The Sony Xperia 1 with its Galaxy S10 beating 4K HDR display is finally available to buy

Sony’s latest high-end flagship phone, the Xperia 1, is finally available to buy in the UK, months after it was initially announced.

You can pick up the phone from Carphone Warehouse across EE, o2 and Vodafone or pick it up sim-free for £899.99. That’s a high price and puts it in direct competition with some of the very best Android phones we’ve reviewed this year.

So what sets the Sony Xperia 1 out from the crowded Android selection? Well, arguably the biggest standout feature is the display. Sony has done 4K displays on phones before (with mixed results), but the Xperia 1 is the first phone ever to sport a 4K OLED panel with support for HDR. Whether a phone with a 6.5-inch display needs to boast such a high-resolution remains to be seen.

Another nifty feature difference with the display is the aspect ratio. While lots of phones are going taller and narrower, the Xperia 1 is taking this a step further with its 21:9 layout. This should be ideal for cinema content shot in this way – Sony’s said there’s plenty of available stuff on Netflix – but it’ll likely cause issues with other apps and video content.

Sony’s betting big on the camera, too. There are three 12-megapixel sensors on the back, a bevy of video recording features and helps from Sony’s iconic Alpha brand. We’ve not spent enough time with the phone to judge if the camera is comparable to the excellent Huawei P30 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S10 so we’ll bring you more thoughts on that when we’ve spent a bit longer shooting with it.

The rest of the phones mirrors what you’ll see on just about every Android flagship: Snapdragon 855, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and water-resistant body. It’s a shame there’s no Qi charging and the 3300mAh seems a little on the small side.

We’ll have a full review on the Xperia 1 coming in the following days or you can go ahead to pick one up now.