Sony Xperia 1 IV - Worth buying in NZ?

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hotsupes

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Master Geek

#299115 12-Aug-2022 09:35

Hey all, looking at purchasing a new phone and came across the Sony Xperia 1 IV, Camera looks decent enough, Sony have kept the SD card slot, which is a major plus point for me.

https://www.dicksmith.co.nz/dn/buy/sony-xperia-1-iv-xq-ct72-5g-dual-sim-12gb-ram-256gb-black-04589771647073/

Planning on buying it from here.

Does anyone know if this will have any issues with 5G/VoLTE in NZ? From my own research on GSMarena it seems like it has the matching bandwidths for NZ 5G.

Thanks in advance!

scottjpalmer

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#2953750 12-Aug-2022 09:40

From my relatively recent with a current model Xperia experience, you won't get VoLTE or WiFi Calling. I don't know about 5G.

hotsupes

161 posts

Master Geek

#2953754 12-Aug-2022 09:44

Damn, I was thinking that might be the case - it's a pity, I might end up being cucked into buying the Samsung lineup again and throwing the SD card into a raspberry pi or something.

tort3491

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Wannabe Geek

#2962192 1-Sep-2022 22:36

Bit of a late reply, but I have been using the Xperia 1 IV for over a month and have been great so far.

Quick two things:

VoLTE works out of the box with vodafone! (No tinkering with settings or having to root/unlock the bootloader)
5G works with vodafone - only if dual-sim mode is disabled

Was quite worried with the purchase due to the issues with previous models (no VoLTE/5G, poor connectivity, etc.) but so far I had no issues with calls and data and 5G has been exceptionally fast. One other thing I was worried about was the overheating issue. The phone does get hot, but I don't really take 4K/120hz videos as often as others for the overheating to be an issue. Gets hot with fast-charging and gaming but it's never reached uncomfortable temperatures.

I have the Hong Kong variant of the mark IV but another kiwi user on reddit (/r/sonyxperia) said that they had no issues with VoLTE and they seemed to have an EU variant instead. HK and TW should both work.

I took the risk of buying this phone since I absolutely need a SD card on my phone, and the 3.5mm audio jack is a big plus for me as I still use my wired headphones for listening to music. Would definitely recommend this phone, but I'd consider issues with warranty/repairs since the Xperia is only available via parallel imports. No issues so far :)

scottjpalmer

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#2962194 1-Sep-2022 22:41

Great to hear, I wish we could be confident of that being the case with all Xperias.

tort3491

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Wannabe Geek

#2962197 1-Sep-2022 23:01

Absolutely. Was certain that it wouldn't work with NZ carriers, so it was a pleasant surprise (bought it with plans to root it to enable VoLTE). I saw threads here with users reporting no VoLTE/5G support with their Xperias.

Sad that Sony dropped out of NZ and many other places since they're the only android providers that still have flagship specs + microSD + 3.5mm headphone jack support. I guess the same risk comes with other parallel imported android phones as well.

TheMightyKiwipeso

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Master Geek
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#2962273 2-Sep-2022 09:34

I'd recommend a slightly lower end Oppo, as you can get them with MicroSD card slot, and they work with wifi calling.