Sony’s flagship Xperia 1 handset will go on sale in the US for $949 on July 12th, the company announced today. The phone was first announced back in February, and it features a super tall 21:9 4K HDR OLED display, which Sony claims is a first for a mobile device.
That means it’ll be able to show most films without the need for any letterboxing, but it will also give you extra vertical space while you’re browsing Twitter or looking through your inbox. In the UK, the handset is expected to start shipping on May 30th, and retailers are currently listing it for £899.
Sony’s mobile division isn’t in a healthy position. Back in March, Nikkei reported that the company cut up to half of its smartphone workforce in the face of declining handset sales. Its smartphone sales reportedly dropped by 50 percent between 2017 and 2018, and Sony sold just one-sixth of the devices last year as it did five years previously. The company is attempting to start fresh with the Xperia 1, and it’s hoping its massive 4K display will allow it to stand out in a competitive market.
While Sony gears up to launch this year’s flagship, details of its successor — the Xperia 2 — are already starting to emerge. Although it currently appears to be an incremental update, the new phone will apparently shrink its predecessor’s 6.5-inch display down to 6.1 inches while maintaining its 21:9 aspect ratio, and Sony will also change the location of the rear triple-camera setup.