A look at the latest flagship Sony Xperia 1 II Smartphone
Sony’s newest flagship mobile device is here, and it’s definitely no slouch on paper. The Sony Xperia 1 II (pronounced “Mark 2”) was announced back in February 2020, but did not say when it would officially be available to buy in the world until this week. Find out what’s in Sony’s latest flagship smartphone down below.
Now to get it out of the way, the Xperia 1 II smartphone will not be sold officially by Sony in New Zealand. They quietly closed up their mobile shop down under around two years ago, without really saying goodbye. Nevertheless, if you are really keen, you will most likely be able to get your hands on one through a parallel importer when they release.
Sony confirmed earlier this week that the Xperia 1 II would be available in-stores in the US, on July 24, 2020. And the price they have set is wait for it… 1,199 USD! That is roughly 1,950 NZD, but is very similar to iPhone 11 Pro and Galaxy S20 + prices, making it a juicy contestant to the most expensive smartphone on sale this year.
Upon first glance, Sony have tailored this smartphone heavily towards photographers, cinematographers and content creators. They had been working with the engineers who helped make their Alpha 9 camera line series, bringing over their renowned auto-focus technology to this smartphone. It features Eye Auto-focus which now works on both humans and animals, a separate new Photo Pro camera app with an interface designed to mimic their professional cameras with manual controls, as well as RAW support. However, Sony says that RAW support will be available at a later date through a software update.
On the hardware side, it has three 12-megapixel cameras at the back, plus a 3D iToF sensor that helps with focusing. While 12-megapixel cameras don’t sound that enticing on paper (and considering that Samsung have a 108-megapixel camera!), these days it’s not always the cameras with the most pixels that produce the better quality images. With additional features such as being able to shoot up to 20fps in burst mode, being able to calculate AF/AE at up to 60 times a second, as well as the eye-tracking feature mentioned above, Sony do still have a strong leg to stand on in terms of quality images. Its optics are Zeiss-branded and also come with T* coating which is supposed to reduce “Ghost & Flare” caused by unnecessary reflection on the lens surface.
Video recording on the Xperia 1 II is offered with Cinematography Pro, powered by CineAlta, Sony’s range of professional digital movie cameras. It does 21:9 4K HDR video recording at 24, 25, 30 and 60 fps, as well as 2K 120 fps 10-bit HDR cinematic high frame rate shooting with optical image stabilization as well as electronic image stabilization. Although Sony says that OIS video is only available for Cinematography Pro “powered by CineAlta” 24mm and 70mm cameras, and EIS video is only available for Cinematography Pro “powered by CineAlta” 16mm camera. Its video recording format is mp4 and supports both H.264 and H.265 compression standards.
Full technical specs of the Xperia 1 II can be viewed here.
Just like its predecessor, the Xperia 1 II has a 21:9 6.5″ 4K HDR OLED display with a pixel density of 643 PPI. Based on the aspect ratio, the phone is super tall and slender. And that can actually be a good thing as it should allow one to use the device comfortably with one hand. Not to mention you can view more of our blog content without having to scroll as much!
And as most films are shot in the 21:9 aspect ratio, viewing those movies on the Xperia 1 II should provide no black bars or cropping, making it a native viewing experience.
The glass at the front and back are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6, and the device is IP65/IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes).
As we move further on, the Xperia 1 II is not only tailored towards photographers, cinematographers and content creators, but also towards audiophiles too. DSEE Ultimate attempts to use artificial intelligence in real-time, to automatically improve bit-rate and audio frequency. Both high and low ranges are improved taking each track close to High-Resolution Audio quality and it works with wired or wireless headphones, on local files, and even streaming services. aptX HD Audio, Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio are also supported.
And 3.5mm headphone jack enthusiasts can rejoice, because the Xperia 1 II comes with one! Its predecessor did not. Stereo speakers located on the front of the phone, one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen.
The Xperia 1 II has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset which has sub-6GHz 5G support, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage with microSDXC expandable storage (up to 1TB). As well as 802.11ac 5GHz WiFi, this phone also has 802.11ax WiFi 6 support so you can future-proof when you do upgrade to a WiFi 6 router. And of course, Bluetooth (version 5.1) is included!
A fingerprint sensor is also mounted on the side of the smartphone.
Its battery capacity contains 4,000mAh of juice, up from 3,330mAh in last year’s model. Fast charging at 21W is able to be achieved with the USB PD Fast Charger. Sony claims up to 50% of battery can be replenished, from just 30 minutes of charging on the Fast Charger. Qi Wireless charging is also supported.
And if you’re an avid gamer, you can connect this phone to Sony PlayStation’s DualShock 4 wireless controller.
Let us know down in the comments below, what you think of the new Sony flagship.
