Sony Xperia 5 II review

28 September 2020


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  • Anonymous
  • xs9
  • 01 Oct 2020

Ali Bashir, 01 Oct 2020So many people debating about the screen brightness level &... moreGood point. Back when I had my iPhone 5S, I could use it outside just fine without the brightest display, swapped to a few android phones and they are barely usable outside despite having around the same nit display.

Also polarization angle made the phones I tried after only visible with sunglasses horizontally where the iphone was only visible vertically. Very different in terms of real-world usability that no reviews ever touch on.

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    • pan
    • I@H
    • 01 Oct 2020

    Ali Bashir, 01 Oct 2020So many people debating about the screen brightness level &... moretrue... reminds me of my n9, definitely not the brightest display, but certainly readable... it has anti glare screen... while higher nits may help, at certain angle it would still be a struggle to use it outdoors...

      So many people debating about the screen brightness level "nits" and nobody is mentioning anything about the legibility, because the nits level does not represent the screen performance but there is another more important factor which is the type of coating of the glass which identify the amount of light the screen reflects and the more it is reflective the less legibility and efficiency you get, the moral of this the nits level doesn't represent the real life performance of the display.

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        • Anonymous
        • IVV
        • 01 Oct 2020

        it is almost a perfect compact phone. well, at least for me... was planning to upgrade from trusty s10e... until i read... there is no qi charging... nuuuuuuuuu!!!

          Erivera, 30 Sep 2020well, even if the galaxy S20 is the direct rival, is also a... moreBut there is something else to consider. for the same generation, when Sony devices comes to the market, Samsung is already much cheaper. for example, I see the samsung s20 is going for 600 bucks on amazon while Sony wants 900 for this phone. I like the Sony more but 300 bucks is a good amount in terms of phone price. isnt it?

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            • Anonymous
            • LHe
            • 01 Oct 2020

            Anonymous, 30 Sep 2020Just as curiosity .... Do ppl here know that screen col... moreGamma tracking. I think most are unaware that you can't have accurate color and declared peak brightness, you can only choose either or. That's why there are two modes in color setting on every flagship: natural and vivid.

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              • Anonymous
              • LHe
              • 01 Oct 2020

              Henry, 01 Oct 2020Anybody know how bad the brightness is in daylight? 300-500... moreMost of the OLED phones operate under that brightness for 90% of the time. Peak brightness is for advertising purposes. Whole screen can't glow at 800 only certain pixels do and only in Vivid color modes.

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                • Audroidguy
                • 4rH
                • 01 Oct 2020

                Henry, 01 Oct 2020Anybody know how bad the brightness is in daylight? 300-500... moreabout 350 nits is pretty usable even in heavily-lit areas like showrooms etc. Under direct sunlight, 400-450 nits is quite usable for an oled so it should not be a problem.

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                  • pan
                  • I@H
                  • 01 Oct 2020

                  BliTTzZ, 01 Oct 20201). Lack of updates. Sony is one of the most consistent com... moreexactly - preferences... that is why somegadgetguy is my go to techtuber especially on audio since he is an expert in that... his review usually focuses on which phone is for what specific type of people...
                  the tech enthusiasts when i was a kid is different to people who claim they are "tech enthusiasts"... most people now are "brand fanatic" and "spec sensitive" just comparing the gbs, mps, fps, etc but not in a usage cases and the "real innovation" within...
                  they also seem to forget that they should buy what they want, accept some of its lacks and not brag about them and bash other brands based on their "opinions"... as if their phone becomes better when they claim that other phones are ugly...
                  this year is quite boring for most phones as they all seem to have "the same" improvements...
                  the fold and flips, hrr, brings a bit of hype...
                  sonys take on 1 ii is more on content creation, if not for professionals, for wannabe professionals...
                  5 ii takes on gaming, yet subtle one, not as pronounced as rog 3, red magic, legion, black shark (missed something?)
                  but currently, lg wing, for me is the most interesting... such device brings back my memory on "fun devices"... heck, i want a wing that rotates 360 degrees or i want a spinning wheel, ha ha...
                  we should welcome ideas like that...
                  and with wing, surprisingly has a lot of use cases
                  and one more, zenfone 7 pro is also interesting this year... keyword - camera angles...

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                    • Henry
                    • qIs
                    • 01 Oct 2020

                    Anybody know how bad the brightness is in daylight? 300-500 nits sounds like a deal breaker to me

                      Anonymous, 30 Sep 2020I love this phone as much as I hate it. Well, it's ... more1). Lack of updates. Sony is one of the most consistent companies when it comes to updates. Their midrangers are sometimes lagging behind, but flagships are constantly supported.
                      2). I agree that front facing camera is behind of competition. However from what I heard it is limited by space and therefore has such a small size - 1/4. Top bezel is very slim and there is no room for a bigger sensor. For example other Xperia phones before Xperia 1i had bigger front camera. As for main camera system, I would say it's no worse than competition, it's just different and has different goals. Therefore it has different pros and cons.
                      3). I would not consider any phone's design as some kind of a drawback. Design is a very subejctive thing and Sony choose their own path here and don't try to copy others. Some people like this design, some don't. Preferencies.
                      4). About charging speeds and wireless charging. Indeed it would have been better to have Qi charging and let people decide how they want to charge their phone. However from what I know there is no room for that left. 5ii has the same battery as 1ii while being smaller. Also it has better cooling system and it's components also require more space.
                      About slow charging. That's again is a matter of preference. Do you want your phone to charge blazingly fast? Or may you want to keep this phone for more than 2 years and battery health longevity is more important you? Preferencies.

                      About measurements. Let's take all three phones you mentioned. While all of them have the same height, S10+ and 11 Pro Max are much heavier and wider! Namely 6 mm wider (Samsung) and almost 11 (10.8) mm wider (Iphone). 12 g (Samsung) and 63 (!) g (Iphone) heavier.
                      For many people convenience to use a phone is measured in how wide it is.

                      For real I thought it would be some constructive criticism, but it all came to down "900$ is too expensive, needs to cost less!". In this case every flagship phone should drop at least 200$ down, right?

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                        • A380
                        • dMk
                        • 30 Sep 2020

                        Shui8, 30 Sep 2020Sheeesshh almost 300 comments already? 😂😂😂 Xperia 5ii is... moreThiss

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                          • Anonymous
                          • JT5
                          • 30 Sep 2020

                          If this phone had the disgusting design used by L4, haters would be celebrating.
                          It is exactly what they want.

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                            • Erivera
                            • Fp6
                            • 30 Sep 2020

                            well, even if the galaxy S20 is the direct rival, is also an inferior one and there is where the price difference comes from:

                            1. Snapdragon vs Exynos, the galaxy snapdragon prices fades away the price difference. Plus for international markets, you can get only the exynos variant which is inferior.
                            2. Galaxy uses Gorilla glass 6 only for the display, sony uses it also on the back.
                            3. More hardware on the xperia, more buttons ( camera, google assistant and headphone jack)
                            4. I think the xperia can give users a fresh or different approach to an android device and is a very good option.

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                              • pan
                              • I@H
                              • 30 Sep 2020

                              [deleted post]i think not really on the phone itself... i think they just want to engage conversation with the fans... they are the reason why almost every xperia article goes over a hundred comments...
                              and some haters are fans of other brands, perhaps they want to put more value of their phones in the eyes of other people... sad...

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                                • pan
                                • I@H
                                • 30 Sep 2020

                                Davy Jones, 30 Sep 2020I think he shoud maintain his 1 ii because it's gonna ... moreright... just trying to get into his or her perspective...
                                but i also prefer 1 ii over 5 ii... not because i already ordered one... but i am not willing to lose 4k oled hdr, being a long time user of z5 premium i just cant miss this iteration (mark i is quite not there for my preference)

                                  I love this phone. The design is such a stand-out among the gradient bricks we have now. Sony should make this available internationally.

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                                    • Twentysix
                                    • HLw
                                    • 30 Sep 2020

                                    Where's the IR-Blaster? It's essential.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • JT5
                                      • 30 Sep 2020

                                      Davy Jones, 30 Sep 2020I think he shoud maintain his 1 ii because it's gonna ... moreIf they activate the 1080@120 on 1ii will be the most stupid idea ever.
                                      Also, waste of money to pay for 4K screen if person considers more important to have 1080@120 over 4K.

                                      Better buy 5ii instead.

                                        pan, 30 Sep 2020ha ha... you can choose to sell your 1 ii... but if you ar... moreI think he shoud maintain his 1 ii because it's gonna be better with some software update and also the true refresh rate plus it's got the wireless charging