Following the cancellation of MWC 2020 Sony has gone on to unveil its brand new flagship through an online event. The Sony Xperia 1 II or as it reads, the Sony Xperia One Mark Two, brings plethoras of new features, including a new chipset, revamped audio experience, a new camera setup as well as 5G support.
To start with its display, the Xperia 1 II sports a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED screen with a pretty familiar 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio. While the whole world is bragging about the high refresh rate display, Sony has gone on with its own Motion Blur Reduction. The company claims that it brings the goodness of 90Hz screens by analyzing what’s on the screen and adjusting individual frames to decrease the frame lag.
As interesting as the front, the back gains somewhat of a revamp as well, thanks to a triple-camera setup. This time Sony has put the camera’s lens to the left side, unlike the Xperia 1 which had it on the center. The resolution of the trio is untouched — 12MP primary + 12MP ultra-wide + 12MP telephoto lens but the new sensor is bigger with faster lenses that carry the Zeiss branding for the first time ever. Selfie camera remains the same — an 8MP sensor at the top.
Out of the three, the primary camera carries a big 1/1.7″ Exmor sensor with Dual PDAF as well as OIS. It also comes with a bright f/1.7 lens.
Then there’s the ultrawide camera at the top, which has 16mm equivalent focal length with f/2.2 aperture and 1/2.6″ sensor. This one also has the Dual PDAF.
At last, the telephoto lens has a 70mm equivalent focal length with an f/2.4 lens with OIS and 1/3.4 with PDAF in the middle. Nestled between the main and telephoto camera is a 3D iTOF sensor for further help with the focusing speed.
Talking about the focusing, the Xperia 1 II borrows the Eye AF from Xperia 1 but this time it works on the animal as well. Sony claims this is the first smartphone that is able to do 20fps bursts with AF tracking, meaning all shots in the burst will be in focus.
Sony also proudly claims that this phone comes with Zeiss calibration specifically for Xperia phones, with Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating, previously available for professional camera lenses only. This should help the Xperia 1 II to capture images against a source of light with less ghosting effect.
The Sony Xperia 1 II rocks the latest Snapdragon 865 chipset with support for 5G modem for Sub 6GHz networks. The phone has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS storage, with Android 10 booting out of the box.
The phone is IP65/68 dust and water-resistant with a 4,000mAh battery inside that supports wireless charging. Thankfully enough the phone also revives the 3.5mm headphone jack, while the fingerprint scanner is implemented at the right side.
Besides packing with all the hardware goodness, the Xperia 1 II also brings plenty of experience from Sony’s other division. Its camera interface is made similar to the one found on Sony Alpha cameras, and alike previous phones, this one also has the Cinema Pro app co-developed with Sony’s CineAlta and Alpha divisions. The app lets you shoot professional-looking videos with touch focus, unlike the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5.
Similarly, the phone also comes with a new app called Camera Pro which does the job of offering various controls and color management tools and presets for all kinds of setups. There’s some feature for audiophiles as well — 360 Reality Audio hardware decoding to increase the optimization of audio quality when listening to music on Tidal.
Sony’s new Xperia 1 II is expected to arrive in Europe somewhere around late Spring 2020 in two color variants: Black and Purple.
