Today Sony follows one of its new form-factors that it introduced last year with the Xperia 5. The new Xperia 1 II (read Mark Two) follows in the footsteps of the smaller primary sibling device and retains its shape, but significantly improves its design and maintains an almost complete feature-balance with the larger Xperia 1 II.
The new phone also sets itself apart from other Sony offerings: although it does not have the gaming phone’s player externally, the company has focused on the device’s high gaming-centric usability. With a new internal heat dissipation system and 120 Hz refresh rate OLED and 240Hz sample touch input, the Xperia 5 II boasts above its weight when it comes to liquidity.
Sony maintains the form-factor and weight of the Xperia 5 – even jammed on a new 4000mAh battery due to advanced internal engineering. This is Sony’s most competitive package over the years, go over the details:
Sony Xperia 1 Series | |||||
Sony Xperia 1 II |
Sony Xperia 5 II | ||||
SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
1x Cortex-A77 2.84GHz Adreno 650 @ 587 MHz |
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Tram | 8 GB | ||||
Display | 6.5 “AMOLED 3840 x 1644 (21: 9) |
6.5 “AMOLED 2520 x 1080 (21: 9) 120Hz Update w / 240Hz Touch |
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Size | Height | 166 mm. | 158 mm. | ||
Width | 72 mm. | 68 mm. | |||
Depth | 7.9 mm. | 8.0 mm. | |||
Weight | 181 g | 163 g | |||
Battery capacity | 4000 mAh
18W USB-PD adaptive charging |
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Wireless charging | Yes | – | |||
Rear cameras | |||||
Primary | 12MP 1.8µm Dual Pixel PTAF 1 / 1.7 “sensor 24 mm / |
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Telephoto | 12MP 1.0µm PDAF 1 / 3.4 “sensor 70 mm. // 3x zoom |
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Wide | 12MP 1.4µ m Dual Pixel PTAF 1 / 2.6 “sensor 16 mm / 130 |
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Extra | 3D Time-Off-Flight (ToF) | – | |||
Front camera | 8MP 1.12µ m f / 2.0 |
8MP 1.12µ m f / 2.0 |
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Storage | 256 GB + Micro SD |
128/256 GB + Micro SD |
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I / O. | USB-C 3.5mm headphone jack |
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Cellular | – | – | |||
Wireless (local) | |||||
IP rating | IP65 & IP68 | ||||
Other facilities | Dual speakers | ||||
Dual SIM cards | 1x nanosim + microSD Or 2x nanosim |
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Issue price | $ 1099 / £ / 1199 | $ 949 / € 899 |
In the center of the phone we see a Snapdragon 865 SoC, which allows the device to have better performance. Although the SoC is very conservative in terms of its power draw, the Xperia 1 II had very low speeds under constant workloads such as gaming. In order to alleviate this, Sony has developed an advanced heat dissipation system inside the phone, mostly thanks to a new large graphite pad that can transfer heat from the SoC to the large track of the screen panel. This will enable the device to achieve almost indefinite stable performance under normal conditions.
Memory wise, we find a reasonable 8GB of tram and storage capacities that can be extended with microSD cards at 128 and 256GB.
In terms of design, the Xperia 5 II takes the lineup from the Xperia 1 II because it has features and almost identical front and rear design. On the front, this means it has two more top and bottom bezels instead of more modern specifications or aperture-punch cameras, yet it does have the advantage of having two surprisingly good ones, and Sony claims to have better consistent stereo front speakers than what we see on other competing smartphones.
A change in the ergonomics of the phone is that the Xperia 5 II comes with a rounded side-frame design, rather than the rectangular and boxy design of the 1 II – in this sense the phone looks very similar to the Xperia 1, and apparently it has a positive, better hand feel than the 1 II It also gives the work environment.
By today’s standards it is still a small phone (today’s standards are big phones!). At 68mm wide, it is shorter than the smallest Galaxy S20, still weighing a reasonable 163 grams. Sony was able to simultaneously increase the battery capacity from the original Xperia 5 to 3110 mAh to the new 4000 mAh unit, by rearranging the phone’s interior and rearranging the motherboard and using the multi-stack design. The battery compartment also uses a wider track inside the phone and increases the space used in the frame.
The display of the Xperia 5 II is completely new to Sony. It has an OLED screen with 2540 x 1080 resolution, but this time introduces a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch input sample rate. This is not only the Xperia 5, but a major improvement over the Xperia 1 II this year. I never liked Sony’s desire to chase 4K displays in the Xperia 1 series, obviously it comes at a huge cost to battery life over full over. The 120Hz refresh rate on FHD + like the Xperia 5 II is a great choice for the user experience, and the loss of resolution on this 6.1 ”display should not be bad, as it is much smaller than today’s standards, so the PPI is still reasonably high.
The rear camera design is very similar to the Xperia 1 II. In fact, it’s basically the same camera system in terms of modules:
A key 24mm equivalent module with a 12MP 1 / 1.76 ”sensor with 1.8µm pixels and an f / 1.7 optical system with OIS acts as an excellent main camera. It operates as an OIS telephoto camera with a 70mm equivalent 3x optical zoom 12MP 1.0µm f / 2.4 module, and enhances the 16mm equivalent 12MP 1.4µm f / 2.2 module with an ultra-wide angle unit.
One thing missing from the Xperia 5 II and its larger siblings is the aircraft’s depth sensor – which is not a loss for photography.
Sony’s camera experience was never hardware, but rather their approach to software processing. The company has an even greater approach to images such as digital cameras or glassless systems – which may not always be successful in the smartphone space because you need more computational photography to counter the negatives of having a small camera sensor. Phone. In this regard, while the Xperia 5 II looks beautiful on paper, do not expect the best everyday experience like the iPhone or Galaxy.
The phone is only 8.0mm thick, which makes it even more usable given its narrow width.
Sony brought back the 3.5mm headphone jack this year, and they claim to have improved the audio quality on the Xperia 5 II by improving the crossover and audio signal path. It’s nice to see companies admit that removing this port is a mistake and changing their past choices – which really gives the Xperia 5 II a different advantage now than the competition, because no one else has this capability.
With IP68 water resistance, the Xperia 5 II 2020 looks like ticking every feature checkbox you want on a phone, which is very unusual and very unexpected from Sony.
Overall, the phone looks incredibly competitive, and Sony has not been able to tell the phone for ages.
The only real warning of the device is its price: at 99 949 or 99 899, it will be a little more expensive in 2020 compared to other flagships, especially in the latter part of the generation cycle. In Europe, the Xperia 5 II will be available in October, while the US relaunch will be available from December 4.Th – It’s too late, at that point you better wait for the 2021 spring updates from the competition.
Still, I’m excited about a Sony phone this way, which is a definite positive for the company’s new path in the mobile space.
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