Sony Xperia 5 II: You Might Want To Start Looking At Sony Phones Again

It’s been a really long time since we’ve tested a Sony smartphone. The Xperia XZ Premium was our last take back in 2017. Well since that time, Sony has been cranking up the specs & features to be more competitive in the Android smartphone arena. Their latest is the Xperia Pro which is a modded rebranded version of the Xperia 1 II w/ the target niche for cinematographers + videomakers. However, our focus today is on the Xperia 5 II which is one of the many reasons you shouldn’t ignore Sony smartphones.

The Xperia 5 II has a familiar design language as it has a taller narrow screen w/ its 21:9 aspect ratio. This offers a tall & narrow candy bar-shaped phone covered in slippery Gorilla Glass 6. All of the buttons lie on the right-hand side of the phone and it’s a lot of them. You got a smaller volume rocker, the Power button w/ fingerprint reader embedded on it, a dedicated Google Assistant, & a dedicated shutter button. There is a tool-less SIM card tray on the left-hand side as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top left side. And last but not least, it has a pair of great-sounding stereo speakers w/ Dolby Atmos support.

Sony’s 6.1inch 120Hz OLED display is quite the beauty. The 1080p resolution display still great w/ a bright panel & true-to-life colors. It doesn’t have the color pop/saturation we’re used to from Samsung but think if Apple had a higher resolution & refresh rate. And speaking of the refresh rate, the 120Hz panel is smooth and looks super good when doing everything on this phone. Another good part of having the taller body is that the widescreen media content looks amazing and can take advantage of split-screen feature for running 2 apps at once. Definitely not wanting for a lot more in the hardware department.

Sony has quite the impressive spec sheet.

6.1inch CinemaWide 120Hz refresh rate HDR OLED display w/ 2520×1080 resolution + 21:9 aspect ratio
Snapdragon 865 CPU
8GB of RAM + 128GB of storage expandable up to 1TB via microSD
A triple rear camera setup w/ three 12MP Zeiss sensors consisting of an f/2.2 16mm ultra-wide, an f/2.4 70mm telephoto, and an f/1.7 24mm main sensors
Can shoot 4K HDR up to 120fps Slow Motion video w/ OIS + EIS
f/2.0 8MP selfie camera
IP68 dust/water-resistant body
Fingerprint reader within the side-mounted Power button
3.5mm headphone jack w/ DSEE + LDAC support
Bluetooth 5.1
Dual stereo speakers w/ 360-degree Reality Audio + Dolby Atmos
Android 10
4000 mAh battery w/ fast charging + wireless charging

Despite running last year’s Snapdragon 865 CPU, it is still a powerful chipset. You can still get stellar performance out of this chipset whether it’s streaming media (Podcasts/YouTube/etc), multitasking, or even gaming – all w/ ease. Coupled w/ 8GB of RAM + 256GB of expandable storage, you got an easy winner for daily tasks. BTW, there is 5G support but not here in the US for some reason. The spec sheet says it’s optimized for Call Of Duty Mobile via Snapdragon’s Elite Gaming to enhance the gaming experience. Now I didn’t notice it being better but it did game better w/o lag gaming longer than 30 minutes. Although that glass back did get hot when longer COD gaming sessions.

A great performer & great battery life.

Sony placed a 4000 mAh battery inside of the Xperia 5 II and it sounds ill-equipped but handles really well in real-world usage. And coupled w/ the chipset, you can get almost 8 hours of screen on-time on a single charge. So this will easily last you a whole day – whether heavy usage or little-to-medium usage to get you even more time. While you don’t have the modern necessity of wireless charging unfortunately, you do have Quick Charge will get you up to 50% in 30 minutes for a fast charge.

When you think of smartphone cameras, Sony has been the sensors behind all of them including Apple. Their IMX lenses are the staple of how phone companies capture amazing photos/videos. Of course, the hardware is only half of the battle and software is the other half. The Xperia 5 II offers a trio of 12MP shooters on the rear. You got a 16mm f/2.2 12MP, a 70mm f/2.4 12MP, and a 24mm f/1.7 12MP sensors that can shoot up to 4K@120fps.

The photos from the Xperia 5 II are more Apple than Samsung in regards to colors & sharpness.

Sony goes for more accuracy for colors while being super sharp but not too sharp. Compared against what Samsung is doing it looks flat in comparison but Sony remains sharper IMO. These results apply to both the photos & videos that come out of the Xperia 5 II. You get Sony’s super-fast Eye-tracking Auto Focus from their Alpha cameras here that works really well. You got a really good burst mode up to 10fps to give you a good mirrorless camera feel to things. The 4K video is great as their 120fps slow-motion looks great as well.

Sony’s take on low-light photos is vastly different than how Google & others handle it. So what I mean is instead of brightening up the photos like it was taken in daylight, it gives you sharp yet visible images while the results are obviously taken at night. Just as long as you got some light present it will still offer a usable image.

At 1st glance the selfie camera seems like a weak link until I found out otherwise almost when it was almost time to return this review unit. By just snapping, you got a super hazy like how Samsung used to be like. To get a useable image, you need to do a few steps before hand before getting there. You have to tap and adjust the levels on the 2 options presented before taking a selfie.

And last but not least, Sony takes what phonemakers use for Manual/Pro mode for smartphone cameras to the next level. Their most recent Xperia phones offer a Photography Pro & Cinematography Pro apps for manual controls for both photos & videos like on their Alpha line of cameras. Photography Pro gives you options to control ISO, aperture, shutter speed, as well as modes like Auto, Shutter Priority, Master Exposure. Cinematography Pro gives you manual controls for manual focus, exposure, white balance, audio settings, & up to 9 color profiles. So if you don’t have one of Sony’s Alpha cameras this will be a really good tool to get the most of the smartphone as well as choosing which lens to use for a situation.

The Xperia 5 II is a great example of what Sony can do and how it can compete against your favorite Android smartphones.

Sony reminds me of LG in regards to putting out amazing devices. This Xperia checks off all or if not most of the boxes consumers would want but are either unaware of or don’t buy. I’m here to tell you that the Xperia 5 II is an Android smartphone worthy of your attention.

From the display, performance, battery life, & cameras; its competitive in just about every aspect. Even it’s advanced camera features are easily better than any other Pro versions & extra audio features to make it a standout flagship. The $950 price tag can be a bit of a deterrent – especially when the S21 starts at $800 albeit not as premium. This is a great swiss-army knife of features on a modern smartphone to choose from. With this Xperia 5 II, you might want to start looking at Sony phones as your next smartphone.