Sony Xperia 1 II specs - 5G, super-smooth display, and a beefy camera - Android

At the ghost of MWC, Sony just announced the Xperia 1 II (or Mark 2). It’s Sony’s flagship for 2020, and in many ways, it catches up with the competition without really leapfrogging it. In other words, it’s typical Sony. Here’s what you need to know about the Sony Xperia 1 II’s specifications.

Sony Xperia 1 II specs

Sony Xperia 1 II specs explained

In terms of raw power, the new Xperia 1 II delivers everything you could want in a modern flagship phone. The latest processor from Qualcomm is coupled with plenty of internal storage space. The RAM might seem insufficient compared to the downright excessive 16GB configuration of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but as we explained here, 8GB is probably more than enough.

We like that Sony increased the battery size to 4,000mAh. That’s 700mAh more than last year’s Xperia 1, and on par with the Galaxy S20. However, we would’ve loved to see Sony pushing the envelope a bit. The charging options as well are decent, if not newsworthy. The 21W fast charging should fill up 50% of the battery in 30 minutes, which is solid. It’s good to see wireless charging, something missing from the previous generation.

The screen is super crisp, but don’t buy based on the high resolution alone — most users can’t tell the difference between Full HD and 4K on a phone screen. The tall form factor means this phone will be awkward to use with one hand.

The camera is the big story here: Sony put plenty of hardware oomph in the Xperia 1 II, and also added some of its own software customizations like super-fast autofocus. It’s good to see the ultrawide-wide-telephoto camera combo, but the Xperia 1 II lacks the long-range optical zoom we’ve seen on some recent phones.

Finally, a note on 5G: the Xperia 1 II only works on sub-6GHz 5G networks, not mmWave. That could be a problem if your carrier has only deployed mmWave networks so far, like Verizon has in the US. Read this to get up to speed on the difference between mmWave and sub-6GHz.

That’s it for our overview of the Sony Xperia 1 II specs. Anything that stands out to you?

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