Sony Xperia 5 ii Review | One of the best phones of 2020 By Tech Spurt

So Sony's fresh new Xperia 5 mark ii is just about to hit the UK for the princely sum of 799 quids, not cheap by any means, but this thing is absolutely packed with amazing features for movie lovers, gamers and photography fans and, frankly, I reckon that this is one of the very best smartphones launched in 2020. So far now, if you're clamoring for a closer look at the specs and all the features of the Xperia 5 mark ii definitely go check out my unboxing and full tour here, I'm going to be talking about my experience of using it as my full-time smartphone for the past few days, including how good the camera is that the battery performance, all of that good stuff. So here's my Xperia 5 mark ii, reviewed from all the latest greatest tech. Please do plug subscribe and ding that notifications bell cheers. So, let's start, as always, with the design, which I absolutely adore here on the Sony, Xperia 5 mark ii, apart from one thing: okay, actually, two things, and the first is that you can only grab it in black or blue here in the UK, and that blue model is online only come on Sony. Let's have a bit of sexy burgundy action like that xz3 or maybe that lovely forest green effort.

I thought I might also have issues with that new Google Assistant button, which is kind of awkwardly wedged in there between the fingerprint sensor and the camera shutter button. Thankfully it was absolutely fine, because it's flush with the surface. I found that I didn't accidentally press it at all. That is until this morning, where twice now, I've gone to pick it up off my desk, and I've actually pushed in that button and called up the bloody assistant. So actually it is slightly annoying, especially as I can find any way to deactivate it or reassign it in the settings menu.

So yeah. I've got three problems with the design then, and the third thing that I dislike about the Xperia 5 mark iii design is the fact that it is a slippery mother. Put this thing on any surface that isn't completely flat, and it will glide towards the edge like a bloody, lemon intent on hurling itself into oblivion and also whatever you do, make sure you don't pull the exterior too enthusiastically out of your pocket or bag, because one time I did that, and it went flying out of my grasp straightaway, almost took out my daughter, who was just an innocent bystander. Instead, it just went and slammed into my monitor, which obviously was loads better, but the one good thing about that otherwise deeply traumatizing incident is the fact that it provided an impromptu hardiness test for the Xperia 5 mark ii, a test which, thankfully it passed with flying colors. It's clad in corn and gorilla glass, 6 front and back and there's not a nick on this thing.

Despite that blunt force trauma, this thing is tougher than a concrete Jason memoir. So it's not really a problem that you don't get a bundle cover in the box and there's no pre-installed screen protector either I mean this thing's busy, like johnny out of cobra Kai screen protectors, screen protectors are for oh and as usual, you got full ip68 water and dust resistance as well, so you can sit there watching a bit of cobra Kai in a nice hot bubbly bath job done. Unfortunately, I have noticed a few funny little bugs and quirks for the Xperia 5 mark ii in the past week of using it so, for instance, normally you can just quickly lose to unlock the Xperia 5 mark ii, just by tapping your finger against that sensor, but a couple of times I've tapped it, and it's vibrated, but then don't absolutely bugger all, and I've had to sort of press it in and tap it a couple of times. Then eventually it opens, but on occasion uh. The screen auto brightness can also be a little shonky.

Sometimes it goes a little too dim. So you kind of have to squint to see what you're doing and then just basically give up and manually tweak it back up again and occasionally Netflix just decides. It can't be bloody, asked to do anything either and, frankly, who can blame it? It's probably working a massive amount of overtime at the moment, so yeah a few little quirks, but don't forget this is pre-release software. The phone doesn't actually go on general uh release until next week, so hopefully there'll be a nice little update taken through over the weekend. They'll just kill all of that flat dead, and I still do love the software experience here on the Xperia 5 mark ii.

Anyway, it's absolutely packed with great handy features like a proper one-handed mod, while at 21x9 display is perfect for split-screen multitasking, with a pair of apps at once, and I don't think anyone will be stunned or shocked to hear that the media chops at the Xperia 5 mark ii are frankly stunning that 6.1 inch OLED display with its 21 by 9 aspect ratio, is absolutely perfect for cinematic fare. Although yeah fair enough, it is less perfect for more traditional content. No, you don't get 4k resolution visuals, like the Xperia 1 mark 2, but those full HD plus visuals are perfectly crisp and don't forget this smaller display and yeah. You got that created mode again, which slightly alters the visuals in movies, shot with Sony's, cine, auto tech, so they're true to the director's final edit. Personally, I could just take it or leave it as usual.

It may interest minefield, but I still don't really get anything out of it. What I do love, however, is that buttery smooth, 120 hertz refresh rate, and we are all good on the audio front too. Those stereo speakers aren't as powerful or as full-bodied as the flagships, but at least the audio comes through nice and clear that 3.5 mil headphone jack is an absolute godsend, and it basically means that the Sony, opera, 1 and 5 are the only sort of flagship style phones offering this functionality and then there's so much more packed onto this thing as well. The DAC support means that streaming to Bluetooth headphones is fantastic. It's a stutter-free experience and sounds amazing.

You've got support for high-res audio tracks, you've got Dolby Atmos and, of course, you've got Sony's on digital, sound enhancement, engine ultimate edition, which can help rescue your crappy compressed tracks. So basically, audio files as well as minefield are very well catered for. Indeed, now, let's have a shifty at the performance and what you get here is the snapdragon 865 from Qualcomm, not the plus model, but then very few phones are actually bothering to jump on board with the plus, and you get eight gigabytes of ram stuffed in there too. So the performance on the whole is absolutely cracking now. I already showed off the excellent gaming chops of the Xperia 5 mark here in my full unboxing and so including a good in-depth look at that game.

Enhancer feature which is absolutely fantastic, especially if you want to be gaming all afternoon long with the likes of the HS power control you can fiddle with all the performance settings and even the refresh rate settings uh here on the Xperia 5 mark 2, as your gaming as well, which is fantastic, and I still can't really notice much of a difference between the 120 and the 240 frames per second mods, but to be fair at 120 Call of Duty looks absolutely taught and of course, great news for PlayStation owners, because, yes, you've got a bit of remote play support once again, so you can stream your PlayStation 4 sessions straight to the smartphone, get yourself one of these handy little adapters, which allows you to hook up the phone to the dual shock controller, and then you can merrily play while you're doing your morning battle movements or whatever else you fancy. I was also massively relieved when Sony said that this thing had a 4 000 William battery in it a huge improvement over last year's Xperia 5, which would basically just about crawl past the finish line come the end of the day, thanks for your final, even with plenty of intensive use, lots of music streaming a little of video streaming a little of gaming, lots of camerae, use things like that and still make it to the end of the day on a full charge, no worries and yeah there's no support for wireless charging here on the Xperia 5 mark ii, but at least you do get that excellent battery care feature on there as well, which just helps to prevent overcharging if you're leaving it plugged in all night long and hopefully, that'll mean long term very good battery life. I've definitely found that the Xperia smartphones for the last few years they've held that battery performance really well. So I already mentioned that the Xperia 5 mark ii is absolutely fantastic for movie lovers, music fans and gamers, but it's also positively jazz worthy for photographers and videographers. It's fantastic to have that same triple n mass system from the Xperia 1 mark ii, here on the more compact model, giving you ultra-wide angle and telephoto alternatives to that capable primary shooter for extra flexibility and easy use, they're all 12 megapixels, which might sound a little weedy in this day of 64 or even 108, megapixel camera sensors slapped onto smartphones.

But don't let the numbers put you off my test. Shots still look perfectly sharp on a monitor thanks to the fine detail, capture and processing as well and colors also appear natural, not too warm or cold, even when the lighting is against you or when you're shooting under the beam of halogen lights, and that remains the case when you flip to the ultra-wide angle or telephoto lenses, which also serve up natural. Looking snaps, you do get the usual fish eye distortion when you're shooting a close-up subject with that ultra wide-angle lens, but you can also grab some quite dramatic shots. Meanwhile, that telephoto effort can help get you closer to the action when needed helpful if you're trying to shoot an active subject, in particular like a hyperactive child off its tits on starburst, speaking of which one of the serious advantages of Xperia smartphones over other camera phones is definitely the excellent autofocus and auto exposure, which are an absolute godsend when you're trying to shoot and moving subjects like a kid who won't keep bloody still, and these remain active even when you're using the burst, shot to grab loads of snaps at the rate of 20 frames per second. So you can go back later and choose the best effort, and also the Xperia 5 mark ii is further proof that no you don't need a macro lens on a smartphone as if further proof was really bloody needed.

This thing can take perfectly good close-up shots with a standard, 12 meg lens capturing plenty of detail from a quite weary distance in HDL situations. I did unfortunately see some over saturation when the lighting was a bit harsh, just as I did with the Xperia 1 mark ii. It's definitely a shame that this issue persists, but it is still an improvement over last year's Sony, Xperia smartphones, which really didn't handle HDR situations very well at all, and the Xperia 5 mark ii is pretty damn good at low light photography, you get a series of shots captured across a range of exposures and then blended together automatically, and what you get is a surprisingly bright finish without much grain as usual. Any photographers who know their way around a DSLR will be very well sorted by Sony's photo pro mode, which has got all the features you would expect and now shoots raw images straight out of the box. Personally, though, as before, I was more excited by the cinema pro mode, which offers the same slick experience as the Xperia wall mark ii.

You can use all three lenses here, and you get full control of the ISO, the white balance and so on, along with a selection of filters to completely change the mood seriously, you can make your whole movies look like a proper acid trip, or even pretend like you're Darren Aronofsky for an afternoon. It is proper lush and using that cinema pro app, you can also now shoot a 120 frames per second slow motion, video in 4k resolution for the first time, which again is very nice indeed and last up for the camera. Tech is the Xperia 5 mark ii, 8 megapixels, selfie snapper, which unfortunately is about as impressive as a tadpole's fart. Quite often, the photo results are a bit soft or grainy, or just not very good at all. While the detail levels are definitely low compared with rivals.

So on the whole, this is just best avoided. So that way, there is my final review of the Sony Xperia 5 mark ii, after using it as my full-time smartphone, and as I mentioned at the start of the video, I think it's one of the best smartphones launched in 2020 just because it's a very different proposition. I love the 21x9 stretched aspect, ratio, they're, quite compact form factor. It's really, really good for movies, music and gaming, and I, like the camera features as well, especially that cinema pro modes so yeah if you've got a good bit of cash in the bank, and you're tempted by some of those more unique features. I'd say: go for it, but what do you reckon are you tempted by the Xperia five mark two be great to your thoughts down in the comments below.

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Source : Tech Spurt