VITALSTATS
A ZOOM WITH A VIEW
Sony Xperia 1 IV
At185git’sa featherweight flagship, but there isstillroomfora camera shutter button.
£1299 / sony.co.uk
True optical zoomery and a brighter 4K display put the best of Sony’s different divisions in one pocketable gadget
● I’ll follow my secret smart
Smartphones are so good these days, and competition so fierce, that standing out is all about marginal gains. A little unique feature here or there can be the difference between catching the eye and disappearing into the crowd with all the other glowing rectangles. So while the optical zoom on the Xperia 1 IV won’t make it a best-seller, it is something of a world first for a phone, offering continuous zoom from 85 to 125mm instead of using AI-assisted cropping for everything in between. That’s only a small range, but in theory it’ll offer better results than digital.