If you hate large phones, but love photography, music, videos and gaming, the Sony Xperia 5 II may be just what you’ve been waiting for. In case you missed it allow us to repeat – this phone has gaming ambitions as (unlike the Xperia 1 II) its screen refreshes at 120Hz.
It’s a 6.1” OLED display and while it
drops the resolution to 1080p+ (while keeping the 21:9 aspect ratio), it’s
still pretty sharp and supports HDR and Creator Mode so the film looks just as
the director intended. Better yet, this is the first phone that supports black
frame insertion – a trick TVs use to reduce motion blur. The display also has a
touch sampling rate of 240Hz and various software and hardware optimizations to
reduce latency by 35%.
This will be powered by the Snapdragon 865
chipset (no plus), which is paired with 8GB of RAM. This means that you get the
same performance as the 6.5” Sony flagship. Even a bit better as the CPU now
uses an optimized governor that tries to run more cores simultaneously while
using less power (see: race-to-sleep).
Storage comes in two sizes, 128GB and
256GB, and there’s always the microSD slot if you need more room.
Interestingly, the Xperia 5 II will also be available in a dual SIM
configuration in Europe (previous models came only as single SIM). If the S865
chipset wasn’t enough of a clue, this is a 5G smartphone (sub-6). The camera
remains basically unchanged, save for the removal of the 3D Time of Flight
module. There are some improvements on the software side that will be ported
over to the Xperia 1 II. Sony has enabled JPG+RAW shooting and the 4K/120 fps
slow motion videos are now shot in HDR.
As for the camera hardware - we get three
12MP modules on the back. The main cam gets a 1/1.7” sensor with OIS, it and
the ultrawide 16mm cam feature Dual Pixel autofocus. Then there’s the 3x (70
mm) zoom camera, which brings OIS of its own. All three cameras boast ZEISS
lenses with T* anti-reflective coating. Eye autofocus is available (it works on
both humans and animals), the phone can shoot 20 photos per second with
continuous AE/AF.
Despite its smaller stature, the Xperia 5
II has the same battery capacity as the bigger Mark Two, 4,000 mAh. You’ll
receive an 18W USB Power Delivery charger in the box, but you can use a more
powerful charger to charge at up to 21W. Even with the included power brick a
50% charge is achieved in 30 minutes.
Sony added two (literally) cool features
to reduce battery degradation. Battery Care lets you pick a slower charging
curve and you can now limit the maximum charge at 90%. The H. S. power control
(“heat suppression”) enables a pass-through mode for gaming – the phone uses
power directly from the charger to avoid the heat generated by first routing
electricity through the battery. Other phones experience a double whammy of
both the chipset and the battery generating heat.
The phone brings over all the fan-favorite
features from the Xperia 1 II – yes, including the 3.5mm headphone jack. You
can enjoy Hi Res audio both with wired and wireless headphones. Alternatively,
you can use the front-firing stereo speakers. Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio
are both supported for a more immersive experience. You can experience that on
TIDAL Hi-Fi as the phone comes with a free 3-month subscription. The body of
the phone is rated IP68/IPX5 for dust and water resistance, the front and back
are protected by Gorilla Glass 6. It measures only 68mm wide and 8mm thick,
making it more compact than most phones available today. There will be four
colors to choose from at launch: Black, Grey, Blue and Pink.
The US will only get the black version,
with the Sony Xperia 5 II going on pre-order for US$ 950 on September 29, 2020 and
shipping on December 4, 2020. Those who pre-order Xperia 5 II by November 29
will get a gaming bundle worth over US$ 400 including a gaming headset, a
10,000mAh power bank and 21,600 Call of Duty Mobile Points. In Europe the phone
is coming in Q4 for € 900 in Black, Blue and Gray. Sony will also release two
accessories for the phone - a Stand Cover (with a built-in kick stand) and a
more traditional Style Cover. The phone natively supports DualShock 4
controllers.
