The Xperia 5 II is a solid flagship phone from Sony with excellent build quality, solid cameras, and fast performance. At $949.99, it’s also priced quite high considering it lacks 5G and wireless charging. We also experienced slow data speeds on T-Mobile and Verizon, and mediocre battery life in general. We tested an early model of the phone, so we aren’t giving it a rating, but unless you’re a big Sony fan, the $700 Samsung Galaxy S20 FE offers better value for the money, and it supports 5G.
Design, Display, and Durability
The Xperia 5 II sports the traditional Sony aesthetic: It’s long and thin, with sleek edges. It measures 6.2 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.8 ounces. The 6.1-inch, 2,520-by-1,080 OLED display is crisp, has excellent color accuracy, and its 120Hz refresh rate makes it good for anything from binging Netflix to gaming.
The back of the phone is a glossy black glass that looks sleek, but quickly attracts fingerprints and smudges. There’s a vertical camera stack in the upper left corner, while Sony and Xperia branding sit at the middle and bottom. A USB-C charging port is on the bottom edge, while a headphone jack rests on top. The left side is home to an SIM slot, while the right is busy with the volume rocker, power, Google Assistant, and camera shutter buttons. The power button does double duty as a responsive fingerprint sensor.
Durability is solid. The Xperia 5 II’s Gorilla Glass 6 display and back panel should be able to withstand the occasional drop or ding without much damage, and its IP65/68 rating means it can handle water spray, though Sony warns against completely submerging it. As always, you should invest in a case to be safe.
Connectivity and Audio
The Xperia 5 II ships unlocked, and will work on every major US carrier, with support for LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/19/20/25/26/28/29/32/34/38/39/40/41/46/48/66. It doesn’t support 5G, however, and is missing band 71, a must-have for rural T-Mobile customers
We tested network performance in Chicago on T-Mobile and Verizon, and recorded poor results with both carriers. T-Mobile averaged just 10.8Mbps down and 6.4Mbps up. Verizon was slightly better at 17.2Mbps down and 8.2Mbps up, but it still falls far below what we experienced on the network with a Google Pixel 5, which saw incredible 5G speeds up to 1.6Gbps. While the Xperia 5 II won’t be able to hit speeds like these without 5G, we think the lackluster 4G performance could be due to a firmware problem that will hopefully be worked out before the phone hits store shelves in December.
The Xperia 5 II also supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC.
Call quality was good on T-Mobile’s network. Maximum volume for the earpiece peaks at 88dB, which is loud enough to hear on a busy street, and noise cancellation worked without a hitch.
The dual front-firing speakers peak at 93dB and feature Dolby Atmos. Overall sound quality is excellent for phone. Timbre is strong, with well-defined mids and even some bass.
Hardware and Performance
The Xperia 5 II is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with 8GB RAM. That’s a little less than the 12GB of RAM in the Samsung Galaxy S20, but it’s more than enough to get the job done. Our review unit came with 128GB of storage (a 256GB version is also available), of which 110GB was available out of the box.
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We were able to multitask with dozens of apps and Chrome tabs open without experiencing any lag. Gaming performance is also solid; we played Alto’s Odyssey for over an hour without any dropped frames or slowdown, though the battery depleted by more than 20 percent during this period.
On Geekbench 5, a suite of benchmark tests that measure raw computing power, the Xperia 5 II earned a single-core (SC) score of 922 and a multi-core (MC) score of 3,396. That falls between the Galaxy S20’s 918 (SC) and 3,280 (MC), and the iPhone 11 Pro‘s 1,333 (SC) and 3,455 (MC).
The Xperia 5 II’s 4,000mAh battery lasted 9 hours and 18 minutes in our battery drain test, which streams HD video over Wi-Fi at full brightness. That’s fine, but a couple of hours shy of the Galaxy S20 FE and the Pixel 5. It supports fast charging via USB Power Delivery 3.0. Wireless charging isn’t available, a strange omission for a flagship phone, especially at this price.
Cameras
On the back of the Xperia 5 II you’ll find a 12MP f/1.7 primary camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens, and a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens. An 8MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 lens sits on the front of the phone.
In good light, all of the cameras on the Xperia 5 II are capable of taking solid pictures. The rear lenses consistently captured crisp shots with excellent depth of field and color accuracy in testing. The front-facing camera did a good job as well, though there was some occasional loss of fine detail.
In low light, the Xperia 5 II’s primary and ultra-wide lenses perform well. All of our test shots look natural, with solid depth of field. The telephoto camera isn’t able to capture enough light to get a decent shot, however, and won’t even try to take photos in low light unless you opt for Sony’s Photo Pro app.
Portrait mode with the rear camera benefits from Real Time Eye autofocus, a feature once found only on Sony’s mirrorless cameras. All of our test shots were spot-on, and the bokeh looks a little more natural than the overly aggressive background blurring you’ll find on most other smartphones. The front-facing camera does a commendable job in low light as well, but we noticed some loss of background detail and flattening of images in our test shots.
In addition to a Pro camera mode, the Xperia 5 II also has a Video Pro app that’s tuned by CineAlta. The app allows for more granular control over the sensors, and you can change things like color, white balance, focus, and ISO. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it works well once you’re up to speed. We tested it in both 2K and 4K modes, and our test videos were sharp, with solid depth of field and no noticeable dropped frames. In short, it’s a vast improvement over the Xperia 5’s video mode.
Software
The Xperia 5 II ships with Android 10, with Sony’s custom skin running on top. Sony’s UI isn’t heavy-handed, per se, but it’s definitely a departure from stock Android. Notifications and app icons look different, and you get some extra features like Cinema Pro, Photo Pro, and Side Sense.
In addition to Sony’s apps for productivity and its cameras, the Xperia 5 II also ships with some bloatware. It’s disappointing to see an unlocked phone include superfluous apps, but fortunately there aren’t that many, and they can all be uninstalled.
Sony confirmed the Xperia 5 II will get an Android 11 update in the future, but has yet to provide a timeline. The company also doesn’t make any promises after Android 11, so it’s a bit of a risk considering Google and Samsung both guarantee multi-year software upgrades.
Conclusions
The Sony Xperia 5 II offers excellent build quality, solid cameras, and a fast processor. But it’s missing 5G and wireless charging, two features we expect in a phone that sells for nearly $1,000. If you’re a major Sony fan, or are seriously interested in the camera’s cinematography features, the Xperia 5 II might be worth your while. For everyone else, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE provides similar hardware, along with wireless charging and 5G, for $250 less.
