Sony Xperia 5 II review

28 September 2020


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Battery impressive, brightness not. Camera better than 1II, but hdr is lol, hazy, less detail than non hdr, fast sensor did not help even a bit.
Stills lack detail even in 12mp compared to others, forget hi res shots. No 8K is another missing feature but what to expect...

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • LkB
    • 28 Sep 2020

    peter woods, 28 Sep 2020How is it possible to have a 3x telephoto with 12 Megapixel... moreBecause it is like 1ii.
    20MP 1/3.4" 54mm.
    Digital zoom to achieve 12MP 70mm.

      This phone deserves 4.8 stars not that Exynos crap powered overhyped and overpriced shamesung note 20 ultra😑😑

        peter woods, 28 Sep 2020How is it possible to have a 3x telephoto with 12 Megapixel... more"Also, the photo computational photography cannot be so good to cover the zoom from the regular camera 1x to the 3x telephoto"

        It MIGHT have been possible if the phone had a Quad Bayer sensor, but the reality is it doesn't have one and there's not much advanced computational image processing going on with its cameras either, so you get purely digitally upscaled photos until you reach 3x zoom factor.

          • G
          • GeMiCo
          • MCr
          • 28 Sep 2020

          Hello, Can you tell me the UFS type of Xperia 5 II? It's UFS 3.0 or UFS 3.1? Also the OS support will be extended to three years? Thank you!

            Shanti Dope, 28 Sep 2020Oh look! Someone's in denial of the facts already!! ... more😂😂😂😂

              Shanti Dope, 28 Sep 2020You sure it's perfect? I mean, I guess green tint and... moreHuh?? Nobody ever reported that the overheating of some units of Note 20 Ultra was caused by a display panel generating too much heat or stuffs like that. Moreover Note 20 Ultra has 4500mAh battery, which means, compared to Xperia 5 II, it's effectively powering a 34% larger display with 63% more pixels even though the cell capacity is only 12.5% larger. So it's clearly expected that the battery life won't be as impressive, duh.

              "OLEDs at 500 nits are already bright outdoors"
              I already said it in my previous comment, that's a very lame excuse given that higher peak brightness is essential for good HDR experience (that Sony claims that Xperia 1/5 II are suitable for) and it's now reported that Sony will put a brighter display on their next gen. flagship. Why? Because they now acknowledged that 500-600 nits is not enough for a "professional" grade display on >$1000 flagships, no?
              Besides, on a 1000-nit panel, you can choose to use it at 500 nits if that's what you really want. You can't make 500-nit panel display contents at 1000 nits. The greater also serves for the lesser.. a simple fact.

              "Sony understands them"
              I really hope you won't change your tone in case Sony opts for a brighter panel next year.

                • p
                • peter woods
                • saQ
                • 28 Sep 2020

                How is it possible to have a 3x telephoto with 12 Megapixel and 1 μm pixel size? Simply the phone thickness cannot contain the focal length of the lense!

                Also, the photo computational photography cannot be so good to cover the zoom from the regular camera 1x to the 3x telephoto.
                Thus one expect low-quality photos for the zoom range 2x to 3x.

                  Anonymous, 28 Sep 2020Please Sony change that remote control design.You mean 21:9 aspect ratio?? Or Boxy design ??
                  Almost all smartphones are now following increased apsect ratios like 20:9. Sooner or later they will follow sony.

                  Boxy design is what makes Sony stand out from rest of similar looking round faced smartphones.
                  Plus Boxy design is more professional unlike kiddish round shapes.

                    Shanti Dope, 28 Sep 2020Yeah, and with an ugly green tint with high risk of burn in... more"500 nits is good enough" really sounds like a lame, forced excuse especially after seeing the news that Sony is reportedly working on making the display brighter on Xperia 1 III. With brighter display you have an option to turn down the brightness if you need to, where the opposite won't be the case for a dim display. It also works much better for watching HDR contents that Sony is advertising Xperia 1/5 II for.

                    Green tint? It's already been fixed on S20 Ultra and Samsung will obviously roll out an update to Note 20 series as well for the minority of users who got affected. It's not a big deal, honestly.

                      Fearghast, 28 Sep 2020So why did Sony put the default app there? Not to be used? ... moreI don't know :). Maybe just in case if someone bought their phone not for camera what is pretty odd, or just for the record. You don't care but there are many people who will listen to the others if they don't know what need. Plus xperia 1,5 are niche devices, so the buyer will know how to use the cinema, photo pro and won't need the native camera app. Overall this is a very strange cavil because: Why are cameras nowadays so important? The big reason is instragram, and when people are spending minutes editing their photos in it, or others apps such as picsart, lightroom, etc. it is hard to believe that an app with manual settings will be to complicated for an average user. I think there is sense in what I'm saying.

                        Nick Tagataka, 28 Sep 2020What do you even mean by that?? Galaxy Note 20 Ultra runs 1... moreHe meant for better battery life I think😀

                          Anonymous, 28 Sep 2020Hey You compared the battery care feature to the Asus one ... moreActually sony has been doing this for years and was first to do so in the smartphone segment.😀

                            Anonymous, 28 Sep 2020Great phone, but the lack of wireless charging is a major d... moreAh! first hater spotted 😂😂

                              Poor retail bundle well that's a first negative point in the history of smartphone review 😂😂

                                Gsmarena while reviewing the other phones - let's forget about everything and give it a 4 star rating
                                Gsmarena while Reviewing an xperia- let's consider every nitpick and features it misses nothing to be surprised.

                                  Survey Results - Most of the readers find it perfect even gsmarena accepets that but it's still hard to recommend. Wait what?
                                  I think the review team was drunk😂




                                    sony great phone really i considered this one if its available in india
                                    my reqirements
                                    headphone jack check double check triple check
                                    no notch check
                                    simple design check
                                    brand value check
                                    good form factor check
                                    stock android check
                                    please launch in india

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • atc
                                      • 28 Sep 2020

                                      Please Sony change that remote control design.

                                        It is better than 1ii almost on all fronts but gets same score as the 1ii 😑 that's gsmarena for you.

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