The Sony Xperia 10 II is the successor to last year’s, Xperia 10. It is expected it will be available in the UK in mid-June, so we thought it was worth a look before that date as it now has an improved screen, camera, processor and battery to consider.
The screen has been upgraded to a 6” OLED with a 77% screen to body ratio, 1080p resolution and 457ppi density. Now, with Gorilla Glass 6 protection it also boasts IP65/68 water and dust resistance for good measure. All this means it weighs in slightly lighter than the 10 at 151g with a Gorilla Glass 6 back and plastic frame. Whilst being a slim and attractive looking handset, it is let down by its old-fashioned screen design with big bezels top and bottom.
Internals all improved
Inside, the processor is now a more up-to-date Snapdragon 655 compared to the previous 630. The Xperia 10 II now only has one memory option with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. The version of Android has also been updated to the latest 10 as well.
On the audio front there is still a speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack, support for 24-Bit/192kHz audio and an FM radio built in. The fingerprint scanner is mounted on the on/off button on the side to provide a quick response.
The battery is now 25% bigger with a 3600 mAh capacity with 18W fast charging, which should be enough to keep you going all day.
Great triple rear array
Let’s move onto the cameras. The back has now been expanded to a triple array and consists of a wide, telephoto and ultrawide lens’ – the go-to combination for premium smartphones in 2020. These are a 12MP f/2.0 wide, 8MP f/2.4 telephoto and 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide. It is also equipped with a night mode to ensure you get good pictures in the dark as well. These will record video 4K video at 120 frames per second and are located vertically in a black surround on the top left of the back.
On the front, the selfie camera is in the quite big top bezel and is an 8MP f/2.0 wide unit.
Needs better looks to succeed
So far, it is only available in Black and White, but hopefully more options will follow. This is a premium mid-range smartphone only let down by its old-fashioned looking front with big bezels at the top and bottom. If Sony get this sorted though, they could be onto a winner with the Xperia 10 II internals and cameras.