Sony Xperia 1 II review

Stock Android 10, some Sony enhancements

The Xperia 1 II runs Android 10 in what is a further stripped down version than the already pretty vanilla one we saw on the Xperia 1 and 5 last year. The two new additions coming natively with Android 10 are obviously present on the Xperia 1 II - the two-tiered location permission and system wide Dark theme.

Location permission • Dark theme

Weirdly enough, the Xperia comes out of the box with the old-school three button nav bar for navigation, though it does offer you the option for gesture navigation. The pill-based method that the previous-gen Xperias used and is still available on Pixels is not an option on the 1 II.

Fingerprint unlock is the only biometric unlock method available and since we found that to work flawlessly we're not lamenting the lack of face unlock. Seeing how there's no dedicated face recognition hardware, a face unlock feature would be less secure than the fingerprint reader anyway.

Navigation options • Back sensitivity • Biometrics security

The UI basics are identical to what you'd get on Google's own phones.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Quick toggles

There are unique Xperia bits on top, however. One-handed mode, for example, lets you shrink the UI to one corner by double-tapping the home button to bring everything within reach. The thing is though, it only works when you have the nav bar as your navigation option as there's really no home button as such to double tap on with the gesture-based navigation.

Sony's Side Sense is present as well. A pair of touch-sensitive areas on either side of the phone enable various actions most of which user-configurable. One particularly powerful and customizable option is the 21:9 pair shortcut feature. Through it, you simply select two apps and the relative location you want to launch them in and then you can trigger a split-screen with the pair instantly. Oh, and one-handed mode is available from here as well, so it does work without a nav bar, sortof.

One-handed mode • Side sense • Side sense options • Side sense menu

Gone is the Album app - Sony's in-house gallery, and with it the image editor. This functionality has been delegated to the Google Photos app now, and that's hardly an issue. The Music app still remains, though with ubiquitous streaming apps taking over from offline playback we think its days are probably numbered too.

The one other major bit of custom software on the Xperia 1 II is Game Enhancer and it's gotten some improvements over the previous generation. It still has two main interfaces, that's been kept - one acts as a game launcher, while the other is an overlay that can be pulled out while in game.

Game Enhancer, launcher app

It now lets you pick between three performance profiles, on a per-game basis as before. One is "Performance preferred", there's a "Battery life preferred" on the opposite end with a 40fps cap, and a "Balanced" profile in the middle. A new feature is the so called H.S. power control - when you're gaming and the phone is plugged in the charger, it won't actually charge the battery but will only essentially meet your current power consumption. The rationale is to limit the heat generation - H.S. stands for Heat Suppression.

The Focus settings is an array of toggles that let you disable pesky notifications, turn off adaptive brightness, disable the camera button and the side sense functionality - basically limit distractions.

There are also screenshot and video capture features, the latter of which can also capture footage from your selfie camera along with the game, as well as sound from your microphone. Volume level adjustments are provided. There is no direct streaming to any video platforms, though. Last, but not least, a quick search function can bring up YouTube videos in a floating video for you, related to the game you are currently playing.

Game Enhancer, in-game features

Synthetic benchmarks

It'll come as no surprise that the Sony Xperia 1 II is powered by the Snapdragon 865 - as are all of this year's global Android flagships. A single RAM and storage version exists, to the best of our knowledge, and it's 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage.

Sony's tuned the Xperia 1 II conservatively and it consistently posts middle-of-the-pack results in benchmarks. Single-core results in GFXBench are very tightly spaced between Snapdragon 865 devices, with the Kirin-equipped P40 Pro trailing them. It's a similar story in the multi-core test only the Huawei is staying closer.

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  1333
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  929
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  928
• Motorola Edge+
  910
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  910
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  906
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  905
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  900
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  897
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  886
• Huawei P40 Pro
  780
• Sony Xperia 1
  747

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  3466
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  3402
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  3387
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  3349
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  3331
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  3318
• Motorola Edge+
  3295
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  3289
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3269
• Huawei P40 Pro
  3197
• Sony Xperia 1
  2753
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  2703

The gaps between flagships are wider in Antutu, where the Xperia 1 II inches ahead of the LG V60 but is bested by pretty much all S865 competitors. The P40 Pro and the Exynos-powered Galaxy S20+ do end up behind the Sony in this one.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  595246
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  593717
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  585764
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  575601
• Motorola Edge+
  574155
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  557056
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  534701
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  527612
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  500114
• Huawei P40 Pro
  496356
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  489371
• Sony Xperia 1
  418206

Moving on to graphics-only benchmarks, the Xperia 1 II posts comparable scores to competitors in GFXBench. Offscreen results are virtually identical while in the onscreen tests the Sony scores an odd frame per second lower than other 1080p+ devices - it too runs at 1080p+ it's just that there are a few more pixels along the tall side.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  118
• Motorola Edge+
  89
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  87
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  86
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  86
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  86
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  86
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  86
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  86
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  85
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  85
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  84
• Huawei P40 Pro
  75
• Sony Xperia 1
  71

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge+
  83
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  75
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  75
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  61
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  60
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  59
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  59
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  59
• Sony Xperia 1
  55
• Huawei P40 Pro
  52
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  43
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  43

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  66
• Motorola Edge+
  52
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  51
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  51
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  51
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  51
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  51
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  51
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  50
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  50
• Huawei P40 Pro
  44
• Sony Xperia 1
  42

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  57
• Motorola Edge+
  48
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G (new run)
  44
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  42
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  42
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  41
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  39
• Sony Xperia 1
  33
• Huawei P40 Pro
  31
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  25
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  25
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  24

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge+
  33
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  29
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  29
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  27
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  19
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  18
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  17

The one more pronounced difference is in Vulkan-based Aztek test where the Xperia is noticeably behind other 1080p-rendering rivals.

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge+
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
  29
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  28
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  26
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  20
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  14

That Vulkan disadvantage shows in 3DMark too - the Xperia does manage to outpace the P40 Pro, but is bested by everyone else. In the OpenGL test things are back to normal.

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 5G
  6678
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  6675
• Motorola Edge+
  6666
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  6586
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6526
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6425
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  6354
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  6311
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  6167
• Huawei P40 Pro
  5637
• Sony Xperia 1
  4505

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Motorola Edge+
  7409
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  7261
• nubia Red Magic 5G
  7250
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  7159
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (60Hz, 1440p)
  7143
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  7138
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  7127
• Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
  6819
• Galaxy S20+ (60Hz, 1440p)
  6735
• Huawei P40 Pro
  6062
• Sony Xperia 1
  5123

The Xperia 1 II posts predictable results across all common benchmarks, in tune with the rivals of the day, save for a small disadvantage in Vulkan based tests. The phone does tend to heat up after prolonged testing - it's not the worst offender, but it's not negligible either. Some thermal throttling shows after repeated benchmarks runs but it doesn't result in significant drops in performance.