Having reviewed the Xperia 10 last year I was looking forward to seeing what improvements Sony have made over its predecessor the Sony Xperia 10 ii.
Its approximately the same dimensions as the Xperia 10 but the weight is 11grams lighter and you can definitely feel how light the phone feels when you hold it.
The screen is now an OLED and protection has been bumped up to Corning Gorilla Glass 6.
An upgraded processor and more internal storage and memory is added but the two biggest jumps is with the camera going from a dual lens to a triple lens setup and the battery now has gotten a big increase from 2870 mAh to 3600 mAh.
When you hold the phone it feels extremely well built from the aluminum frame to the Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and rear of the phone and its IP65/68 certification so its water resistant for up to 30 minutes (in 1.5m of fresh water) and also dustproof.
And having the 21:9 screen ratio makes the phone more slender in your hand so its a lot easier to hold than other wider 6’’ screen phones.
The rear is very slippy and the triple camera lenses stick out a bit so you definitely would want to have the phone in a case to protect it.
The side mounted fingerprint sensor was always very accurate for me and having it on the side of a phone is very natural way to unlock the phone its a pity face unlock was not included. Above the fingerprint sensor is the volume rocker or in the camera app it can be used to zoom.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top of the phone along with one of the phones microphones.
On the top bezel there is an earpiece, a front facing camera and a notification led, which is very handy to have so you dont need to unlock your phone to see if you have a notification.
On the bottom bezel is the forward facing mono speaker, while at the bottom of the phone has the USB-C connection and the other microphone.
In the box you get a quick start guide, Basic Sony Earphones (MH410c), USB-C cable and Quick charger UCH-20 High Power Fast Charger.
The Xperia 10 ii runs Android 10 and I found it very snappy when switching between applications thats due to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 CPU and the 4GB ROM.
Sony have not added too much bloatware and the apps that Sony added can be uninstalled.
The launcher is nice and clean. Sony have again added the side sense feature which gives you a quick shortcut to other apps it seems to work a bit better on the Xperia 10 ii than other Xperia’s.
Sliding up will enable the Multi-Window Mode which is very handy for using two apps simultaneously, you can also enable it on the lock screen or enable One-handed mode.
I was very impressed with the 6.0 FHD+ OLED screen of the Xperia 10 ii the colours were bright and vibrant and the videos were sharp even in bright daylight the screen was visible watching content in 21:9 was an added bonus.
The triple rear camera in the Xperia 10 ii setup is
8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0"
12 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", PDAF
8 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/4.0", PDAF, 2x optical zoom
The Camera App is the standard Sony one and the default mode that uses Sony AI to figure out what the scene is of the photo that your taking gets it right very quick. There’s also other modes like Night mode, Google Lens, Panorama , Manual, Slow Motion and Creative effect which uses a live filter in your photos.
Photos Options included are HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo, LED, Photo flash, Photo light, Video light, 2x Optical zoom, up to 10x digital zoom, up to 10FPS burst shooting, Superior Auto, Manual mode, QR code reader, Creative effect, Night mode, Panorama, Bokeh effect
As can be seen from the photos the Xperia 10 ii did a good job at taking pictures and matching the actual colours of objects and didnt over saturate them and in low light conditions the pictures remained sharp.
The Xperia 10ii supports 4K Movie recording and Slowmotion video recording (120fps).
Again the front selfie camera is a 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/4.0" with a 84 Degree Field of View. In low light it will use the screen as a Flash, HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo Portrait Selfie, Automatically takes your pictures when your Smile or you can wave at the camera to take a photo and again there is also a Manual mode, if you want to tweak the camera settings yourself.
There’s plenty of options in Portrait mode you can soften your skin tone, add a Bokeh effect, change your skin brightness, make your eyes lager and add a slender effect to your face.
The Battery life on the Xperia 10 ii is excellent, Sony always know how to maximise the battery of their phones. And if your battery does go low Fast charging 18W is supported, as is Fast Charge 3.0 and USB Power Delivery.
Sony also make use of their Xperia Adaptive Charging which monitors the phone as it charges to make sure the battery isn’t overworked. Which is important as we keep our phones for longer and the better the battery is maintentained the longer it will last for you.
The main speaker is a single front facing speaker at the bottom of the screen.
The Xperia 10 ii supports High-Resolution Audio Wireless4 and with DSEE HX audio upscaling and native High-Resolution Audio playback.
If you want a lightweight camera phone with a big bright screen and not have to worry about charging it during the day the Sony Xperia 10 ii fits the bill.
Full specs:-
https://www.sony.ie/electronics/smartphones/xperia-10m2/specifications
Available to buy:-
From Irish Operators and
