How about the Sony Xperia 1 IV?

What about it? I own the Sony Xperia 1 III and it is a decent enough phone. To me the formfactor is appealing: squared corners and the 21:9 aspect ratio. The camera, well the IV is last years flagship phone but not that dissimilar then my III. Regarding photography mine has a step zoom and the IV has a true zoom, I think that is the biggest difference. Sony is not that good in computational photography compared to Google Pixel, Apple iPphone or Samsung. However, I feel the hardware of the Sony is top notch - I once saw a comparison between the wide angle of the III and the wide angle of the Pixel and the Sony resolved more detail. However, as a point and shoot the Pixel probably is better.

All phones have really small sensors and their strength is in software, that makes them competitive against real cameras. Take a look at Marcus Brownlee (MKBHD) video's on image quality - for the IV the one from last year: https://youtu.be/LQdjmGimh04?si=07BDosYREQhm-wrm (tested in Auto mode! The Sony has good hardware but the auto modes are so-so).

Did you consider bringing a small camera like the Ricoh GR (28mm) or GRx (40mm)? What about the Sony RX100 series? Or a A6x00 with a nice lens (Sigma 18-50/2.8 looks nice, or the Sony 18-135 if you want more reach). Just thoughts.

Edited by addy landzaat - 24 January 2024 at 09:16

Thanks for those thoughts Addy.

Do you use it in say P, S or M modes and shoot raw files to process later? There seems to be wide agreement in reviews that in auto modes, producing jpegs, it doesn't compare as well to the Pixel phones etc. Whereas it is stronger when used more like a 'proper' camera.

My main reason for not considering a small camera is that it seems like a poor use of money.
I'd be using it just for trips to China (once or twice a year now it seems) and only when I won't be doing anything interesting enough to warrant taking the α1.

Whereas you need a phone for everything in China now, and my contract work requires a Chinese SIM (and it's convenient to have the NZ Sim on hand also). Plus with the anemic and erratic WiFi, you're much more reliant on 5G mobile data to get anything done.

In one of my earlier trips to China looking at wildlife markets, when I didn't want to draw attention to myself with the camera, I'd use one of the last Nokia phones to be manufactured. It was set up to shoot .dng files rather than jpegs. I was impressed at how much better the pics ended up. So I'm speculating that more modern Sony sensors, and ones a respectable 12 MP in size rather than 50, might be 'good enough'.

You did remind me though that I still have an old QX100 in a drawer somewhere. I'll have to see if it's still working.

The Xiaomi 13 pro does look very interesting, but none are currently available for sale here in NZ.

Thanks for the thoughts