Sony Xperia 1 II Camera review: Big strides for Sony

Sony ’ s current flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 II, began shipping in mid-2020. It has a Qualcomm 865 5G chipset, providing rapid performance and fast connectivity where supported. It features a 6.5-inch OLED HDR screen with extremely high 4K resolution. There ’ randomness 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage along with an expansion time slot .
There are four cameras on the binding, with three used for mastermind imaging, all at 12 MP. The chief wide module pairs a 24 mm-equivalent f/1.7 lens with a 1/1.7-sensor. An ultra-wide faculty has a 16 mm-equivalent f/2.2 lens and a 1/2.55-inch detector, and a tele module uses a 70 mm-equivalent f/2.4 lens and 1/3.4-inch detector for tighter frame. The main and tele cameras are optically stabilized, and burst shooting at an unusually fast 20 federal protective service ( with AE/AF ) is supported. There ’ second besides a 3D ToF detector for focus and depth map aid .
The Xperia 1 II shoots 4K video recording at 24, 25, 30, and 60 federal protective service, and besides supports dull motion get at 120 federal protective service in 1080p. A combination of optical and electronic stabilization keeps things brace. The Sony is besides one of very few phones to feature a hardware shutter button. Read on to find out how this top-of-the-line Sony fares in our tests .
Key camera specifications :

Reading: Sony Xperia 1 II Camera review: Big strides for Sony

Standard-wide: 12 MP 1/1.7-inch sensor with 1.8µm pixels and 24 mm-equivalent f/1.7, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 12 MP 1/2.55-inch sensor and 16 mm-equivalent f/2.2 lens, dual pixel PDAF
Tele: 12 MP 1/3.4-inch sensor with 1.0µm pixels and 70 mm-equivalent f/2.4 lens, PDAF, OIS
0.3 MP 3D ToF sensor
LED flash
4K at 24, 25, 30, 60 fps (tested at 4K/30fps), 1080p at 30, 60, 120 fps

About DXOMARK Camera tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone camera reviews, DXOMARK engineers get and evaluate over 3000 test images and more than 2.5 hours of video both in controlled lab environments and in natural indoor and outdoor scenes, using the camera ’ second default option settings. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of our test. For more information about the DXOMARK Camera test protocol, chatter here. More details on how we score smartphone cameras are available here .

Test summary

Sony Xperia 1 II
112
camera

114

photograph

soar

102

television

With an overall Camera seduce of 112, the Sony Xperia 1 II does substantially better in our testing than the original Xperia 1 launched in 2019. It makes meaningful progress over that phone in about every class, but its overall operation hush lags behind most current high-end devices. Its Photo score of 114 beats its harbinger by a decisive 25 points, but comes in behind most other flagship phones we ’ ve tested under our V4 protocol .
The Zoom score is 63, thanks chiefly to a reasonably potent ultra-wide camera. Its tele performance is lower than most phones in the bounty segment, however .
The Video score of 102 is reasonably stronger than its stills performance, relatively speaking, but is still behind what most devices in the Sony ’ s price bracket rescue .
The Sony Xperia 1 II deals well with eminent dynamic rate scenes outdoors. The Xperia 1 II can capture well-exposed photos in dependable light, but shows quite a bite of exposure imbalance and underexposes in dim conditions. Dynamic range outdoors is impressively wide-eyed, but drops off indoors and in lower luminosity levels. Its exposure sub-score represents a leap over the first Xperia 1 ’ sulfur performance, but is even quite first gear .
color is not very accurate, and images frequently show color casts. make noise is very low across all unhorse conditions, but this comes at the expense of some detail. Preview operation is middle-of-the-pack : the most detectable problem is that the preview blacks out wholly for a moment when zooming crosses from one camera to another .

Sony Xperia 1 Mark II, low light
Sony Xperia 1 Mark II, crop : low noise, abject detail

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, low inner light
Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, cultivate : more noise, slenderly more detail

Google Pixel 5, low alight
Google Pixel 5, crop : slenderly more noise, more detail
Autofocus is slower than many competitors across respective lighting conditions, and the call makes more focus errors than is typical for its class. The Xperia 1 II ’ s artifact sub-score is held down by coloring material quantization, hue transformation, and episodic haunt .
Night performance is better than its predecessor ’ s, but still leaves room for improvement. In flash-auto mode the call can take becoming nox portraits, though backgrounds tend to be underexpose and a warm vomit is big. When the flash international relations and security network ’ metric ton in looseness, ask underexposure, high make noise, and circumscribed dynamic rate .
Detail is perceptibly lower than many competitors .
At night, flash portraits show dear aim exposure but a warm project and night background The Xperia 1 II ’ s ultra-wide television camera delivers solid prototype quality, although with a 16 mm-equivalent lens, its field of scene is not arsenic wide-eyed as that of some competitors. Detail is good, and make noise is well-controlled in the cardinal partially of the picture, though it ’ sulfur more visible towards the edges. photograph is accurate and active image is wide in bright light, but performance drops in lower light .
The tele module provides some extra reach, but operation is perceptibly behind that of other phones in this class. Noise is low, but detail levels are very broken .
The Xperia 1 II ’ s portrait mode does a sanely good job of separating the subject from the background and produces a convert smear gradient. Its bokeh score is however lowered by specify dynamic range, general effeminacy on the subject, and the wide field of opinion used .
Ultra-wide shots are properly exposed with good detail in bright light .
In portrait manner, subject legal separation is fairly good and the blur gradient is realistic .
Sony has made dramatic improvements in video operation over the Xperia 1 II ’ randomness predecessor, leading to a 22-point increase in its Video mark. Videos are nicely detailed in bright to moderate light. The autofocus issues of the original Xperia 1 have been largely resolved, with the Xperia 1 II earning a score more in credit line with other high-end phones. Focus is stable, but tracking sometimes loses the topic, particularly in gloomy light .
exposure is broadly accurate, though it drops into underexposure in dim abstemious, when saturation make noise besides becomes visible, and dynamic range is limited. stabilization is not very effective, with besides much residual gesture visible when the phone is moving. White balance is accurate outdoors, but the phone could deal with lighting transitions more smoothly than it does .

Sony Xperia 1 II, low-light video

Conclusion

Sony has made great strides with the Xperia 1 II, delivering a phone that ’ mho more appeal to demanding photographers than its harbinger. It is photographically competent and capable of recording pleasing video, but it ’ sulfur besides in the identical highest price tier for smartphones, and competition at these rarified four-figure heights is fierce. Most of the top-end phones we ’ ve tested outperform the Xperia 1 II, and there are flush some mid-range handsets that approach its numbers. Those who appreciate early aspects of Sony ’ s set about to telephone design will be pleased that the Xperia 1 II provides a significant upgrade over its harbinger ’ second imaging capabilities, but buyers who prioritize television camera performance should consider alternatives before entrust .