Sony Xperia 5 II Specs Review: A Smaller Flagship With A Headphone Jack

Amid tech companies releasing smartphones with wide screens and equally large footprints, Sony has unveiled a small flagship packed with features that mobile photographers, cinematographers, gamers and music lovers will want: the new Xperia 5 II.

The new Sony Xperia 5 II (pronounced “Xperia five mark two”) is named after the company's line of Alpha cameras and comes packed with a slew of features anybody would expect from a flagship and more. Sony said the device will be available for preorder for “about $950” starting Sept. 29 and will be shipped to customers starting Dec. 4.

Features

As mentioned, the Xperia 5 II is a flagship smartphone. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, which powers almost every flagship currently in the market.

Xperia 5 II has a 6.1-inch display with high 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. It boasts of the “world's first 4K HDR 120fps slow-motion movie recording in a smartphone.” The smartphone also offers high-resolution audio and has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Here's a look at all the main features and specs of Sony's Xperia 5 II.

• Processing power

The new Xperia 5 II offers enough processing power for power users. It runs on the aforementioned Snapdragon 865, which is backed by 8GB RAM and 128GB of UFS storage, which is expandable up to 1TB via microSDXC.

Since the device runs on a Snapdragon 865, it is capable of supporting sub-6GHz 5G. However, Ars Technica noted that this feature is for Europe only. The device is not supporting 5G networks in the U.S.

• A great display

Sony boasts about the Xperia 5 II's display as “for movie lovers” and “for mobile gamers.” Aside from high refresh and touch sampling rates, the FHD+ display with 21:9 aspect ratio also offers other features such as “BRAVIA HDR remaster technology” and more.

• Cameras

The device has three 12MP Zeiss cameras at the back and an 8MP camera in front. Sony said the device borrows technologies from its Alpha professional cameras for better performance. It even has a dedicated shutter button.

• Headphone jack

This feature might surprise many since most flagships do not have 3.5mm standard headphone jacks anymore. Sony, however, also has a booming audio accessories business, currently championed by the excellent WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones.

The company likely wants those who prefer wired headphones to enjoy top-tier smartphone performance.

All of these features, and more, are packed in a small body that measures 68mm wide and 8mm thick. It has a 4,000 mAh battery inside and is IP65/68 rated for water- and dust-resistance.