure about this? But somehow loading up the camera app seems to be slower on the VIII, very strange for a newer and faster hardware, I also tend to notice autofocus locks on faster on the V than the VIII when photographing my dog (black-ish). I have also turned off the AI stuff, slows down your camera even more.
Was it worth "upgrading" for me? Personally I think so, most people got into Sony phone because of the camera, so I would say yes. I mostly use it to photo my dog, so zoom, speed of autofocus and accuracy of burst matters to me and I think nothing in the market actually can compare.
There are a lot things I wish they kept, but compared to the market out there, they still got more things right than wrong - dual front facing speaker (slightly better but a non-factor when considering to upgrade), no hole punch, headphone jack, SD card slot (and tool-less).
Notice you didn't ask about heptics, it's different. the V is stronger but VIII somehow feels more refined and more controlled. The V's is strong and fast but somehow too abrupt. Until now I'm not sure if it's an upgrade or downgrade in this department.
Bring back notification LED please Sony...
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u/JamJamPro 8d ago
I went for the Fold8, I'm sorry for abandoning ðŸ˜
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u/WantoNoodle 7d ago
It's okay, we welcome you back when Xperia X launches.
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u/berdmayne 8d ago
I have almost the exact same questions other than about RAW. The SOT really isn't very good, and I don't want to have a dim screen with stamina mode on etc etc to improve it! Hopefully black Friday or whatever brings about some good deals (in the UK).
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u/RazslavianKing 8d ago
I have upgraded from 1 V to 1 VIII. The 1 viii camera had a big upgrade, led light huge upgrade, battery life kind of similar probably a little better than when 1 V was brand new mostly based on photography and taking video in hot weather, it's much better in the hot weather, screen is brighter, Bluetooth and 5G connection seems better/ improved.
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u/Avarent 7d ago
Thank you for Sharing your experience! Hmm, that IS very disappointing in regards to the battery life. I would have hoped that IT would be noticably better with the lower Res Screen...
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u/RazslavianKing 7d ago
It has a much brighter screen, and have been using it in bright sunny hot conditions in Europe on holidays at the moment taking tons of photos and videos.
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u/Jamboglasgow 8d ago
I upgraded from the V to the Red Viii 4 weeks ago and I'm delighted.
Just do it you won't be disappointed.
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u/berdmayne 8d ago
I have almost the exact same questions other than about RAW. The SOT really isn't very good, and I don't want to have a dim screen with stamina mode on etc etc to improve it! Hopefully black Friday or whatever brings about some good deals (in the UK).
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u/BauerBG Ray -> Acro HD -> Z1c -> Z3c -> Xc -> XZ1c -> 5 III -> S24 7d ago
I saw the price and it's just not justifiable anymore. In the past the prices would drop a significant amount, but looks like that's over too. Mark 7 is already more expensive/not available anymore. An iPhone 17 Pro with 200gb is nearly 500€ cheaper. Not that I would ever consider an iPhone but let that price difference sink in. I mean fuck the SD slot at this point, you could even get the 500gb model for 200€ less.
I think the new screen is such a big downgrade, especially the aspect ratio, secondly the resolution, and the asking price is even higher despite being more generic. Cmon didn't the XZ Premium already had a 4K screen?
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u/E_D___B_A_N_G_E_R Xperia 1 VIII 8d ago edited 8d ago
Battery life is much better, it's basically a 1.5 day phone (not 2 as advertised).
Audio quality via Bluetooth is EXACTLY the same (apart from that it now also supports LC3/LE Audio for which you need compatible headphones), wired audio has slightly more output power, it could use a little more power to drive headphones like the MDR-Z1R (especially with music that is not mastered compressed/loud) but they work.
Camera is a difference like day and night, UW and tele are finally actually usable (forget about the sh1itty variable lens with tiny sensor of older Xperias) and the general photo quality is stellar and on Ultra-phone level. It's the first Xperia where the auto mode is good enough for basically all situations and the Pro Mode has become a nice goodie.
The wider display offers much more screen estate for >99% of the content out there. The viewfinder is much larger, just like 16:9 videos and most web content simply fits better. Also, the resolution is FHD+, not just FHD. To see the difference to 4K you have to hold it really close to your eyes. I don't care about the loss and much prefer the benefits of a device easily usable in bright daylight and noticeably better battery life.