Sony was once a mainstay of the Australian phone market with powerful specs and a broad range of devices, but the company unceremoniously exited our market last year. Its mobile efforts continue abroad though, where it’s rebranded its offerings under the premium Xperia 1 and mid-range Xperia 10. These two devices, launched at MWC last year, are now seeing followups in the form of the awkwardly-named Xperia 1 II and Xperia 10 II (both pronounced “mark 2”).
The new Mark-2 devices bring some new features – 5G, advanced cameras and the like – and they resurrect the all-important courage jack (3.5mm audio).
Both devices have been tailored and marketed to movie and photography enthusiasts, coming with Zeiss-branded triple-lens arrays.
Sony was one of the first to go to 21:9 cinema wide displays on phones, and that continues this year – the aspect ratio leads to a taller, narrower phone that sits comfortably in your hand.
Sony 1 II
The Sony 1 II comes with both a front and rear glass Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The 3.5mm audio jack sits atop, with a USB-C port located at the bottom of the device. The power button on the right side below the volume rocker and has an integrated fingerprint reader again.
Its powered by Snapdragon 865, so the processor is set to assist with the 5G network capabilities.
There is also 8GB of RAM and 256GB onboard storage, though it’s unclear whether this can be expanded via MicroSD card, and a 4,000 mAh non-removable battery to keep things running.
As with last year’s model, Sony has heavily focused on the camera technology. There’s a triple camera array at the rear shooting 12MP and an 8MP front facing selfie camera.
The camera has high-end autofocus capabilities and many of Sony’s usual smarts packed in for handling burst shots, slow motion and pro cinematography with the company’s CineAlta tech.
The front display is a whopping 6.5-inch 21:9-inch HDR 4K display that is also coupled with Dolby Atmos sound to provide enriched and enhanced sound quality.
Xperia 10 II
The Xperia 10 II comes with some of the features from its newer high end sibling, making it the new “super midrange” device. It should bring you some decent bang for buck.
The phones look pretty similar, but the Xperia 10 II comes with a 6-inch 21:9 cinematic FHD+ OLED display.
Specs are appreciably lower – 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a not-5G Snapdragon 665. The battery is also smaller, although not by much – it’s 3,600 mAh and non-removable, although paired with a SD6xx processor we expect that’s going to last a while.
Its also has a triple camera array at back, with one 12MP with two 8MP sensors. Sony says this “brings new creative possibilities with improved color handling and new Night mode”. There is also a front facing 8MP.
Both devices come with Android 10. Sony’s got a good reputation for keeping pace with Android releases and security patches, too.
The Xperia 1 II will be available in black, purple, and white colours and the Xperia 10 II will come in black, white, and some mint-ish colour varieties.
The phones are coming to “select” markets – which is probably safe to say that it won’t be coming to Australia.
If you’re a Sony diehard though, Android Police says the devices will hit Europe, where the Xperia 1 II will sell for €1,200 – ouch. No pricing is currently available for the Xperia 10 II.
One of the few high-end phones with an 3.5mm audio jack!