Sony Xperia 5 II
You could almost call the move away from huge phones a correction, but it’s more like a roller coaster ride, going up and down before circling back to the same place. Remember Zoolander’s tiny phone? A hilarious lampoon of the trend away from the early brick-sized phones towards miniscule mobiles. But then came screens, and bigger screens, until the thinking seemed to be: if you can wedge a movie screen in your pocket, do it. Now people are looking for something a little more manageable, literally. A phone that can perform all the tricks and wizardry we demand from our devices but that we can actually hold in one hand.
The latest Sony Xperia, the Experia 5 Mark 2, is being positioned as their new flagship phone, taking the mantle from the Xperia 1 (don’t ask us to understand Sony’s naming scheme, the Xperia models have been given names using everything from letters to double letters to letters with numbers to, now, just [non-sequential] numbers.)
As for the size, Sony solved the tablet-in-the-pocket issue by slimming down the overall profile of the 5 II. At just over two and a half inches wide and less than a third of an inch thick, you can hold and operate it with one hand, no PopSocket required. Yet it still goes all-in when it comes to screen quality. With a 120Hz refresh rate, even episodes of Drive to Survive will be smooth and clear. And with the 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio and HDR OLED screen, episodes of The Expanse will look just as good as they’re supposed to.
As a phone that’s specifically optimized for Call of Duty: Mobile, the gaming experience is pretty on-point with 240Hz touch scanning rate, four times faster than the previous Xperia.
Camera-wise Sony employs its edge as a camera manufacturer to make an impressive triple lens camera with ZEISS optics that’ll make sure the pic you snap at the top of a peak you just scaled looks appropriately ‘Grammable.
Finished off with a necessary 3.5 mm audio jack and dedicated ergonomic shutter button, the Xperia 5 II packs all the tech into a manageable package that will actually fit in your jean pockets and your hand. Presales start September 29th.
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