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Sony Xperia X camera takes on Tokyo (pictures)

CNET takes Sony's new Xperia X for a tour around a traditional Japanese garden in Tokyo.

Katie Collins
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
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1 of 11 Katie Collins/CNET

Sony's Xperia X is its latest hero handset, due out this summer. One of the smartphone's standout features is its camera, which we put to the test in a traditional Japanese garden in Tokyo.

Sony has been working on expanding its colour palette, especially when it comes to greens. The contrast between the different shades of green can be seen particularly well in this picture.

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The Xperia X proves itself capable of capturing close-up shots that retain a decent level of detail.

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There is great detail and balance in the foreground of this shot, but the sky is washed out, looking particularly overexposed in the top left corner.

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Sony's predictive autofocus tool kept track of the geisha as she moved through her dance routine, ensuring that the shot did not blur.

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As you can imagine, these fish did not stay still for a single second, but with Sony's fast camera, we were able to capture the shot we wanted with no delay.

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This macro effect occurred automatically as we tapped to focus on the sign in the foreground of the image.

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Sony has made a real effort to eradicate noise in photos taken with the Xperia X's front-facing camera.

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Here's a solid example of what the Xperia X can capture in a bright outdoor scene. Colours are vivid without being unnatural and the level of detail and texture is excellent. Again, the buildings in the background are a little washed out.

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Sony's using something called dynamic contrast, developed with the company's Bravia TV department, to make sure pictures have real depth. This can be seen in the contrast here between the trees in the foreground and the shadowy areas and the patches of rippling water towards the back.

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To ensure the geisha did not blur as she was dancing, the predictive autofocus anticipated her every move. The camera shifted the focus to make sure it would be in the right spot for the moment the shutter went off.

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It's not just greens the colour palette has been trained to deal with, as this shot incorporating burnished red leaves shows.

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