Note the newly announced Sony Xperia1VI and Xperia10VI - those may be Sony's best attempts to pull users away from Galaxy or Pixel phones.

Xperias in the past have always been weird, but Sony has made the latest models more typical in terms of functionality and design. Combining Xperia's creator-first attitude, impressive camera, and welcome durability and longevity features, you can turn your head to 2 different ends of the pricing spectrum.

While there's no headline AI feature like you'd get from Google or Samsung launches, Sony promises to appeal to users who prefer to handle things personally. Here's what you need to know about xperia1VI and Xperia10VI

among the flagship phones, the £1299Xperia1VI (price unconfirmed in the US) specifically sticks to its photographic capabilities. Armed with a 12MP ultra wide angle, 12MP zoom, a 48MP main (using Exmor T for mobile sensors) and a 12MP front camera, this already sounds pretty good, but there's something more exciting than the megapixel numbers.

As with the previous Xperia1 model, the 1VI telephoto camera is equipped with a continuous optical zoom and without losing detail in relying on digital zoom, you can put your sight on objects further away, from 3.5x to 7.1x and now with a maximum optical zoom of just 5.2x instead of 7.1x.

Sony says this upgraded camera is also perfect for portraits and telemacro extreme close-ups, so once we get the phone to try, we definitely

Meanwhile, the main camera receives a clearly improved low-light photo, minimizes noise and improves the dynamic lens of the image. We have increased the number of users who use our services. Sony has also added the option to use the full 48MP resolution of the main sensor for ultra-detailed shots like other rival phones.

In addition, to simplify the user experience, Sony has integrated the previous three different photo/video apps into a single camera app. The usual wealth of Sony Alpha-inspired settings are available in Pro mode you should be interested though, and Xperia1VI still changes your actual Sony

beyond that camera and one of the longest features of Sony's Xperia1 series, with an LTPO refresh rate of 1-120hz and the most important feature. Moving to a 19.5-inch FHD OLED display with a 9:6.5 aspect ratio, it is shorter and wider than the older 4K, Xperias past 21:9 displays, but with lower resolution.

This was obviously done in the name of power efficiency and app compatibility, but fans of screen quality may be interested in the "Powered by Bravia" tuning Sony gave to the new panel, or the Xperia1V, which boasts a 50% increase in brightness compared to it and improved visibility outdoors.

Even if you want to keep the noise to yourself, enjoy its display with "full stage" balanced speakers that use two same size drivers at the top and bottom of the phone, Sony will try again and give you the best rounded music experience of any smartphone. It includes a headphone jack that supports high-quality audio codecs to give you the best audio quality.

The Xperia VI's body is available in either black, platinum silver or khaki green and is covered in tempered glass back and front with a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 display and a matte textured back panel using victus. The body also has ip65 and IP68 ratings and should be able to shrug the water just like any other phone.

It's Snapdragon 1GEN3 that drives the Xperia1VI, the same chip you'll find on other flagship Android phones. It comes with support for 12GB of RAM, 256GB or 512GB of storage, and 1.5TB of additional storage using a microSD card. Furthermore, covering all of that means it's the first ever steam room cooling for Sony's Xperia, and hopefully it will provide better sustained performance as well as 1VI.

Inside the Xperia1VI there is a 5,000mAh battery, which Sony claims to use for 2 days. And Sony is committed to its adaptive battery system providing 4 years of "healthy performance," so you'll be able to enjoy its 48 hours of battery life over and over again."

Sony seems to like the sound of 4 years of support because it guarantees 3 years of full updates and 4 years of security updates. That's not great compared to rivals like Samsung and Google, which offer 7 years, but it's still a decent time.

As part of this launch, Sony also outlined its approach to AI capabilities, saying that it will only use it to improve the quality of content captured on the phone, rather than generate new material. That's why the new Xperia AI specializes in eye tracking, white balance, exposure, and "pose estimation" for tracking subjects on video, rather than complex editing or creating custom wallpapers.

If you're interested in what Sony has to offer here, Xperia1VI is up for pre-order as you read this and says, "You can pull out the store shelves from the beginning of May 6."

not only gave us a new flagship phone, but also brought Sony a refresh budget model: £349Xperia10VI.

This model also features a 2-day battery, Gorilla Glass Victus, headphone jack, a new camera app and dual IP65/68 dust/water resistance rating like its big brother. But with almost 4/1 of the price, it also has several different areas.

For one thing, its matte back panels are made of resin (not plastic) rather than glass, and even cheap phones have proven unpopular with users in the past. Hopefully, the blue, black and white colorways will become wider and more attractive. For cameras, the Xperia10VI has a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and an 8MP front camera.

The main camera does not feature 2x incenser zoom for a little extra range, but it is more true to its roots than the Xperia10VI, limited to digital zoom, just like other cheap phones, and the 60Hz 6.1-inch FHD OLED display is still 21:9 and gives a more familiar shape. It's a good idea. It and its small display size (compared to other modern phones) could make Snapdragon 6GEN1 a contender for the best small phones and the best cheap phones, and XPERIA128VI, which uses 8GB of RAM and 10GB of storage, is unlikely to brighten the benchmark chart. But it hopefully provides enough strength to address your everyday needs and we continue to do so under the line with the same 3/4 year update plan above.

If this sounds like an Xperia for you, the Xperia10VI is available from "mid-6" and pre-orders are currently open.

It may take a while until you or I can actually try these phones, but Sony has made some smart sound changes to the Xperia1VI and 10VI compared to the previous models.  Instead of fighting the Galaxy S24Ultra or Google Pixel8Pro directly and ignoring them completely and doing their own thing, Xperia1VI tries to balance. It has unique features such as a continuous zoom camera, microSD support and dual IP ratings, but also offers chipsets and storage options similar to more typical display sizes. On the other hand, the Xperia10VI is trying to undercut phones like the pixel8a and Galaxy A55, and in addition to the essentials, it offers Sony condiments a little more specifically in a small package, and hopefully the cheap pricetag will make it easier to forgive some obvious flaws in its hardware at the time of review.

We provide our impressions of these phones, and a full review, whenever we can. But if you need a recommendation now, check out our guide to the best Android phones.