Community

Lukalumen

Dear Sony,

Why? Why? Why do you keep shooting yourself in the foot?

I was watching the Sony announcement this morning and even if glitched out in the middle, I know for sure I want this phone and I know for sure many people want it too. But it will not sell. At all. Again. And I really hope you know why... It's available in June?? I was ready to preorder today and was contacting providers in the UK to see when it will be in stock, but apparently by the time I will be able to get it it will be old news. It seems like you have no marketing companies to help you out, please hire one... And if you do have one, fire them. The Galaxy S 10 is already on pre-order.

I adore Sony, have the XZ3 and really want the 1, but we all know it won't sell because you don't know how to sell them. The anouncement on MWC was not relatable either... I love them so much, but why don't you want your phones to sell?

J-Smith

I understand that Sony has image sensor, television and movie expertise so this puts it together. Competing on hardware specs with Chinese firms who are pushed by fast domestic competition is tough - you can read people here saying June is too late.

However, if Sony really want to stand out and offer something unique for which there is unsatisfied demand, they should offer a factory non-android non-ios device. Thanks to the well-regarded Sony open devices program they already have SailfishOS compatibility. Even if the proportion of people who want to get out from apple and google surveillance is only a few percent (and growing), it would be a multiple of Sony's current market share. I am sure that jolla would be very happy with a small (<$50/device) royalty, and customers who care about their privacy would be happy to pay this to get out from under these masters of their data.

(Of course people can flash SailfishOS themselves now, but the process is not for everybody and customers lose their warranty.)

Lukalumen

Well, I will really make an extensive and beautiful video, hope it gets traction...

I wouldn't expect Sony to outsell Samsung, I am aware of the market situation, but couldn't Sony learn from it and do something about it? I also know their semiconductor business is way more important to them, but some steps would be so easy...

- A more relatable and exciting product unveiling with immediate availability

- Tighter integration with successful products from the company (PS, cameras, headphones. .) including bundles...

- Product placement with so many Sony film and music releases.

I know some things are out of control, but marketing and releasing a phone with huge bezels in a bezelless world are just wrong steps.

Lord_viridis

Huge bezels???

Lukalumen

I was refering to the past mistakes, mainly XZ Premium... Those bezels were such a huge mistake, all the comments I got when I had it is how dated it looked. Even if the specs were very high end...

The Xperia 1 bezels look perfect, much better than notches and holes.

Unless Sony can use the transparent OLED screen that LG is already able to produce and turn those pixels off on demand

Lord_viridis

@LukaStemberger wrote:
I was refering to the past mistakes, mainly XZ Premium... Those bezels were such a huge mistake, all the comments I got when I had it is how dated it looked. Even if the specs were very high end...

AHH, I get ya now, yeah Sony's design has always previously had that industrial type ethos to it, me personally I never minded the bezels, holding the phones to view content was just easier with some bezels to hold onto, but I fully welcome the bezel reductions we've seen recently. The problem for me was the hypocritical media that would review xperias and slam the designs and point out the "gigantic bezels" as proof of their argument.. same media and in some cases same authors would praise iPhones design when at the time, iPhones had far bigger bezels. I mean you wanna criticise a design, then criticise it accros the board.

Same annoyances when Sony introduce features, many media call them gimmicks, yet when Samsung "reimagine" a year later, the same media are all over it as if it's the most awesome thing imaginable, examples are super slow motion, hi Res audio support, and most famously, water resistance.

Lukalumen

I actually sprained my thumb as soon as I got the XZ3! On the XZ Premium, typing was so much easier because of the bezels, the keyboard was in just the right place. Now on the XZ3, I decided to remove the navigation buttons and used the fluid gesture UI from the Playstore. The keyboard was so low that my thumbs were in a completely unnatural position and I actually sprained my left thumb, it really hurt for months, I can still feel it. On the X1 I'll have the floating keyboard to keep it higher on the screen for sure.

Sensination

I love Sony and you can definitely call me a fanboy but sometimes it feels like they take two step forward and three steps backward. There is a saying that devil is in the details and Sony does a lot of things well but then somehow they totally mess up with the small details which annoys longterm fans and detracts an average consumer from their phones. Here are my gripes with Xperia 1:

No headphone jack
No wireless charging - this is a total joke!
Sorry but 21:9 screen format is just too long
Targeting people who care about video making but not allowing 4k 60fps? Seriously?
Back to side finger print reader? Even OnePlus and some Chinese brands can figure out under screen ones but Sony can't? That just looks and feels aged in 2019
Pricing, pricing and pricing again. Guess what it's going to cost in the UK? £849 which is outrageous for a company that's not even in top 5 mobile phone manufacturers! Do they really think they are in the same league as Samsung or Apple? Also by the time it's in the shops Galaxy S10 will cost around £500 most likely.
Announced now but releasing in June? Nobody will care by that time. Also, see point above about S10 being cheaper at that point.
Not allowing to access software to any reviewers at MWC and in some instances even touch the phone in local shows? Wow, just wow...
3300mAh battery... No comments necessary here. My XZ3 really struggles with that despite smaller resolution screen. This will be a total fail, mark my words.
6GB of RAM is a spit in the consumer face considering some cheap Chinese phones have 8GB these days and that there will be 'special' Chineese only version with 8GB.

I think that Japanese executives who run the company do not realise it's not 80's and Sony is NOT the market leader in electronics anymore and is NOT a premium mobile phone brand. Sony Mobile is an underdog fighting for survival at this point but they still price themselves like it's at least Apple.

Lukalumen

You have good points and yeah, it just feels like us, consumers, know what Sony should do to be more attractive, but it's somehow not getting to them.

I would just comment on a couple of your points:

1. No headphone jack

Now, this is actually an old story now, the headphone jack is a thing of the past, get the 1000xm3 and live your best life

What I would like to see from Sony is to make a phone with no USB, no buttons... Not for a flagship, but as a commercial experimental model like Meizo did. I would expect it from Sony, not some random Chinese company.

2. No wireless charging.

I agree, in 2019 it's sad. I did buy the wireless charger for the XZ3, but I extremely rarely use it, PD is so much faster. Again, I would expect Sony to make a faster wireless charger, not remove it.

3. 21:9

Don't disregard until you try. I didn't want phones to move away from 16:9 because most TV content is that ratio, but now I think this is a natural next step. It will definitely stop at that lol

4. 4K 60p

Would be nice to have 4K slow motion, but unless you film sports, 60p doesn't look nice. People who care about video need 24p and it will support it for sure.

5. I'm sure at this point they have some licensing issue with the fingerprint scanner... It had to be disabled in the US, then they slapped it to the back, now it's not integrated into the side power button... I dunno, looks like patent conflicts to me. The XZ Premium had the most perfect fingerprint sensor that is so much more practical and faster than the behind the screen sensor. Soon enough there will be no side buttons on phones though, so Sony will have to switch to the one behind the screen.

6.7.8.9. Good points

10. RAM

It's true for bragging rights. But there is no way for 6 or 12 GB to make any difference. iPhone 10 XS has 4GB. Android has more functionality, so it needs a bit more, but unless you want to keep 4 top games in memory to switch seamlessly between them, anything above 6GB will make no difference.

Sensination

1. No thanks, I prefer to use my €1,000 headphones that use jack rather than buying sub-par bluetooth kids toys.

3. I never used multitasking and I see no reason to have such tall screen on the phone. Of course it's my opinion and I know that some people will ike it some will hate it.

4. I see that you have never seen 4k 60fps vidoe? If you have you'd understand why 24fps or 30fps looks rubbish in comparison to 60fps. My wife has iPhone XS which can record 4k 60 fps and the enjoymrnt from watching the 60fps videos is much much better.

5. No, they are just to cheap to pay for the patent.

10. Have you ever used a phone with 8GB or 10GB RAM? I have and the difference is huge. Xperia has awful RAM management and my XZ3 closes even small apps like crazy. My firiend's Huawei keeps even big games open. If I open maps and one more app when watching Netflix, Xperia kills it? Seriously? You are completely wron 6GB is a bare MINIMUM for mid-range phones these days...

azzido

@Diamanj wrote:
Very disappointed in this release. I was hoping to replace my P20 Pro. I had read early reports about 52MP and 4000 battery, I was in. Now with 12MP and 3333 Battery I'm out.

Yeah, I was hyped for this 52MPx main camera and 4000mAh+ battery too.

The only confirmed from the early reports is price while the others...