Sony Xperia 1 II
This phone is a flagship worthy of the name
he Xperia 1 II shows Sony unafraid to continue its baffling mobile phone naming strategy of the last few years – this is technically the successor to last year’s Xperia 1, and continues with a lot of the same themes. Those themes include strong showings in terms of the display and the camera, as you would expect from a company that also makes TVs and DSLRs.
The 6.5-inch, 1644 x 3840 pixel resolution OLED display we’ve got here is a joy to use. Details look razor sharp, colours look perfectly balanced, and you’re certainly not going to be disappointed when viewing videos.
As for the rest of the design, Sony sticks to its familiar approach: this is a business-like glass slab of a phone, very much moulded for the boardroom table or the study desk. Black and purple are your colour choices, there is a headphone jack here, and there’s also a fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button on the side.
Sony phones usually excel in the camera department and this is no different, with a quad-lens 12MP+12MP+12MP+0.3 MP offering. Sharp focusing, quick shutter speed and excellent colour reproduction are all on offer here, and we had a lot of fun touring round and taking snaps with the handset.
As for the battery life, we were impressed. Even with the high-resolution, bright screen, an hour of video streaming only knocked down the battery life from 100% to 92%, so you’re looking at around 12 hours of Netflix from the phone.
T$1,729 sony.com.au
Wireless charging is included, which we’re pleased about, and the phone also boasts IP68 water and dust resistance – it should survive complete immersion under 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes without suffering any long-lasting damage.
The Xperia 1 II doesn’t differ too much from what went before it in the long line of Sony flagships: it’s tastefully put together and well built, with an excellent camera and screen, and very good battery life.
So why might this phone not sell huge numbers of units? The Sony Xperia design remains very business-like – it’s nice, but it’s quite boring and cold too. Then there’s the price – you’re likely to have to spend a little more than $1,700 on this smartphone.
We’re very impressed with the Sony Xperia 1 II, and we’d be more than happy to carry it round as our day-to-day phone. It scores highly in all the categories that matter, but there are just one or two factors and caveats that prevent it from being a sure-fire, five-star winner.