Sony Xperia 5 II review: It's incredible

This is the Sony Xperia 5 mark II. It's basically a smaller more affordable version of the Xperia 1 mark II so what do we need to do a review well. It's got a high refresh rate display and it's the first phone that can film 4k video at 120 frames per second and it also costs hundreds of dollars less look I absolutely enjoyed the Xperia one mark II. it was aimed at creative types who want more control over photography and videography on their phone and since the majority of this phone is exactly the same.

I want to focus on the differences in what's new so before we jump in this particular Xperia 5 mark II is a pre-production phone running final software now the sony Xperia one mark II really impressed me with its solid specs 4k display and creative apps like photo pro and cinema pro that allowed me to have detailed controls for photo and video capture aside from the 4k display all of that is here in the Xperia 5 mark II the same snapdragon 865 processor the 8 gigabytes of ram the same triple rear camera array the 20 frame per second burst mode with autofocus and auto-exposure adjustments between each frame it's all here. It doesn't have a type of flight sensor but it still has eye autofocus for humans and pets and it's still pretty wonderful my biggest gripe against the Xperia one mark II was its 1200 price. Now right off the bat the Xperia 5 mark II grabs my intention because at 950 it costs 250 less two things though that's still a hundred and fifty dollars more than last year's Xperia 5 mark 1.

We're in a pandemic and a lot of people are enduring financial hardship right now so it's hard to recommend any phone that costs close to a thousand dollars that said if you have the budget and are into sony's mirrorless camera system then yeah the Xperia 5 mark II is definitely worth considering. Another picky point I had with the Xperia 1 mark II was its 4k display the 4k part was stunning it looked fantastic but it lacked a high refresh rate and that's because 4k displays aren't made that have a high refresh rate at least not yet so the Xperia 5 mark II is nifty because it has a 120-hertz display with an HD resolution as for the refresh rate. It's either 60 hertz or 120 hertz now there isn't an in-between option or adaptive software like other phones but you can see the difference especially when gaming at 120 hertz part of that comes from the new and improved game enhancer app which basically has gone a complete overhaul and uses software to crank that 120 hertz to 240 hertz and it worked. 

You can actually see the difference in gameplay, it's like someone added sharpness and contrast to my games and it's pretty impressive especially in a game like call of duty. Now the game enhancer app also has a little heads up display so if you're playing a game you can actually, review what the refresh rate looks like before you choose it so that's pretty cool too then there is the battery which is larger than the Xperia 5. Despite the phone is pretty much exactly the same size and with game enhancer it gets another cool ability it's called hs power control aka heat suppression. 

If your phone is plugged in the idea is you could turn on the mode and this will allow you to play longer while avoiding overheating the phone. Now speaking of heat inside the phone there's a new graphene layer that helps the phone dissipate heat so it doesn't feel hot to the touch in testing the phone got warm but never hot and that was mostly when I was playing games for more than 30 minutes or if I was shooting lots of photos and videos and I should say hs power control is only available in the game enhancer app.

Let's talk cameras, okay the Xperia 5 mark II builds on the same Xperia 1 mark II's camera hardware and software and adds raw support for photos from each camera now photos taken with the native camera app are good but I like the control I get being able to take a raw photo and adjust things later now also props to sony the photo pro apps menus have been updated and look like the ones from the a7 s3 camera and speaking of the a7s3 camera, you can now connect a cable between it and the Xperia 5 mark II and send photo and video files to the phone for FTP uploads but the feature that I was most excited to try out was the new 4k 120 frames per second video capture now this only works in the cinema pro app and files get saved as 30 fps or 24 fps which give it a dreamy four times or five times slow-motion effect. I shot a bunch of slow-motion footage using the cinema pro app and even graded it and this is by far the best slow-motion video I've seen from a phone now as much as I like the Xperia 5 mark II everything isn't great when using the cinema pro app.
There's a sweet spot for exposure and I ran into the same issue with the Xperia one mark II as well if it's too bright you can't get the iso or shutter angle low enough and if it's too dark well you run into similar challenges iso tops out at 800 and because cameras on phones have a fixed aperture aside from the galaxy phones a couple of years ago you really only have the shutter angle to adjust for exposure which isn't ideal because of how it affects movement but also your bottom out pretty fast but let's get to the thing that probably bothers me the most sony added an extra button.

Now on the right side, there's already a volume rocker a combo power button and fingerprint reader and a shutter button for the camera and now there's a hardware key that triggers google assistant look it's just one button too many and are people using google assistant so much that it needs its own button. Maybe I don't know these people and if that's you please leave a comment but here's what gets me this phone is aimed at photographers and videographers gamers creative types journalists and nearly every one of those people are gonna mount this phone. 

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Maybe if you're a gamer you're gonna mount it to a ps4 controller uh if you're taking photos or video you might mount it to a tripod and when I put the phone into a holder for a tripod not only is the google assistant button really easy to hit avoiding it is so finicky sorry I don't understand and when I do finally get the phone mounted I no longer have access to my recessed power button or fingerprint reader because it's under the tripod holder and here are the top search results that are frustrating so yeah that's not cool sony and this last one's more of a nitpick and preference because I do really enjoy the way the Xperia 5 mark II fit in my hand but I miss the squared-off edges of the Xperia 1 mark II.

I could even sometimes stand up the Xperia one mark two to take a photo or video but on the whole, I really like this phone I think it's the best phone Sony has made in years.

If you're looking at getting one pre-orders to start on September 29th and the phone will be available December 4th also sony does this kind of pre-order bundle things they have one for the sony Xperia 5.2 when you buy it you can get a bunch of gaming accessories for free including a hyperx cloud 2 gaming headset a 10 000 milliamp-hour portable power bank and 21 600 call of duty points.

I want to hear from you what do you think of the Sony Xperia 5 mark II would you get it instead of the Xperia one mark II and what features are you most excited about let me know in the comments.