Even though Sony sells a lot of image sensors, which are used in many premium smartphones, the photo quality of Xperia smartphones has always been lagging behind the competition. Last year, Sony released the Xperia 5 and Xperia 1 with the Cinema Pro application, which can be used to create professional videos. This year, Sony released Xperia 1 II with the Photo Pro app for professional photographers.
The Photo Pro app brings features found in Sony’s Alpha cameras to the Xperia 1 II. It produces better photographs than the standard camera app in auto mode and offers a great deal of adjustments.
In additional to professional camera software, the Sony Xperia 1 II offers good hardware. However, other smartphones with identical hardware manage to achieve a higher level of performance. There is also an IP65/68 certification. All in all, Sony delivers a solid overall package, but not a remarkable one.
The SD card reader is also very slower and the battery life of the Sony Xperia 1 II is very disappointing, even though it has a 4000 battery. In our Wi-Fi test the Sony smartphone lasts less than 8 hours. However, it achieves a battery runtime of more than 13 hours in our video test, in which the Wi-Fi module is disabled.
Those who decide to buy the 1200-Euro Xperia 1 II should do so, because of its professional camera software. Read our full review to learn what else the Sony smartphone has to offer.