Sony Xperia 1 II review

29 May 2020


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Good review, it seems that Sony managed to get most of the stuffs right this times around and finally made a competent flagship that rivals others. Crisp display with good colour accuracy (albeit requires manual calibration), flagship-grade speakers, a competent array of cameras with great manual control. It's very disappointing that after all the wait they still haven't managed to get the firmware optimisation right to be suitable for a battery life test, though.
This phone is in my wishlist but I wish Sony released phone this sooner internationally. It hasn't been announced in where I live and so far my mind is leaning towards Find X2 Pro.

    Anonymous, 30 May 2020No one picked up the dynamic vibration feature though. Even... moreNot really a gimmick, when playing games - the vibration feedback is pretty nice. Sucks for songs though lol.
    Guess the wanted to make it like Dual shock controller.

      Nick Tagataka, 30 May 2020Xperia 1's display fared quite a bit worse in colour accura... moreBasically panel lottery, the manufacturing tolerance affects the accuracy of colors - hence if you do want the best colors, it's best to get it professionally calibrated.

        • G
        • Gosugamer
        • 7sj
        • 30 May 2020

        Can you please return the old speaker/audio/headphone tests back please?

        You are losing credibility by not doing so.

        On the new test all phones sound very good and we have no idea which one is better, they all seem the same. (You have done what you have tried to avoid for so long)

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • LQw
          • 30 May 2020

          Anonymous, 30 May 2020No one picked up the dynamic vibration feature though. Even... moreIt has the Dynamic Vibration System.

          Haters dictionary

          *Gimmick = something brought to mobile world by Sony, Lg or HTC that is called useless, but suddenly becomes "must have" when Samsung, Apple and chinese decide to copy.

          As example can be described features like QHD/4K, IP68, bokeh, stereo speakers, OIS, super slow motion, ultra wide angle camera, high MP camera..

            XPR, 30 May 2020Hi GSMA, Several remarks: - Your display results are aw... moreXperia 1's display fared quite a bit worse in colour accuracy tests that 3rd parties carry out and posted higher deltaE scores than what the company was advertising. I'm assuming the same thing is happening here as well.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • uH}
              • 30 May 2020

              Shanti Dope, 30 May 2020Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are far more contents in... moreJust asking for it.

              You can hide the cutoff/notch.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • uH}
                • 30 May 2020

                Shanti Dope, 30 May 2020Expect the same feature on Samsung phones by next year. Yo... moreNo one picked up the dynamic vibration feature though. Even Sony dropped it. Not all gimmicks introduced by Sony work. Thanks for entertaining us again. Keep up the performance.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • LQw
                  • 30 May 2020

                  Forget Compacts.
                  Impossible to fit all they want inside a body small like XZ2 Compact.

                  I know there are people that want a 5" version of this one.
                  But many cuts would have to be made. Cam system included.

                    Sawsan, 30 May 2020Nah, higher wattage has proven detrimental only to suspect ... moreYou are producing heat, and every lithium batteries hate that.
                    No exemption for that, all phones suffer from it.
                    You don't wonder why budget and mid rangers have better battery life than flagships even after a long period of time despite the same battery capacity? It's because those phones are charged at more tolerable wattages that don't badly hurt the battery's health.

                      Arco, 29 May 2020The review states that Netflix and YouTube run at FHD resol... moreIt may just be a trouble on Netflix's part, because this phone certainly has no problem at all displaying 4K contents in full resolution.
                      Besides, Netflix's not the only source of such contents. YouTube, for one, offers plenty of them.
                      Now would you mind giving me proper sources of contents to utilize my 120Hz display to its fullest?

                      And you don't even always have to have 4K contents to enjoy the 4K screen. Sony's X-Reality engine upscales lower resolution contents to near 4K HDR quality, so even if it's just a 1080p video, it would still look much better on the Xperia 1 Mk II's 4K screen than, say an iPhone 11 Pro's 1080p display.
                      Just take a look, time stamp 7:54
                      https://youtu.be/aiVWHwENkJw

                        • S
                        • Sawsan
                        • q{r
                        • 30 May 2020

                        Shanti Dope, 30 May 2020Higher wattage is bad for battery health. Even if it's 6000... moreNah, higher wattage has proven detrimental only to suspect batteries.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • atf
                          • 30 May 2020

                          Anonymous, 30 May 2020Another stupidly stretched overpriced phone by Sony :( W... moreYou mean tv remote control.

                            Anonymous, 30 May 2020samsung has 45 watt... Comparing sony to apple and samsung ... moreHigher wattage is bad for battery health. Even if it's 6000mAh, being constantly charged at 40W can degrade much quicker than you thought. Given how Samsung's top tier flagship phone doesn't even have stellar battery life despite the adequately large battery, this practice of insanely high wattage charging would just make things worse in the future.

                              Anonymous, 30 May 2020Heat Supression can be used for many other apps. Not just ... moreExpect the same feature on Samsung phones by next year.
                              You know, like they did the 960fps thing

                                Anonymous, 30 May 2020Another stupidly stretched overpriced phone by Sony :( W... moreCorrect me if I'm wrong, but there are far more contents in 4K 21:9 than there is for higher refresh rate and optimized for screen cutout (which is horrible btw).

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • uH}
                                  • 30 May 2020

                                  No studio shots for photo comparison. This is a flagship phone and you guys didn't do it?

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • wi4
                                    • 30 May 2020

                                    Are the pre-installed trashes like Call of Duty and other games removable?

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • mVu
                                      • 30 May 2020

                                      Dear GSMARENA,

                                      why did you ditch the audio quality section?
                                      You claim that is because the difference in audio quality was only noticeable through lab tests - yet you go through lengthy efforts of testing CPU power in synthetic benchmarks... Revealing only mild differences nobody would notice if he didn't test for it.

                                      So my question is - why did the audio section have to go, and why could the lengthier and probably less useful benchmark section stay?

                                      It's a shame one has to turn to other websites for that now!

                                        • R
                                        • Rudeboy-61
                                        • 3Wu
                                        • 30 May 2020

                                        superpup, 30 May 2020I don't think it's a clear bias, so much as this site needs... moreI agree 100%.

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