The Sony Xperia 1's display has a full-time 4K resolution

Sony has been one of the few OEMs to embrace 4K displays. The Japanese company was the first to introduce a mainstream smartphone with a 4K display—the Xperia XZ Premium—back in 2017, and followed it up with the XZ2 Premium last year. The company’s new device, the Xperia 1, is its only flagship for the year so far, and also features a 4K display. However, it does things a bit differently from the XZ Premium phones.

While the XZ Premium phones only rendered in 4K when viewing 4K content—media, mostly—the Xperia 1 will have a 4K resolution all the time. That means the phone’s home screen and apps like Gallery and Settings will all be in 4K. The company is also said to be working with Netflix on a 4K app.

While 4K looks nice, especially when paired with an OLED display, we’re not sure what consequences this will have on the Xperia 1’s battery performance. Sony’s battery management may very well be the best in the business but the hardware is still just a 3300 mAh unit. We’ll have to wait until the Xperia 1 reaches store shelves to be able to make a conclusive statement on real-life battery performance.