Hey guys, so this is Sony’s most anticipated phone in years, the Xperia
1 Mark II. Now, odd name aside, this phone has received a lot of positive
press since it was announced. After using it for some time it definitely
lives up to the hype for me. This is the first time in nearly 6 years that
I switched to a Sony phone as my daily, but it is pretty expensive and I’m
going to discuss if it’s worth spending $1200 on. First, I think this is the
most well rounded phone out there. The specs are important to mention because
it offers nearly everything and fits it all into a beautiful looking phone.
So on the front we have a 6.5 in OLED 4K display. Above it there’s an 8MP
camera. On the back the 1 II has a quad camera setup with standard, telephoto,
ultrawide, and depth sensors. On the inside we have the latest Snapdragon
865 and 8GB of RAM. The phone also has a quarter TB of internal storage and Micro
SD card support. The battery is a big upgrade over the Xperia 1 at 4000mAh.
Unlike the international version, the US version I’m reviewing does not have 5G,
but it is compatible across most networks. The 1 II also is water
resistant and has wireless charging, a side fingerprint scanner, front facing
stereo speakers and USB Type-C. Aannndd believe it or not, the headphone jack is
back. It even has a notification light which is extremely rare now. This phone
checks off the most boxes of any phone. Now, on paper these are excellent specs,
but as we’ve seen with the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s broken 108MP camera,
specs are definitely not everything. Fortunately Sony did not try too hard
with experimental tech with this phone and went with what works. So let’s start
with the phone’s most experimental tech - the 4K 21:9 display. It’s pretty crazy
that Sony is still the only company releasing phones with 4K displays,
yet here we are nearly 5 years after the release of the Z5 Premium. Overall
this is a great looking crystal clear display, but there are a few caveats
to that. For one, the screen is pretty dim in direct sunlight. Here’s a side
by side with the Pixel 4 XL, which doesn’t have that bright of a display,
but it is still brighter. The 1 II also has a normal refresh rate
of 60Hz rather than a high one like some other recent flagships, though
Sony has implemented some software to make it feel more like 90Hz. The 21:9
movie aspect ratio takes some getting used to, but I definitely am used to it
and I will say that this is actually my favorite aspect ratio. Just for example,
I like how on social media I can do less scrolling because there’s more
information on screen. Also for gaming this works extremely well, because
most games have a lot of on-screen controls. Now, between the aspect ratio,
the excellent chipset, the front firing speakers, and the design,
this is my favorite phone for gaming. The design is more comfortable to
me than last year’s Xperia 1 due to a slightly smaller size and easier to grip
shape. The design overall is beautiful and it’s arguably the nicest looking
phone. I also really enjoy handling the phone overall. The fingerprint
scanner on the side is in a perfect placement and unlike the Xperia 1,
this one is also the Power button. That to me is a huge deal and makes
the phone a lot more accessible. The scanner itself is also more accurate
than in-display scanners and feels a lot more natural, but like Sony’s other
phones its accuracy level is still not 100%. It’s not perfect but I really like
the placement. It’s not as futuristic as the in-display ones, but it does
work better, and when you’re unlocking your phone a bunch of times each day,
of course that’s more important. The 4 types of rear cameras used are exactly
what I and most others wanted. In the past Sony went with some odd choices
such as a black and white camera on the XZ2 Premium, but this time Sony
chose the best types of cameras. Now, despite Sony creating camera sensors for
a lot of phone brands including Apple, they’ve been criticized a lot in the
past for not having the best software on their own smartphones. Recently though
Sony consolidated their studios to work closer together, and it does show with
the cameras. Now, I’m much more into recording videos than taking photos,
and to be honest I’ve never been that big on manual modes which are a big
selling point for this phone, but that said guys there are a LOT of manual
controls to work with in the Photo Pro app, and both the results and controls
are impressive. The standard point and click camera mode, which I use really
95% of the time across my phones, does work pretty well. The phone also has a
camera button which allows you to access the camera when the phone is locked and
also take photos rather than pressing on screen. It’s a great experience
taking photos with this phone, and I’m showing you guys some of those now.
Now, for the main sensors the Pixel 4 XL is still my favorite phone for
taking photos, but the 1 II is near the top of my list. With the Sony you
can also take wide angle photos, which you can’t do on the Pixel. Night time
shots are a bit underwhelming compared to phones with proper night modes,
but if you want to use the Photo Pro app then you’ll get the shot
you’re looking for. As for videos, I’m very satisfied with the results and
I will be using this phone a lot for recording my YouTube videos.
The footage is super smooth, the autofocus works great,
and the audio quality is super accurate. Besides some excellent output from both
the video and the audio, this phone has a lot of flexibility when switching
modes. So just for example, on most flagships you can’t film with the wide
angle camera in 1080p 60fps mode or in 4K mode, but on this one you can.
It also has a far more in-depth Cinema Pro app which is tailored
towards recording movie-like videos and that one offers a lot of options such
as 4K 60fps. The front camera outputs some very solid footage, but this is
one area where the options are limited with only full HD 30fps available. Sony
definitely put their time and resources into the rear cameras this time, but it
would be nice to get a software update with more options for the front camera.
The software is nearly stock Android, which is exactly what I want. Overall
the UI is very similar to Xperia phones in the past but that’s definitely not a
bad thing. Sony has eliminated most of their own apps over the years in favor
of the stock Android apps. So, for the most part I do like that as a lot of
them felt like bloatware duplicates of the Google apps, but that said I
do miss some of the Sony apps including Album and Screen Recorder. Now, Sony did
tell me that if enough users want the Album app to come back in the future,
then that is a possibility, though I think most people have switched
to Google Photos regardless. Overall the performance has been excellent for
everything from simple day to day tasks to complex gaming. Of course that’s
expected given the Snapdragon 865 and 8GB of RAM, but it’s still important to
note that this is the best performance you can get in June of 2020. Now for
the dual speakers, so if you watched my comparison vs the iPhone 11 you would’ve
noticed that while the quality is great the volume doesn't get nearly as loud as
the iPhone. That’s actually both true and false. I just found out that Sony
limits the volume in certain apps in favor of balancing and optimizing the
speakers. So for a video app like YouTube which I demoed, they focus
on quality and balance because usually you’re holding your phone and relying on
the stereo aspect while using it, while for an app like Music you’re typically
using that as a loudspeaker, and the volume for those music apps gets much,
much louder. In other words the speakers are capable of getting super loud,
as loud as the iPhone, but depending on the app they’re often limited in favor
of balance and quality. They still get loud, just not super loud for
some of the apps. Overall the speakers are amongst my favorites. They output
great quality and are balanced and front facing, and for those reasons I enjoy
using it when watching videos or playing games. Last year’s Xperia 1 had a
mediocre 3300 capacity battery and also it lacked wireless charging. The 1 Mark
II corrects those major problems by putting in a 4000 capacity battery
and also wireless charging. That said, the battery still isn’t great
like most of its other features. It’s an average battery at best by 2020 flagship
standards, but it still should get you through the end of the day without any
issues. One reason I didn’t use Xperia 1 as my daily was because of the poor
battery, but thankfully that’s not the case this time. Now, I’m going to say
it once again, Sony deserves a ton of credit for bringing back the
headphone jack. I was critical of them these past few years for removing it,
but am very surprised that it actually returned. That’s something that just
doesn’t happen with other companies, and is the cherry on top of an overall
excellent package. It’s a sign that Sony is actually listening to criticism for
the first time in what seems like forever. The worst thing about this
phone is the price. At $1200 this is Sony’s most expensive phone ever by
$200, though if you preorder in time it does come with an excellent pair of free
headphones which retail for $230. Now, to me personally it is worth spending
that money, and I think for a lot of you guys, a lot of you enthusiasts watching,
I think it’d be worth spending that money too. But for most non-enthusiasts
I would recommend waiting for a price drop or 2 before spending money. It’s
really tough to justify spending $1200 on a new phone, no matter how great the
phone is. Overall this is my favorite phone. What I really like about it
is it offers everything I want and it really doesn’t have any major downsides.
Not only does it offer nearly every possible feature, but further all the
features are at least solid, with most of them ranging from great to excellent.
Just for example, I was using the Pixel 4 XL before this, and while
that is a great phone it’s lacking many things the 1 Mark II has such as a wide
angle camera, micro sd card support, a notification light, a headphone jack,
a premium design, or even a large enough battery. I can make the same argument
for most other phones. Sony sent me this phone to review, but after I return it
I will be buying it myself to use as my daily on Verizon. I already
have it pre-ordered and will make a lot more videos after it launches on July
24. I’ll also be posting a ton of 1 II content on Twitter and Instagram since
this will be my daily driver for the foreseeable future. Be sure to check out
my comparison with Apple’s best iPhone, and as always thanks for watching.