Sony Xperia 1 II review: it’s a stretch – The Verge

Sonys new Xperia 1 II smartphone is purpose-built for one very specific thing: to make your phone work a little bit more like a standalone Sony Alpha camera. Its a long time coming: Sony has made dozens of Xperia phones since its first one in 2008, but until now, none of them have had an identity this clear or compelling.
Every smartphone brand tries to create its own ecosystem or at least its own experience. You surely understand what its like to live in Apples iPhone world, Googles Pixel world, or Samsungs Galaxy world. But theres long been an entire Sony world thats just as well-defined, and it has a community of users thats just as dedicated. Its just that Sonys world wasnt about smartphones; it was about its Alpha line of cameras.
Sony has finally taken the first steps of directly connecting that world to the long-suffering Xperia smartphone lineup. And though the result isnt a home run, the Xperia 1 II finally offers something to recommend beyond good looks.
Its a shame that you have to spend $1,200 to live in Sonys new smartphone world.
Last years Sony Xperia 1 set Sony down the path of a new design language for the Xperia lineup: tall and minimal. The 1 II looks exactly like last years phone, only bigger. Its a squared-off, all-black glass slab with a huge 6.5-inch screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio.
The OLED display measures 3840 x 1644 pixels. (Sony calls this 4K.) It has a standard 60Hz refresh rate, a disappointment on a phone of this class. Theres a Motion Blur Reduction option thats supposed to make it feel more like a 90Hz display, but it doesnt hold up to true high refresh rate options like the Samsung Galaxy S20 or Pixel 4.
The tall aspect of this phone means that its simultaneously more comfortable and more awkward to use. Its easy to hold in one hand and lets you see more content without scrolling, but give up on any plans to reach the top with that same hand, no matter your grip.
That extra height also means its inductive wireless charger may be placed too high for some charging docks. It only worked on flat docks in my tests. But actually, it doesnt work there either because the thing is so damn slippery. Even on a dock with some grippy rubber on it, the Xperia 1 II slides right off. In fact, my review unit clattered on to my hardwood floor enough times that it eventually developed a crack on the rear glass. Damned if I know which fall did it, but I do know that all of them were about three feet. Get a case.
Thats a bummer because, judged on looks alone, its my favorite phone of 2020. Its symmetry embodied.
Beyond aesthetics, Sony has struggled in the past to differentiate itself from other phones. This time, it succeeds with a number of rare features. The fingerprint sensor is elegantly integrated into the side-mounted power button, theres microSD storage expansion, there are dual front-facing stereo speakers, theres a dedicated physical camera button, and holy of holies theres a real headphone jack.
To round out the rest of the smartphone basics: it has the usual flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, IP65/68 dust and water resistance, and a 4,000mAh battery. The battery life is enough to get me through a day of basic usage. But if you hope to use this phone intensively for either gaming or shooting photos and videos, plan on topping up in the late afternoon.
Normally, this is the part where I tell American buyers that, at $1,200, youre paying extra for the 5G modem that you may not necessarily get much use out of. Thats true with the Xperia 1 II, only Sony isnt enabling 5G at all in the US. Asking users to pay more for 5G of dubious utility bothers me on other phones, but asking them to pay for it without any utility on the Xperia 1 II seems so out of touch as to be lost in outer space.
The whole point of the Sony Xperia 1 II is the camera system. Sony has long made the most popular image sensors inside smartphones its a fairly safe bet to say that you have owned a phone with a Sony sensor inside it and yet, Sonys Xperia phones have historically had disappointing cameras.
Its a mystery with a relatively simple explanation: photo processing. For whatever reason, Sony has never been able to keep pace with Apple, Google, Samsung, or even OnePlus when it comes to converting what the sensor gets into a great photo.
Using the default camera app on the Xperia 1 II, thats still the case. The images I get out of all three lenses the regular, the telephoto, and the ultrawide are all competent but feel just a little lifeless. Theyre quite good, but compared to other phones in the class, theyre not great. Sonys camera system doesnt shine until you take things into manual mode in an entirely different, preinstalled camera app.
Sony wants you to use its phone camera more like a mirrorless camera, for better or worse
Theres another set of cameras with great sensors that dont make it dead-simple and automatic to get great photos: standalone DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. They put more of the onus on the user to figure out their settings but they also give that user radically more control over them.
Thats the direction Sony is taking with the Xperia 1 II. Instead of fighting a losing computational photography battle against other smartphones, Sony is taking the fight back to its home turf: the Alpha camera line.
It starts with a gigantic 1/1.7-inch Exmor RS 12-megapixel sensor set behind a Zeiss lens at a 24mm equivalent focal length. Sony has optimized the entire camera stack for high-speed photography: it can focus at 60fps and burst-shoot at 20fps. It also borrows the much-loved autofocus feature from its Alpha cameras, continuously focusing on a human or even an animals eye.
Thats a lot of technical camera talk which is exactly the point. Where Google and Apple will regale you with stories about how their cameras take multiple frames and then combine them with enhanced HDR computation, Sony wants you to treat your phone like its a standalone mirrorless camera.
It sounds silly, but the mere inclusion of a dedicated physical shutter button goes a long way toward making this device feel more like a pro camera.
Sonys Photo Pro app uses an interface thats similar to Sonys mirrorless Alpha cameras.
Sonys Photo Pro app even goes so far as to imitate the actual user interface of Sonys Alpha cameras. As a Sony camera user, I love this, but I am also aware that many camera people abhor it (or rather, they abhor the menu system that often lies behind it). In any case, its more familiar to me than many of the pro camera apps Ive tried.
Once you make the leap into Photo Pro, youll find that shooting with the Xperia 1 II is enjoyable in the same way that shooting in full manual with a real camera is enjoyable. Sony doesnt give you direct control over the shutter speed, but you can control everything else (including ISO, a fair enough stand-in since the lens aperture is fixed). The unit Im testing has non-final software, so strangely, it doesnt include RAW capabilities. As of now, its a weird miss, and well need to see how Sonys promised implementation works at launch later in July.
The canonical example is capturing motion blur at night. Night mode on other phones wont allow you to do that because theyre trying to do something else: brighten up the scene so you can see whats in it more clearly. The Xperia 1 II gives you enough control to get experimental: you can force a low ISO to keep a long shutter speed and not produce an over-brightened image.
The same idea applies to video for the most part. Theres an app called Cinema Pro that provides a lot of the same video features youd expect from a standalone camera. It smartly lets you collate a bunch of video clips into a single project as you shoot them. Instead of just dumping everything into your camera roll willy-nilly, it lets you think of your videos as distinct film projects.
The full manual approach only really works on the main 12-megapixel sensor, which is of a higher quality than either the wide or tele sensor. When you stick to it, you can get photos and videos that are really stunning but you have to work for it. I dont usually want to work for it when Im using a smartphone.
I get into it more deeply in the video above, but the cold reality is that as much as wed like to think that phones have replaced the need for standalone cameras, they are different things. Just as you make different kinds of music depending on what instrument you choose, you make different kinds of photos depending on the camera.
What Google figured out first (followed closely by Apple, Samsung, and a few others) is that its better to make a great smartphone camera that leans into a smartphones strengths than to make a smartphone that tries to replicate the experience of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera. The trend of computational photography isnt just about compensating for the limitations of tiny sensors and lenses; its creating a new kind of camera.
The Xperia 1 IIs camera runs in the opposite direction. I am genuinely interested to see what kind of new instrument Sony could make here, but mostly, I wish the default camera experience was stronger.
Compared to every phone Sony has made before, it has improved so much on the Xperia 1 II that I cant help but feel a little excited about it. Where once Xperia phones had no differentiating reason for existing, now theyre focused on a new camera experience. Where other Android phones try increasingly arcane tricks to fix their photos, the Xperia 1 II simply puts the control in the hands of the photographer.
Despite all of that, though, I cant recommend the Xperia 1 II to any but the most devoted Sony world devotee. The high $1,200 price combined with the strange lack of 5G in the US makes it a confusing device at best. Phones that include now-standard flagship features like high refresh rate screens and stronger auto-mode photos can be had for hundreds less. And if you are a Sony camera world citizen, wait to see what the upcoming Xperia Pro can do. (It will have HDMI-in, so you can use it as a proper monitor on a standalone camera.)
With the Xperia 1 II, Sony has finally found the right direction for its smartphones. Now it just needs to move a little further without tripping over its own price tag.
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it contracts that no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people dont read and definitely cant negotiate.
To use the Sony Xperia 1 II, you must agree to:

• Google Terms of Service
• Google Play Terms of Service
• Google Privacy Policy (included in ToS)
• Install apps and updates: You agree this device may also automatically download and install updates and apps from Google, your carrier, and your devices manufacturer, possibly using cellular data.
• Agree that you are aware of warranty, safety, and the existence of data costs.

The following agreements are optional:

• Sony Xperia services privacy policy, which includes some personal data and detailed diagnostics.
• Use location: Google may collect location data periodically and use this data in any anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services.
• Allow scanning: Allow apps and services to scan for Wi-Fi networks and nearby devices at any time, even when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off.
• Send usage and diagnostic data

Additionally, if you want to use the Google Assistant, you must agree to let Google collect:

• App info from your devices
• Contact info from your devices: This data may be saved and used in any Google service where you are signed in to give you more personalized experiences. You can see your data, delete it and change your settings at account.google.com

Other features like Google Pay may require additional agreements.
Final tally: six mandatory agreements and at least six optional agreements.

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