Sony Xperia 1 VI
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CPU: Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520)
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RAM: 12GB
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Storage: 256GB/512GB
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Display: LTPO OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR BT.2020
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Camera: 48 MP
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OS: Android 14
PROS
- Glass back, Aluminum frame with IP65/IP68.
- LTPO OLED display, 120Hz refresh rate.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB RAM.
- Triple rear camera 48MP, 12MP and 12MP.
- NFC, Stereo speakers and 5000mAh battery.
CONS
- No Infrared port.
- FM Radio was unavailable.
- 30W wired fast charging.
The Sony Xperia 1 VI represents a pivotal evolution in Sony’s flagship lineup. While it retains Sony’s legendary commitment to top-tier hardware, audiophile features, and professional creative tools, it introduces a highly practical, mainstream display aspect ratio that dramatically improves daily usability and battery efficiency.
Here is a comprehensive look at its local pricing, broad nationwide retail footprint, and standalone features.
Local Pricing & Smart Purchasing Factors
In South Africa, the premium Sony Xperia 1 VI enters the high-end market with prices starting from approximately ZAR 18,000.
When planning your budget for this specialized creative device, keep these localized factors in mind:
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Pro-Tier Storage Expandability: The ZAR 18,000 baseline price generally secures a hefty internal storage configuration paired with 12 GB of RAM. Crucially, the Xperia 1 VI remains one of the absolute last true premium flagships to feature a microSD card slot, allowing you to cheaply expand your storage up to an additional 1.5 TB for heavy 4K video files.
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Market Position & Availability: Because Sony devices target a specialized premium demographic in South Africa, exact storefront prices can experience minor variations across provinces based on independent merchant promotions, regional courier logistics, or direct stock levels.
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Contract Options: While upfront cash keeps you free of monthly fees, major local cellular networks offer structured 24-month and 36-month flagship contracts, distributing the hardware cost into manageable monthly installments packaged with high-speed data.
Where to Buy the Sony Xperia 1 VI in South Africa
Sony has secured extensive nationwide distribution across major online and brick-and-mortar storefronts, making it simple to purchase the Xperia 1 VI cash upfront or via contract upgrades:
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Online Platforms & Tech Specialists: Takealot, HiFi Corp, and Hi Online.
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Cellular Networks & Premium Outlets: Available on contract plans and upgrades via MTN, Chatz Connect, Cellucity, and 4U.
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Major Hypermarkets & Retail Chains: Makro, Game, and Foschini.
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Everyday Value & Convenience Stores: Mr Price, PEP, and Ackermans.
Standout Features: The Evolutionary Powerhouse
The Xperia 1 VI bridges the gap between pro-grade photography tools and excellent daily smartphone usability.
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The New 19.5:9 Bravia-Tuned Display: In a major shift from previous generations, Sony swapped out the tall, narrow 21:9 screen for a more traditional and comfortable 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The 6.5-inch LTPO OLED screen features a fluid 1-120 Hz variable refresh rate and uses advanced Bravia AI remastering technology to deliver jaw-dropping color, contrast, and outdoor visibility under harsh South African sunlight.
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Revolutionary Continuous Optical Zoom: The camera array is an absolute dream for mobile creators. It pairs a 48 MP main camera utilizing the groundbreaking Exmor T stacked sensor for unparalleled low-light clarity, alongside an advanced telephoto lens that offers a true continuous optical zoom from 85mm to 170mm (3.5x to 7.1x). This ensures completely lossless, crystal-clear image quality across the entire zoom range.
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The Pro Audiophile Standard: Catering directly to music enthusiasts and field creators, the phone features a high-fidelity 3.5mm headphone jack for zero-latency audio monitoring, paired with full-stage front-firing stereo speakers that support Hi-Res Audio, LDAC, and Dolby Atmos.
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Unrivaled Two-Day Battery Life: Thanks to the highly efficient LTPO display and a massive 5000 mAh battery, the Xperia 1 VI delivers legendary battery endurance. It comfortably clears two full days of standard use and supports fast charging alongside convenient wireless charging capabilities.
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IP65/IP68 Premium Ruggedness: Built to tackle the elements with confidence, the phone is fully sealed against dust and water with a dual IP65/IP68 rating, all wrapped in a beautifully textured, tactile glass back and a robust aluminum frame.
Note: The Sony Xperia 1 VI runs an incredibly clean, near-stock Android software experience that is completely free of pre-installed junkware. It features full out-of-the-box compatibility with Google Mobile Services, ensuring completely seamless functionality for all major South African banking apps, food delivery systems, and local public transport networks.
Full Specifications
General
| Brand | Sony |
| Model | Sony Xperia 1 VI |
| Announced | 16 May, 2024 |
| Released | 03 June, 2024 |
| Status | Available |
| Price | ZAR 18,000 |
Design
| Type Design Type called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. | Bar |
| Dimensions | 162 x 74 x 8.2 mm (6.38 x 2.91 x 0.32 in) |
| Weight | 192 g (6.77 oz) |
| Protection | IP65/IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min) |
| Colors | Black, Platinum silver, Khaki green, Scar red |
Network
| 2G Network | |
| 3G Network | |
| 4G Network | |
| 5G Network | |
| SIM SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. | Nano-SIM and eSIM or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
Display
| Display Type Display Technology => A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) | LTPO OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR BT.2020 |
| Size | 6.5 inches, 103.7 cm2 (~86.5% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~396 ppi density) |
| Display Protection Display Protection => Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind. | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 |
Media
| Audio Playback | |
| Video Playback | |
| FM Radio | No |
| Ring Tones | |
| Loudspeaker |
Camera
| Main Camera Camera is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. |
48 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.35", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.3, 85mm (telephoto), f/3.5, 170mm (telephoto), 1/3.5", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, 3.5x-7.1x continuous optical zoom, OIS, 4cm macro @ 120mm, no AF 12 MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.5", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF |
| Camera Features | HDR |
| Video | 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 5-axis gyro-EIS |
| Selfie Camera | 12 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/2.9", 1.22µm |
| Camera Features | HDR |
| Video | 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 5-axis gyro-EIS |
Software
| Operating System OS => Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. | Android 14 |
Hardware
| Chipset Chipset is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. | Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm) |
| CPU CPU (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. | Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520) |
| GPU GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. | Adreno 750 |
| RAM (Memory) RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. | 12GB |
| Internal Storage Internal Storage is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. | 256GB/512GB |
| Card Slot Memory Card Slot is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras. | microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot) |
| Sensors Sensors are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device. |
Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass, color spectrum Native Sony Alpha camera support |
Connectivity
| Bluetooth Bluetooth is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices. | 5.4, A2DP, LE Audio, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless |
| Wi-fi Wi-Fi is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world. | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA (WI-FI 7 will be enabled with a SW update) |
| Wi-fi Hotspot | |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.2, OTG, video output |
| Positioning GPS The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky. | GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC NFC (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches. |
Battery
| Battery Type Battery Type => Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. | 5000 mAh, non-removable |
| Charging Wireless Charging (Inductive Charging) uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device. |
30W wired, PD3.0, PPS, 50% in 30 min Wireless Reverse wireless |
Reviews
Disclaimer Note
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only.
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