Sony has gone from tracking its next 5G Xperia flagship a total secret to leaving almost all the precious details about this hot handset on the interwebs in less than 48 hours. That should be some sort of record, though the company at least even earlier today essentially confirmed that the Xperia 5 II is just around the corner, set up for a official announcement to IFA 2020 on September 17th.
While that might be the juiciest revelation of the Sony Xperia 5 II of the day, people are over Android Headlines have somehow managed to get both a short promotional video showing the device from every angle and an almost extensive spec sheet.
A 120Hz screen, a fixed battery, and a headphone jack
We honestly could not tell you which of these three things is more unexpected, although for what it’s worth it, the presence of a good old-fashioned 3.5mm audio port was already “confirmed” in that previously mentioned leak. It is also important to note that the Xperia 1 II was the favorite jack to return to the OG Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 snub the feature, so at the end of the day we should perhaps not be so shocked that the 5G Xperia 5 II is set to follow the example of its cousin Mark Two instead of that of its predecessor.
In a way, it’s not surprising to hear that the phone also supports 120Hz display of refresh rate technology, as almost every new Android flagship is ticking nowadays. Then it is certainly unusual to see a device as expensive as the Xperia 1 II overshadowed by one that is expected to be somewhat more affordable.
Of course, refresh capabilities aren’t everything, and compared to the existing Xperia 1 II, the upcoming Xperia 5 II is tipped to sport a smaller and less sharp screen with a 6.1-inch diagonal and a Full HD + resolution that probably matches the 2520 x 1080 pixel count of the 2019 Xperia 5.
It is not surprising that the 5G Xperia 5 II seems to look quite identical to its predecessor on the outside, with almost unchanged overall dimensions of 158 x 68 x 8mm. Unfortunately, this means that the new phone may be a bit thinner than the Xperia 5 when packing a 4,000 mAh battery.
That may not sound gigantic, say, Moto G9 of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra standards, but it would easily exceed the Xperia 5’s 3,140mAh cell capacity, and also match the battery size of the significantly larger Xperia 1 II. Now that’s a much more impressive performance than cutting the can or drilling a hole in the 120Hz screen, of which Sony is not yet a big fan.
Three familiar cameras, a powerful SoC, and enough memory
They say you should not try to repair something that is not broken, but while the triple rear camera system of the Xperia 5 definitely made a great impression, Sony is ready to push the envelope even further by … xeroxing the three “main” shooters on the back of the Xperia 1 II.
These are not radically different from what the Xperia 5 has in mind, keep in mind, keep the 12 megapixel count over the board, add Zeiss optics in the equation, jump from 2x to 3x optical zoom, and the ultra-wide angle upgrade lens from including f / 2.4 to f / 2.2 aperture.
The Sony Xperia 5 II is also ready to share a Snapdragon 865 processor, 8 GB RAM count, and a microSD card slot with the Xperia 1 II, while the fourth 3D Time-of-Flight rear camera closes and from 256 to 128 performance of internal storage space. With standard 5G connectivity (hopefully accessible on at least one major US wireless service provider), the handset is probably not as cheap as the Xperia 5, though we’ll probably have to wait before we make firm predictions.
