In the wake of the MWC 2020 cancellation, Sony had an online event to launch its new flagship. Dubbed Sony Xperia 1 II (reads Xperia One Mark Two) it brings the latest chipset, a revamped camera setup, and 5G support. With that aside, the Japanese company also confirmed that it’s developing the Xperia Pro, which is meant to server as a professional tool for video makers.

Sony Xperia 1 II

The 2020 Sony flagship brings a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED panel with the now-familiar 21:9 cinematic ratio. Sony dropped the idea of high refresh rate screen and decided to implement Motion Blur Reduction instead. It asserts that that equals the benefits of a 90Hz display by analyzing what’s on the screen and adjusting individual frames to reduce frame lag.

Sony Xperia 1 II
Sony Xperia 1 II

Photography

As far as photography is concerned, the Xperia 1 has its cameras positioned on the left side, unlike the initial Xperia 1 that had the setup in the center. The resolutions are unchanged – 12MP main + 12MP ultrawide + 12MP telephoto, but the new setup brings bigger sensors and faster lenses, which for the first time carry the ZEISS branding. The front-facing camera is seemingly unchanged – an 8MP unit sitting in the top bezel.

The top module at the back is the ultrawide angle shooter with a 16mm equivalent focal length and f/2.2 aperture and 1/2.6″ sensor with Dual-PD AF.

Then there’s the telephoto shooter with 70mm equivalent focal length, f/2.4 OIS lens and 1/3.4 with PD AF in the middle.

The main shooter of the Sony Xperia 1 II has a very big 1/1.7” Exmor sensor with Dual PD AF sensor and OIS. It also has the brightest lens – f/1.7. Sandwiched between the main and telephoto cameras is the 3D iTOF sensor, which should further help with the focusing speed.

Speaking of focusing, the Xperia 1 II comes with the Eye AF from the Xperia 1, only this time it also works on animals. Sony says this is the first smartphone that can do 20fps bursts with AF tracking, which means that all shots in the burst will be in focus.

The Japanese manufacturer proudly announced the new cameras are calibrated by ZEISS specifically for the Xperia phone, with ZEISS T* anti-reflective coating that was previously available only in professional lenses. This should mean less ghosting effect when you shoot against a source of light.

Performance

The Sony Xperia 1 II run Android 10 on the Snapdragon 865 compete with the 5G modem that works on Sub 6 GHz networks. It has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS storage.

The phone is rated IP65/IP68 for water and dust protection and has a 4,000 mAh with wireless charging support inside. Excitingly enough it brings back the 3.5mm audio jack that it’s predecessor skipped. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the right side of the phone.

The Xperia 1 II uses plenty of know-how from the other Sony divisions – its camera interface is aligned with the one found on Sony Alpha cameras, and just like the previous phone, it has the Cinema Pro app co-developed with Sony’s CineAlta and Alpha divisions that lets you make professional-looking videos, and this time it also has touch focus, unlike the fixed version in the Xperia 5 and Xperia 1.

There is also a new app called Camera Pro that does the same job for images – it provides plenty of controls and color management pre-sets for all kinds of setups. Audiophiles get the 360 Reality Audio Audio hardware decoding to optimise sound quality when listening to music on Tidal.

Sony Xperia 1 II Specifications

Network Properties

  • 2G bands: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2
  • 3G bands: HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
  • 4G bands: LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 13(700), 17(700), 19(800), 20(800), 25(1900), 26(850), 28(700), 29(700), 32(1500), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500), 46(5200), 66(1700/2100)
  • 5G: 5G band 1(2100), 3(1800), 28(700), 77(3700), 78(3500); NSA/Sub6
  • Speed: HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A (6CA) Cat19 1600/150 Mbps, 5G (2+ Gbps DL)

Launch

  • Announced: 2020, February 24
  • Status: Coming soon. Exp. release 2020, Q1

Design

  • Dimensions: 165.1 x 71.1 x 7.6 mm (6.5 x 2.80 x 0.30 in)
  • Weight: 181.4 g (6.38 oz)
  • Build: Glass front (Gorilla Glass 6), glass back (Gorilla Glass 6), aluminum frame
  • SIM: Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
  • Colours: Black, Purple
  • IP65/IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)

Display

  • Type: OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
  • Size: 6.5 inches, 98.6 cm2 (~84.0% screen-to-body ratio)
  • Resolution: 1644 x 3840 pixels, 21:9 ratio (~643 ppi density)
  • Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 6
  • DCI-P3 100%
  • HDR BT.2020
  • 90Hz

Operating System

  • Android 10.0

Hardware

  • Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 (7 nm+)
  • CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 585 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 585)
  • GPU: Adreno 650
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Internal Storage: 256 GB
  • Memory Card slot: microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot)
  • UFS 2.1

Cameras

  • Main Camera: Quad
    • 12 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.7″, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
    • 12 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, 3x optical zoom, OIS
    • 12 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, Dual Pixel PDAF
    • 3 MP, TOF 3D, (depth)
  • Features: Zeiss optics, LED flash, panorama, HDR, eye tracking
  • Video: 2160p@24/25/30/60fps HDR, 1080p@30/60/120fps; 5-axis gyro-EIS, OIS
  • Selfie Camera: Single – 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/4″, 1.12µm
  • Features: HDR
  • Video: 1080p@30fps (5-axis gyro-EIS)
Sony Xperia 1 II
Sony Xperia 1 II

Multimedia

  • Radio:
  • Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
  • Audio 3.5mm jack: Yes
  • 24-bit/192kHz audio
  • Dynamic vibration system

Connectivity

  • WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
  • Bluetooth: 5.1, A2DP, aptX HD, LE
  • GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
  • NFC: Yes
  • USB: 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector; USB On-The-Go

Features

  • Sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass, color spectrum

Battery

  • Battery Type & Capacity: Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery
  • Charging: Fast battery charging
  • USB Power Delivery

Sony Xperia 1 II Price and Availability

The Sony Xperia 1 II will come out in the second quarter of this year in Black and Purple. The full retail price is €1,200. Note that there’s no 4G version, only 5G, and only one memory configuration – 8/256GB (expandable with microSD cards).

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