Sony's hexa-camera smartphone is shaping up as a mobile photography beast

One of the areas that the Sony Xperia 1 has really improved is in its imaging quality. Despite being a supplier of the camera sensors fitted to top-flight smartphone cameras like the iPhone XS and Huawei P30 Pro, Sony's own image processing software has lagged the competition. A first-time authentic collaboration between its smartphone and Alpha camera teams on the Xperia 1 has made a drastic improvement on its previous shortcomings.

That said, there is always room for improvement and the successor to the Xperia 1 looks to really ramp things up on the camera front. Where the Xperia 1 features a trio of three excellent 12MP sensors with varying focal lengths on its rear and a solid single front facing camera, the sequel will feature five rear cameras to join the single front facing camera for a total of six camera sensors. These will be joined, importantly, by both front and rear facing 3D ToF sensors. The detailed specs of the set up comes courtesy of leakster Max J/@Samsung_News.

A number of reviewers have noted that the Xperia 1 is missing Sony's 48MP IMX586 sensor, which is a feature on several recent flagship phones from competitors. The Xperia 1 sequel will finally get this sensor with a variable F1.2/F2.4 aperture. It will also score an 8MP F2.4 sensor, a 12MP F1.2/F2.4 sensor a 16MP F2.4 sensor and a 20MP F2.4 sensor that will be partnered with a 0.5MP 3D ToF sensor. One area that the Xperia 1 has been criticized is its bokeh effect - the addition of a 3D ToF sensor will nullify this complaint while the overall set up looks killer.

If Sony can continue the excellent work it has done with the Xperia 1 on its sequel, there is a strong chance that Sony will no longer simply be known as the supplier of camera sensors to the best camera phones on the market, but also the market leader in its own right.