There are a lot of phones out there with quirky and unique features to stand out. The Sony Xperia 1 (along with the Xperia 10 series) has something you won't find on other phones: a 21:9 display. The obvious question with a tall display is how does it affect usage? Daniel Marchena from XDA TV put the Xperia 1's tall display to the test with gaming.

Xperia 1 XDA Forums

A lot of tasks on a phone are not dependant on a specific aspect ratio. They will simply adapt to take up the entire display, whether that's 16:9 or 21:9. Games and watching videos is where things get dicey. Dan tested a bunch of games, and for the most part, they look great on the Xperia 1: Afterpulse, Angry Birds, Asphalt 9, Crossy Road, Shooty Skies, Minecraft, and Fortnite. Games that don't support 21:9 end up moving the content up the screen. Stardew Valley, however, is one game that looks really bad. The good news is the games all still work fine.

Check out Dan's video below if you're curious about how games look in 21:9 aspect ratio on the Sony Xperia 1.

Category

Sony Xperia 1

Dimensions

167 x 72 x 8.2mm

Design

Corning Gorilla Glass 6, Side sense, Multi-window UI

Display

6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED, 21:9, X1 chip for mobile, Creator mode

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

Memory

6GB RAM

Storage

128GB, expandable with microSD up to 512GB

Rear Cameras

Wide-Angle: 12MP 26mm OIS, Dual PDTelephoto: 12MP 52mm OISSuper Wide-Angle: 12MP 16mmBIONZ X for mobile, 4K HDR recording, Cinema Pro

Front Camera

8MP

Battery

3,330mAh

Charging

USB PD 3.0

Audio

Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res audio, DSEE HX, LDAC, Stereo speakers, Stereo sound recording, Smart amplifier, Sony’s Dynamic Vibration System

Software

Android 9 Pie

Connectivity

NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, 5CA LTE, Cat. 19 LTE, 4×4 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11a/ac/b/g/n

Ports and Buttons

Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C (USB 3.1), No 3.5mm headphone jack

Water resistance

IP65/68

Colors

Black, Grey, White, Purple