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In this article, I will be unboxing and giving you my full review of the Sony Xperia 5 Mark 2, especially compared with the Sony Xperia 1 Mark 2!
(articles continues after the video)
Unboxing
Let’s first unbox the phone.
Now like the Xperia 1 Mark 2, it comes in a white box with Xperia and 5 Mark 2 in the middle and Sony down below. Then at the back, you will find some of the specs below as well.
Opening the box, you will first find the phone itself. Underneath there is the product info leaflet. Then at the back, there is a Sony headphone. A USB-C to USB-C cable, and an 18 watts charger as well.
Specs
Going over the phone’s specs, the Sony Xperia 5 Mark 2 comes with the Snapdragon 865 chipset, with the Adreno 650 GPU.
The variant that I have is the 8 gigs of RAM with 256 gigs of storage.
It comes shipped with Android 10, which I have already upgraded it with Android 11. And of course, it has the Xperia UI Skin, which as mentioned before looks and feels like stock Android.
And it is IP 65 / 68 dust and water-resistant as well.
Build Quality
Starting from the design and build, the phone did feel quite light like the Xperia 1 Mark 2, herein referred to Xperia 1, where it is a bit shorter than the Xperia 1 and just a tiny bit LESS wide than the Xperia 1 as well, but it still has the 21 by 9 aspect ratio, which I will go in deeper when talking about the screen later.
It has a glossy aluminium frame at the sides, which does make the phone look and feel great in the hands and the phone has a more rounded edge than a sharper flat built as it was for the Xperia 1. And yes, both the front and the back are made of Corning Gorilla Glass 6.
Then the rear cameras are placed towards the left, with a thin camera bump but it does wobble a bit when you place the phone on a surface while typing, where it has the similar-looking camera arrays but lacking on the TOF sensor other than that, it’s the same.
As for the ports and buttons, looking down below, there is the USB-C port and you won’t find the speaker grills over there because of the stereo speakers are placed towards the bottom chin of the phone and on the earpiece area, which I have always preferred.
On the right, there are the volume rockers and the power button which doubles up as the side fingerprint sensor. Not the fastest but it was quite decent. Then there is an additional dedicated button for Google Assistant other than the shutter button, where this button isn’t mappable to execute any other feature, so keep that in mind.
On the left, there is the SIM and microSD slot which I STILL love how you can easily open it with your fingernails instead of using a SIM ejector pin.
Then on top, you will find the almost extinct headphones jack…
Display
Looking at the phone screen, where it is surely the highlight of the phone, but instead of a 6.5-inch 4k display on the Xperia 1, THIS has a 6.1-inch 1080 x 2520 pixels resolution but where this Xperia 5 mark 2 wins is through its high refresh rate of 120 hertz with a 21:9 aspect ratio.
It also has a 240 hertz touch sampling rate for better response in everyday multi-tasking and has the same HDR-BT 2020 technology and I have to be honest that, watching videos on the phone was still amazing, and even putting it side by side with the Xperia 1, the difference was there, definitely sharper when looking at it in real life, so this does come down to whether or not you NEED a 4k display on a smartphone or a high refresh rate. For me, if I had to choose between that I would still go with the 4k screen.
And since there is also the Creator Mode for the screen, it does get the most accurate colour when watching videos, but also when it comes to photo editing to make sure that I get the best colour possible through its 10-bit colour depth, also like the other Xperia flagships you can tweak the white balance and choose creator mode to get a more colour-accurate screen which is a very underrated feature.
Cameras
As for the phone’s cameras, as mentioned that the cameras are the same as the Xperia 1 but without the TOF sensor which all of the lenses are also Zeiss optic lenses, where:
- the main camera is a 12-megapixel f/1.7, 24mm (wide) lens,
- a 12 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto) lens, and
- another 12 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide angle) lens
Do check out my video review of the Xperia 1 Mark 2 (link below), herein referred to Xperia 1 once again to see an in-depth review of the camera since it’s the same where you can expect great colours and dynamic range for the main lenses and the ultrawide lenses.
>> Link to Xperia 1 Mark 2 Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVEuvmW8VR0
Nice subject to background blur and edge detection for their rear camera’s portrait mode.
There is still is no dedicated Night Mode on the phone, but the camera software will adapt to the scene accordingly so expect some inconsistency once again.
As for the front camera, it has an 8 megapixel with an f 2.0 aperture 24mm wide lens where the regular selfie and portrait selfie was also nice and not too soft or sharp, like some phones tend to do.
And when it comes to video, while I love the rear 4k video footage. I really think that its already about time that Sony allows front 4k video recording instead of only 1080p since the chipset can clearly do that.
And yes, this phone is also preloaded software such as the Photo Pro and Cinema Pro to get that Sony Mirrorless or DSLR Camera experience on the phone, where you can dive in deeper into the adjustments of photo and video on a more professional level.
Audio Quality
As for the phone’s sound quality, it has the front-facing stereo speakers, and surely one of the nicest smartphones speakers that I have reviewed once again.
In terms of Codec Options, there is Dolby Atmos and DSEE Ultimate for an uncompressed sound and paired with the Sony WH1000XM4, you will get an amazing sound experience through the phone, where the overall volume seems to output louder than other smartphones too.
On top of that, there is the Dynamic Vibration, which gives vibrated when a low-end sound, which was a great experience, making me want to just watch more videos on the phone, and it does have the same effect on music with a speaker output volume of 87.6 dB.
Software
In terms of the software, it is shipped with Android 10 with the Xperia UI which as mentioned, feels really close to stock Android. There were no issues during my usage when it comes to opening a bunch of apps and scrolling and navigating as well. And this is my second time talking about Haptic Vibrations in my reviews, where I really liked how it was.
Like the Xperia 10 Mark 2 and the Xperia 1 Mark 2, there is Side Sense and the One-Handed Mode as well, which is surely a great plus when using a phone with a longer form factor and the split-screen mode was also a great addition to the phone as well.
Battery Life
Now looking at the phone’s battery, the phone also comes with a 4,000 milliamps of battery, which was very interesting. And since the Xperia 1 Mark 2 had the same battery capacity and with a 4K screen, I obviously got more screen on time when I was at 10 percent battery. And to my pleasant surprise, I got a massive 8 hours and 37 minutes when I was at 10 percent battery, which was super impressive!
And the phone has fast charging up to 21 watts where the 18 watts charger is in the box, there is no wireless charging which was quite surprising. But what’s extra sweet is the battery care option. To not overcharge the phone over 80 or 90 per cent which is a really good feature, which I feel EVERY other smartphone must have to increase the longevity of the battery.
Gaming
In terms of gaming, again because of its OLED screen and of course the front-facing speakers, it was again a great smartphone to play games on, and there is the Game Enhancer Mode to give you customized options during gameplay as well.
Playing games like Asphalt 9 was amazing and in PUBG Mobile it ran great with graphics at HDR and frame rate set at High, where the phone didn’t even heat up at all even during a really long gameplay.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, I have to say that the Sony Xperia 5 Mark 2 is another step for Sony to fully extends their wings on the smartphone market not only for the flagship smartphones, but also towards the midrange. However, while a lot of people were complaining about how expensive the Xperia 1 Mark 2 was, my biggest argument was the 4k colour-accurate screen and consuming media in general but with this, there are other mid-range smartphones that could compete very closely with this Sony Xperia 5 Mark 2.
As for the phone’s price here in Malaysia, the phone is going for RM4,099.
Do let me know what you guys think of the phone at the comments section below!
