Can a smartphone do cinema? | Sony Xperia 1 review
I never thought I’d see them again, but it looks like the company’s not done yet because they’re back and their latest flagship smartphone is going all in on being a mobile cinematic device. But the question is: can a smartphone really do cinema? Well, we had to find out, which is why we’re here at the KL forest eco park, which is like one of the few places in KL that you get to hear the beautiful sounds of nature right next to the beautiful sounds of a bustling city, like the Construction over there, anyway, we’re gon na walk this trail and then we’re gon na see if we can get some nice footage, I’ve actually never been here before, but I hope it looks good and we can get some good sort of cinematic footage and really test out The Xperia ones cinematic camera Music, Music in case you’re unfamiliar. Let me give you a quick refresher. When Sony launched the Xperia one, they included it with something called the cinema Pro app, which is an app that’s, designed to bring the cinematic look and control of their actual cinema cameras to the body of the Xperia 1. So that means you get like a whole bunch of settings you have like. You have to choose your lenses before because the three of them can choose which one you want to use and set your ISO and set your shutter speed, but the shutter speed set based on the angle so it’s, like 180 degrees during a 60 degrees.
You know those kind of things, your white balance. You can even pull manual focus with the settings in the app which I think, it’s pretty cool. But problem is that it’s, a very different shooting experience then, like most people will be used to on a smartphone where it’s just point and shoot, and then you can adjust on the fly. You can’t do that here. So once you start recording those are the settings. You’Re, stuck with the only thing you can tweak is focusing so like let’s say if I were pointed at something that’s a bit overexposed from like shadows. I need to stop the recording and then start it again with the new settings after exposing for that. I can’t like on the fly adjust or the phone doesn’t automatically adjust for me, so it’s it’s, a very manual experience, it’s kind of tedious, especially when you’re moving in these kinds of situations where you see a lot of shadows and then a lot of like highlights. But you know it is what it is so right now, we’re gon na go up on that thing, which is like the canopy walk going into this test. I really didn’t know what to expect from the experior one, partly because I haven’t seen a lot of coverage around this aspect of the smartphone yet, but partly it was also really hard for me to believe that you could do cinema in a smartphone. However, when I arrived at the top of the stairs, I had another more immediate problem: wow.
This looks awesome I’m, a bit afraid of heights, a lot afraid of heights, but uh yeah. I think we can do it. You are that’s a really nice shot of Catherine right now that I’m gon na try and get but it’s so shaky. The bridge I mean not a camera cameras very City, so the Xperia one has a triple camera set up at the back. There is like a 12 megapixel wide angle, talked megapixel telephoto and a 12 megapixel ultra wide. I think it’s f, 1.6 aperture lens, so I mean it’s a pretty good setup, but I have to say that the quality from the triple cameras vary greatly from each other. You’Ll need to tweak the settings for each independently and even then it’s very unlikely that you’ll get the footage to look identical it’s, not quite the same as swapping high quality lenses on a proper camera body, that’s for sure. Right now I need to steel myself because if I thought this was scary, there’s, another higher, wonder, Music, Music or even higher right now, why do you choose this way? Sir? Some of the planes are loose. Oh, they were a lot higher. Oh, it goes for them. So the scary thing is that I dunno how much I so it can handle. I don’t dare to push it too. High I’m, like 200 250 max, maybe sometimes 400, but I really don’t want to do too much because they taste all the tournaments like super, noisy it’s, a tiny actor, and that was the right call, because you really can’t push the eyes so much on the sensor.
I was only comfortable going up to about 400 ISO, because anything higher would make the footage really noisy Music Music. So I think we’re like halfway through the entire thing right now and well, I mean it’s like a time to see whether this thing can block Darla. So I have it on the smooth cue and on the widest lens, because otherwise it’s, like too close to my face kazuto sama when I copy – and this is audio straight from the built in microphone in the exterior – I don’t – know how good it is. I had to mount it the valid because otherwise the lens into white but yeah. So the thing about this place is that it’s, not that scary. After all, I mean some of the planks are like a bit terrifying because, like the dress suits you quite sturdy, but a bit terrifying. Ah, but as I try to like remove them because they have no plane, it doesn’t really add no school. It doesn’t really give whele but yeah. Oh no we’re at the end, Reedy still what a cool place, though I think if you have time – and you want like a bit of jungle – it’s not quite Central Park jungle but it’s it’s, not bad, actually, it’s, really not bad, especially when the weather is this Good it’s, like overcast, but not dark and not raining yet, but as impressive as the kale forest eco park was. I think the thing that surprised me, the most was the Sony Xperia one’s ability to do cinema, we shot everything in the default, Venice colour profile and the footage turned out way better than I expected the blue orange color tones you can achieve with just a little Color grading really helps sell the cinematic vibe.
That being said, I was disappointed to find out that there was no one to any FPS slow mo in the cinematic app, which I feel is crucial for you know cinematic footage, and I have to admit that the footage looks a little soft when compared to the Sony a7 3s crisp 4k, but I think in this case it actually helps the xperia one make its case and, while I’m, someone who generally prefers my smartphone shooting experiences to be straightforward, I have to admit that I enjoyed shooting with the Xperia one. I liked the process of tweaking all those manual settings and setting the shot up right before hitting record. It really felt like I was making my own mini movie, and that only made me want to shoot more. But does this make this like a film makers camera or like a filmmakers dream camera? I don’t know because you know if you’re a filmmaker or someone who shoots like me, who makes like Internet videos me we’re, exact right. You probably already have a camera and when you have that what you want from a smartphone is generally to have like a really simple point and shoot experience. So, like me, you don’t have time just want to whip it out, hit record and be good to go and when it comes to debt. I still think that the iPhone has a much better experience because footage throughout the camera, for that guy is a lot better and I would say the performance is much better, so I don’t know.
I don’t think that this is the kind of camera smartphone for me. In fact, I don’t actually know if this will be the camera smartphone for a vast majority of people in general, because unless you have a genuine interest in videography, all this fiddling around would just feel like a hassle to you. But honestly, if you’re asking me, I think that this cinema Pro app or this whole cinematic experience is the least of the experience problem, because it’s not just a cinema camera that fits in your pocket. It has to be a smartphone and when it comes to that there are a lot of things that I wish Sony would have done different. Oh man, where do I begin? Okay, don’t get me wrong because it’s not like the Xperia one didn’t have any redeeming features. The stock Android software it comes with, for example, is a big selling point. For me, it does come with a couple of preloaded apps, but the experience itself is generally unchanged, which is good, it’s, also a proper flagship. So you get a staple flagship features like water resistance, stereo speakers and a nice dedicated camera button. I was even surprised with the battery because, although the battery itself was tiny, it’s still just about lasted me an entire day, though I do wish that the Xperia one came with a bigger cell and have I talked about the screen, because that 4k, all that panel Looks really good and despite its tall aspect ratio it actually wasn’t very hard to handle, because the phone itself is really slim, it is tall, so it does stick out quite a bit if you put it in your pocket, though, however that’s, where the good news ends, The rest of the phone just isn’t up to par with what a 20 19 flagship should be.
Surprisingly, despite featuring a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of storage performance was a bit of an issue. For me, the camera app is incredibly sluggish. So I was always worried about missing a shot and I found that a lot of Sony’s native apps that come pre installed had a tendency to freeze and often crash on top of that. The fingerprint scanner is very unreliable, because it’s really easy to get smudged and the position is far from my favorite on a handset what’s, more even some of the stuff I like about the phone comes with its own flaws. The screen, for example, doesn’t, get nearly bright enough for easy visibility. Outdoors and the stereo speakers are surprisingly soft for how full they sounded. Then you’ve got the gimmicky speaker, bass, vibration thing that just stuff it just feels awful. What surprised me most of all, however, was the camera like the regular camera outside of the cinema Pro app for starters, image quality left a lot to be desired and the rate in which you switch between the different lenses is, frankly, just a joke, plus well, the Xperia ones I autofocus works very well with human subjects. The smartphone struggles a lot with pulling focus on objects or things that aren’t human. I don’t get it so many amazing smartphone cameras use Sony sensors, but why are Sony’s own smartphone cameras, so underwhelming? And if you add all of that together, you start to realize that the true crime here is the sony, xperia ones, absurd price tag of four thousand two hundred and ninety nine ringgit.
How can you justify that price tag at that price point? You can buy. Basically, any flagship, smartphone from any major manufacturer and I’d argue that every one of them are a better phone than the Xperia one, and if you want to bring up the cinema Pro app, I just I just don’t think that that’s enough to win anyone over something Like an iPhone or like a note, 10 so know, despite all the fun that I had shooting with the Xperia One, and you know how surprisingly good it was at doing cinema, I simply can’t recommend that you buy this smartphone. But those are my thoughts. Let me know what you think of the experiment in the comments below and that’s, where I’m gon na end this video, if you liked it be sure to give it a thumbs up, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and you know, click on a notification That icon, so you don’t, miss any of our future uploads. You can also follow and like us on Facebook, but our home will always be at search in Chow calm. In the meantime, you can watch any one of these two videos that I have next to me, but that’s about it. I will be signing off. Thank you.
[compare_prices_deals]
source
I have Xperia1 had since day 1 out got headphones X1000M3 in buy say Awsome mobile put most other to try reach are so much better in everything and say Sound X1 to headphones say best sound ever hear Wireless are Ldac DSEEHX Atmos Bluetooth are sound not get from other if she Ldac Bluetooth in both X1 and X1000M3 get sound not ever thought go get wireless so Sony do sound great bought before got mobile s USB C 3.1 Digital Audio With Charging adapter LUXORPART are Get 3.5 Highend and support mic and USB C charging 60W PD so are small thing get sound from USB C from mobile in new level are Lot better than XZ Premium test 3.5 headphone cable and not get better sound are actually better from USB C 3.1 cable and if use bad cable get bad are USB C 3.1 and that cable use need have that when are Fast speed are 4KHDR Dolby Vision cable that get out so use low end cable get low end result .
Then camera got upgrade a lot off those and must say very impressed in Near reality photo get and how Detail get if zooom are Way better and You get HDR auto always if like just shiftvover to manually let all be in auto and put HDR on and let camera be in Manually do are that auto mode to change it back to ordinary Auto mode so can Chose auto are get Choise in auto mode can set up own auto mode self so if not put camera to ordinary auto are that setting auto get so can get HDR auto always on and ordinary auto just shift between both and chose auto with or without HDR are Not know this and test mobile should know this should know what Ldac is are Bluetooth codec Sony's are best out there
Mine have a PS4 consol and in that can pair Handcontrol to my Xperia1 and play where ever are and Stream game to other 4KHDR screen and in that get PS4PRO and really fast speed no lag Xperia5 do same thing What Gear look up Test game on Xperia5 and 21/9 get all game inside screen S10NOTE not get all game Asphalt or Call of Duty are 21/9 size game in That Xperia1 and 5 are very compatible with PS4 gaming and can pair Handcontrol and headphones in same time also get so mobile put on PS4 hand control just get a Power Bank in way phot and Recording gaming and Just use Internet just never own s mobile get all day not S7Edge or Note or iPhones anyone if use camera s lot of cmgsming and so on battery drain out and are Powerbsnk say S7Edge and Note drain out fast after 6 month Alf betrert life left are really heavy user and say Crap Samsung battery have are very fast drain out not hold up over time Xperia1 say go rmeasy up to my friends S10+ and Note they both need charge before me today are Say mine got faster and got more Barret life in 6 month time like Adjust it self around me and no app Not use are start in mobile are S10NOTE and+ App only there to pic up stores WiFi so fill mail with Comersial that is a joke why people buy those and that need give up are to much iPhone do same pic up Comersial from every store visit that not go get away from and that drain battery when not use mine have Awsome stand y my friend drain a lot in not use it also so Say Must have mind in another universe if not see that and camera should mirroring sonear hat what see with you're eye not see a ready Instagram photo show anything my eye see se are use Coullor filters so not need be that accurate filters hide it Huawei P30PRO and those get great photo but Samsung not get a new painted reality are not go do anymore than share not go do editing and lightroom if get iPhone need put up 500$ more to even get close Xperia1 or Xperia5 are 1600$ against 945 $ 790$ get PS4 gaming mobile and it is that just not care to show and sound are Awsome just not care to show camera are Awsome not just bought up and not one to show it beacouse of did so many should buy those 2 Xperia1 or Xperia5 when Awsome mobiles and more than most ever give another Clean Android are not that much drain battery like those Comersial rain in mail always on are not better Both Xperia1 have 4KHDR and 2KHDR are Samsung Superamoled screen on both why do not Note have 4K when are Possible why do S10 just have 1080p screen pricetag same That Xperia1 with 4KHDR and 4KHDR recording in camera have are When et much and auto all people if have 2 auto chose in do that get 1 thing to many need think about are People get more Stupid in every generation in not understand to do anything them self and when test Take a little time to Read and look In What Test before so give Some near right in anything Test beacouse not test anything in gaming and all Awsome Functions have in gaming are Professional gaming mobile can record own gaming sessions can Have friends in scree game against can Stream in 4KHDR PS4PRO game on any TV take that need WiFi only so can game anywhere in mobile can do that everywher so Know what s power bank are that is usefull in all mbile own brand have in pocket to get if get low are small things get more power in pocket charge so easy and really like anyone not know that thing even exist Who need when go charge with Powerbsnk in heavy use 😱
The footage and luts are amazing. Nice work
Hi. NEED HELP! Can I ask you something: After the updates would you swap a normal Galaxy S10 with an Xperia 1 in terms of just cameras and battery life? And why? Cheers.
Just for reference I just purchased my Xperia 1 last week, second hand from a reputable dealer for just £227
I have that, as well as most Sony Xperia phones, I love it, the only thing that sucks is that OIS does NOT work on anything over 1080p
maybe it's just not the phone for you
Waiting for the next Sony Xperia flagship this year
You're missing a hell of a lot in this supposed review. Learn how to really use the Xperia 1 and do a real review.
The true crime here is that the reviewer doesnt like SONY and favours Apple and The popular brands., and No, the price isnt the worse at all. It still cheaper than MANY other brands like Samsung or Huawei. Yes there are some chinese companies, and no, they arent better than SONY. The price isnt an issue at all, because it has actually gone down quite a bit. So its not even an argument not to buy. In sweden it was the price of 1000 USD…. (And you got some real damn good headphones bundled with the buy). Today you can buy the same phone for around 740 USD. YOu cant buy a Samsung phone for that price and those are even older now. So to argue the price isnt right, is just not an argument at all. I can agree that the camera software might be not good yet. But the camera, tv and mobiledepartments hasnt worked this close for that long of a time. Remember they started to work more like a unit in may last year. before that, they didnt work at all with Mobile-department. They actually did the camera experience worse, because they wanted Sony mobile to fail. And that was a Sony departmant who did that. Just wait. It will be better, and to be true, the camera on both Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 has gotten better a lot, during updates….
WHAT RM 4K UP? Mmmmmmmmm
I like sony
I've had the xperia since day one and have been shooting sony alpha cameras for years. Inky think I despise about the phone is its finger scanner. It's such a pain
I own both this phone and the S10+ and I got to say the performance, display and camera are definitely better on the Sony. The S10+ display is marginaly brighter on max brightness than the Xperia, but that isn't really noticeable. The max brightness on the Xperia is achieved only when auto-brightness is on and under direct sunlight and not manualy to prevent burn-in.
The xperia's display is sharper and colours are true to life and really vivid. The Samsung may appear to be more saturated in the UI but when testing with colour jpegs the xperia's colours had more pop. As for the camera, I would agree than on auto mode the samsung is usualy better. But, both the sensor of the ultra wide and the wide are better on the sony. If you shoot raw, the difference in detail captured is night and day. Low light shots can vary. If handheld the samsung may do a bettee job. If the camera is stabilised the sony gets the better shot. HDR is pretty matched although you gotta manualy activate on the sony whereas the S10+ has it always turned on. The eye tracking autofocus is a game changer in camera smartphones. I have seen no mention of the predictive capture feature or the 1080p 960 fps slow motion or the fact that you can capture video in HDR. All in all, weather you prefer the S10+ or the Xperia 1 is subjective. Both devices have pros and cons like any devide on the market, but to suggest that the Sony can't compete with other flagship on the market is simple not true.
How was your experience using it with zhyun ? I can't make it work properly with my Xperia 1 app wise that is, I can't record with it 🙁
Watching this on my Xperia 1. Loving the black bars on either side of your video 😒.
I like the phone, but using it is a right pain in the rear… Most videos end up being cropped or have the black bars on either side.
The best thing about this phone is the ergonomics
The honest review
I used the xperia 5 and is awesome. Very light in weight.. Excellent camera and screen. Great battery life and very fast performance… For me I think you can't spend a day with a phone and just conclude is bad… I gave my iPhone 11 pro to my girlfriend because I want a change. I never regret moving to xperia 5. Xperia 5 is the best android phone out there in respective of what people says. I also think all phones manufacturers to adapt the xperia battery care, is the best. Protecting the battery from overly charge. To keep the battery life longer.
I love this phone…so unique and too beautiful…best smartphone of 2019 for me….actually this phone is not for everyone..
Of cause sony love forever
@SoyaCincau – this review lines up with the majority I have heard on this phone. You did a fabulous review of the phone and appreciate you giving your opinon towards the end. Thank you.
I own that. Probably everyone preference are different. I like my Xperia 1 than others. I like stock Android and the camera experience even though have to adjust many settings..
I actually like the Xperia line. Too bad it's not affordable
Name og gimbal?
Edit: of