INTRODUCTION
I have been an iPhone user for some time. They served me well and as much as I longed for an upgrade to the latest, I was not convinced that the ecosystem served me any longer. I would even forgo the specific applications on iOS that I could not get on the Android platform.
When the Xperia 1 came out a little over a year ago I liked the feature set and was on the verge of switching. I held out since nothing was wrong with my iPhone 6S+ and it had recently had a battery refresh. So, when the successor, the Xperia 1II was announced I was excited again and knew it was time to switch. Switching was easy as I was not put off with losing WhatsApp logs or App purchases. I also have a tablet with those Apps so I knew they would not go to waste.
UNBOXING
There is not much to reveal unboxing the Xperia 1II. The usual – phone, charging cable (USB-C to USB-C), wall charger, earphones and a QuickStart manual. I was a little disappointed that an inexpensive silicon case or a premium case was not included with the phone especially since it features a glass back. However, it was good to note that Sony had brought in some attractive cases as options to those looking to protect their Xperia 1 II.
HANDLING AND OPERATION
To get started I simply moved my nano-sim to the Xperia 1II. A plus point of the Xperia 1II is being able to use two nano-SIMs or one SIM with a micro-SD card for additional storage. I went with an additional 128GB micro-sd card. I was ready to go except for having to reinstall all the other applications.
The narrower width of the Xperia 1II makes it a great fit in the hand. All the important buttons are on the righthand side. A power button with a built-in fingerprint scanner in the middle. Simply placing my registered finger on the button unlocks the phone and it did so without fail. I would surmise that the sensor is accurate as it is sensitive. It also ensures I am not hunting at the rear of the phone for the fingerprint reader or pressing on the display which inevitably leaves fingerprints all over. A rocker switch for adjusting the sound volume is placed above the power button whilst there is a dedicated shutter button below.
The sim card and storage card tray are located on the left-hand side and it is easily removed without requiring a special tool. On the top left is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. At the bottom centre is the USB-C charging port. There are dual firing speakers, one on top and one on the bottom. Up to about 75-percent volume they are loud enough to attract unwanted attention. You can push the volume louder, but you will just get a lot of distortion. A cool feature I discovered is Dynamic Vibration. It basically vibrates on the lower frequencies to accentuate what would be felt as low-end bass. It is kind of digital trickery since you do not get much bass out of the small speakers on a mobile phone.
The screen is a gorgeous OLED display measuring 6.5-inches with an extra wide ratio of 21:9 this sets it apart from the usual 16:9 and even the 17:9, 18:9 and 20:9 phones. With a resolution of 3840 x 1644 pixels on the screen, text and images can look a little small but it is crisp and the colour pops.
With most devices that have such a high pixel density text can get a little small and hard to read but you can modify the magnification, ala font size, to suit your needs via the display control panel. One thing to take note of and something I appreciate is the lack of a notch for the front facing camera. There is a sliver of a top and bottom bezel which occupies about an 1/8 of an inch of screen real estate. They are thin enough to not be distracting, or at least not as distracting to me with screens having notches or small holes in the actual display. I could never understand and come to like mobiles with notches or holes.
The OLED display is very bright, and I have on occasion had the display activate at full brightness due to the sensor thinking I was using it in a brightly lit environment when I was really in a darkened room. You can of course change the setting to a fixed brightness or use the sensor to change automatically.
The battery runtime for me being an average to above average connected user was more than enough leaving me between twenty to thirty percent battery available after a twelve-hour day. The battery is rated at 4000mAh which numerically looks quite large but equally as powerful and power hungry is the featured Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor. So, Sony lends a helping hand with the feature called Stamina Mode. This feature reduces the active Apps activity like connecting to the Internet to poll for mail or social media updates. Sony has done well to pack in another power related feature, Adaptive Charging. I am the kind of guy that will usually plug in to the charger before I go to bed. This means that the battery could finish charging in an hour or two and then sit on the charger charging away. This is not good for the battery but with Adaptive Charging it will wait to finish the top-up to 100% until just before you would usually wake up. This helps maintain the battery cycles to prevent premature failure of the battery.
FEATURES
Photographers are clearly a target audience for the Xperia 1II because of the inclusion of the Photo Pro app. This exclusive camera app emulates Sony’s Alpha camera line and emphasizes manual controls and no computational photography.
You get the similar P-SM but as the cameras on the mobile phone features only a single fixed aperture, Aperture priority mode is missing. Note, if you are intimidated by the Photo Pro app you can fall back to the simpler included camera app where you will see the usual features of panorama, smooth skin, picture ratio, bokeh, creative filters, selfie, and more.
Did I mention that when using Photo Pro you can choose to capture your shots in RAW, RAW+JPEG or simply JPEG. This is a must have for Amateur and Pro photographers alike. Having RAW capability helped when I went to shoot a time-lapse and needed to adjust my shots.
Sony’s Alpha cameras are well known for their fast and accurate autofocusing. You will be happy to hear that this technology and the Eye AF (Eye Auto Focusing) has found its way into the Xperia 1II. For parents with young kids this feature alone will have you capturing sharp family photos and not missing the action with the 20 frames-per-second continuous shooting. The Eye AF also works on animals so no more out of focus shots of your pets. I even tried the auto-focusing on these statues. It still identified the faces and even the eyes. I was not able to screenshot the Eye AF green boxes but it does work.
All that and combined with three different focal lengths – 16mm, 24mm and 70mm. Something I discovered, I did not read any manuals or watch any already published videos, is being able zoom even though you only have the three prime lenses. If you pinch the touchscreen like you would to enlarge a photo you will see a dial appear with the incremental focal lengths in-between as if it were a Zoom lens. Sony was smart to include this but do note the magic to achieve this is to crop into the field of view of the different focal lengths. On screen you can see a visual representation of an overlaid outline showing the cropped portion. Note that when this is done you will lose some pixel resolution. Just as you will lose some of the 12-megapixels if you switch the display ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 or 1:1. You are still left with more than enough resolution for Social Media posts.
Diving deeper into the Photo Pro App, here are my findings. The shutter button is wonderful for the half-press to focus but you do need to be gentle to the half-press and you do get the same audible confirmation as the Alpha cameras. If you are ‘Back Button’ user on a mirrorless camera you can tap the onscreen AF-ON menu. The inclusion of the electronic horizon (level) will ensure you are not taking slanted shots. It however does not include a level for pitch. With out the electronic level for pitch makes taking straight buildings a little difficult but there are onscreen grid lines that can help. With the quite wide apertures shooting with a slower shutter speed on a bright sunny day can be difficult even if you drop the ISO to the lowest of 64. Two functions I use a fair amount of on my Sony Alpha 7III is the S&Q (Slow & Quick) and the built-in Intervalometer. Seeing it is just software I hope an update could include these options.
So, if you are not a ‘Photographer’ type but you are the ‘Cinematographer’ type, do not fret, Sony gives you a feature rich video recording application, Cinema Pro. I am unfamiliar with other digital camcorder devices and their user interface so when I look at Cinema Pro’s it looks straightforward.
For me I do not need the complexity of Cinema Pro and I can use the simpler included Camera app. The Camera App does all the things I need. In fact, much of the settings are available in the Camera App as they are in Cinema Pro. I can choose a recording resolution, the frame rate, stabilisation, object tracking and HDR recording. Settings that do not concern me like shutter angle, look, white balance or even manual focusing with A/B points for racking I can leave that up to the Camera App. The well informed and those passionate about cinematic shooting will know those features and make full use of them to record their video.
SUMMARY
I know it has taken a while for me to get onboard with smartphones featuring multiple cameras, a wide screen, an OLED display, wireless charging, fast charging and more. I am glad though that I’ve waited for the Xperia 1II smartphone because it checked many of the boxes, at least the ones that were of priority to me – the notch-less display, easy handling without sacrificing resolution, a good camera app, large capacity battery, industry adopted mobile processor, 3.5mm headphone jack and let’s not forget features I’m already used to from Sony Alpha cameras.
I have more features to explore which I may in time find useful. I cannot see Sony creating these features without there being a demand or use case. In particular, multi-window, Dolby ATMOS audio and Game Enhancer. The former I am sure will be useful for multi-tasking and not having to flip between Apps.
My concerns with having a glass back is that it may scratch easily because I am quite a kludge with my smartphone. Yes, I have dropped the Xperia 1II numerous times before writing this. I am happy to report the front or rear glass is intact and I guess I must be thankful that Sony used the industry leading Gorilla Glass 6 and designed it with Ingress Protection (IP65/68) standards for water resistance and drops. To further belay my breakage concerns I like the fact that the eco-system for third party products is healthy and I can easily find casings and screen protection at retail shops and online retailers.
I recommend anyone looking for a device that nicely supplements their photography needs without toting that bulky extra device around or replaces it altogether. The idea of leaving the interchangeable lens camera behind is sometimes the wisest decision when traveling to questionable locations. The fact that the Xperia 1II is also not so recognisable and discreet means less attention from possible snatch and grab theft.
If you are undecided on a smartphone as I was and still rocking an older device, consider the Xperia 1II. You might even get a good deal with a bundle offering. The first time they offered the Xperia 1 you could get the WH-1000XM3 noise cancelling headphones. Even now you can get the Xperia 1’s with some other headset. The Xperia 1 II probably has an offer now that includes a headphone or earphone. I suggest you check with your nearest Sony Store or the online offers. The inclusion of the very useful headset or earphones makes the SGD 1,599 purchase more palatable.
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