What Display Daily Thinks: The announcement between Qualcomm and Sony isn’t that exciting but it did stir some thoughts, especially after watching how Sony played Apple on the Vision Pro. Sony’s displays pretty much made Apple’s Vision Pro stand out as something more than a laptop wrapped around your head. Sony has made some decent phones, but they haven’t been anywhere as impactful as you would expect from a leading brand. Sony has the best camera CCD sensor technology around.
Weighed against a history of collaboration between Sony and Qualcomm, you have to wonder if the time isn’t right for Sony to take all the technology prowess at its disposal and deliver a significant mobile product. There may not a better time than now for Sony to do that. Japanese companies are in an ascendent position, and are benefiting from the US’s position on trade with China, as well as the general demand for production equipment from the display industry. All that is missing is a place in the mobile device segment.
Sony and Qualcomm Have a Multi-Year Collaboration Pact
Qualcomm has announced that it plans to work on developing future Sony smartphones powered by its Snapdragon platforms. The specifics of the collaboration agreement aren’t detailed in the announcement but Qualcomm and Sony both have high expectations for the collaboration, expressing optimism about the potential to bring innovative technologies to consumers worldwide. They’re building upon the work done on the Sony Xperia 1 V that’s already using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform.
Sony’s Xperia 1 V is a flagship smartphone obviously designed with photographers and vloggers in mind. It comes with a 6.5-inch 4K 120Hz OLED HDR display and has a 5,000 mAh battery, with a claimed 20 hours of continuous 4K playback. As you would expect from Sony, the camera system is a key feature. The main 24mm f/1.9 52-megapixel camera features a Type 1/1.35-inch Exmor T sensor, which is 1.7 times larger than the one in the Xperia 1 IV. Sony promises better performance, especially in low light. It also includes a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and an 85-125mm 12-megapixel optical telephoto zoom. The front camera is also 12 megapixels. The Xperia 1 V comes with 256GB of storage, which can be expanded using a microSD slot. The price starts at $1,400.
Sony has also unveiled an Xperia 10 V, a more mainstream smartphone with mid-range specifications, including a Snapdragon 695 chipset, a 6.1-inch 1080p OLED display, a 48-megapixel main camera, and up to 6GB of RAM. The Xperia 10 V sells in Europe and US pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.
