The Sony Cyber-shot WX1 might look more traditional than its touchscreen brother, the Cyber-shot TX1, but inside it’s just as clever. Instead of a fancy touchscreen, Sony’s stuck with tried and tested buttons and switches for the Cyber-shot WX1. Does it blend the best of old and new technology? Read our Sony Cyber-shot WX1 review to find out!
The Sony Cyber-shot WX1 is bulkier than its touchscreen sibling, the Cyber-shot TX1, but that’s because it holds a few important extras.
First of all there’s a slightly beefier 5x optical zoom and 24mm wide-angle lens. It’s a tasty extra, but in practice it’s hard to notice too many advantages over the TX1’s Carl Zeiss optics, with 4x zoom.
On tour with Sony Twilight Football: See our exclusive photos, taken with the Cyber-shot WX1
Around the back, however, there are real differences. The Sony Cyber-shot WX1 uses a smaller screen, to accommodate buttons and switches at the same time, and while it’s not nearly as slick as the touchscreen alternative there’s a more reasuring clunkiness to its design.
A solid mode-selection dial, chunky zoom controls and a shortcut key for controlling the Sony Cyber-shot WX1’s burst mode are all handy. The latter is particularly smart, letting you snap up to 10 frames per second to guarantee perfect action shots, but bundling them together as one “group” in the camera’s image library, to avoid endlessly wading through similar shots.
As with the Sony Cyber-shot TX1, Sony’s new Exmor R sensor is nestled inside the WX1. It’s a superb addition, rinsing every drop of detail from photos, even in dim light. You can see the results in our photo gallery above. There’s also the new Bionz image processor, churning through snaps in seconds and keeping delays between shutter-presses astonishingly short.
Read our Sony Cyber-shot TX1 review
Where the Sony Cyber-shot WX1 falls down is in the style stakes. There’s no denying this is a smart camera, but more so on the inside than out. The technology under the hood makes it tricky to take a truly awful shot, and clever features like Sweep Panorama, turning a quick flick of the wrist into a 180 degree wrap-around shot, are hopelessly addictive.
Put side by side with the Sony Cyber-shot TX1, however, and the WX1 looks a little frumpy. It’s bigger, blockier, and lacks the gorgeous 3-inch screen that makes gawping at your handiwork such a joy. OK, it’s moderatlely cheaper than the TX1, but we’re talking a difference of around £20. When it comes to fancy snapping, the WX1 is purely for the fashion adverse.
