Reviewing the Sony XPeria 1 II: love, hate, love
14.8.2020
No matter what you think about the Sony XPeria 1 II, it certainly incites strong reactions. Love, hate, anger, joy, the XPeria 1 II offers all that and the best camera on the market. There's a pretty big if, though.
I love to hate the Sony XPeria 1 II. Or hate to love, I can't say. There's nothing about it that's just «okay». It's either great or it sucks. Nothing in between. So get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions during this smartphone review. I'm happy the manufacturers stuck to their original vision from a year ago, even if it lead to some infuriating results.
But before we analyse this monolithic device in its own context: where is the Sony Xperia One Mark Two, or as I sometimes call it «The Sony One Two», on the market?
Sony: a wounded and troubled corporation
Sony makes smartphones that have always lagged behind somewhat. The camera was always astonishing, being almost scandalously bad. Sony, manufacturer of the best full format cameras on the market, cannot make a decent smartphone camera. Why?
Obviously, the camera department – the one behind Alpha Tech – didn't cooperate with the smartphone division. Or wasn't allowed to. This was Sony management's view, according to reports: «Why would anyone buy a 5000 franc camera when it has the same technology as a 1000 franc smartphone?»
That was a mistake.
Sony has acknowledged this. They included Alpha Tech in the Sony Xperia 1 II. Alpha Tech, for the uninitiated, is pretty much the best camera technology you can get. My camera, which I use for just about every picture in my articles, is a Sony a7sii. Video journalist Stephanie Tresch prefers to shoot her films on a Sony a7iii. The a stands for alpha. In short: we swear by Alpha Tech. Over the years, the hardware has only once refused to work, consistently doing an exceptionally good job.
Alpha Tech on smartphones is a big deal.
Where's the «Alpha»?
The Sony XPeria 1 II home screen now contains a new app. Strangely enough, it isn't called «Alpha Camera», but simply «Photo Pro». I wonder why Sony isn't bragging. False modesty is definitely out of place here. Because Photo Pro is the best smartphone camera manual mode I have ever seen.
Photo Pro – it still should be called Alpha – is a separate app. The user interface is completely different from the normal camera app. Options and histograms are prominently displayed. The user interface reminds me a lot of the one of my a7sii. I feel at home. My hat off to this photo lover's dream.
The app gives me something I didn't know I was missing. When I photograph with big cameras, there's something playful about the whole thing. I look at my subject, guess how I have to adjust the camera, take a picture, look at it, work on the details. I'm sure I'll never win a photography prize or anything like that, it's just fun.
With smartphones, you hold it up and shoot. AI will do the rest. As much as I like smartphone camera AI and admire the work of a machine... I sometimes miss the adventure of photography.
The Alpha app – I'll just call it that if Sony won't – gives me all that. And it's pocket-sized. It's exactly what the Sony big wigs were afraid of. Still, I won't give up my a7sii that easily. Because big cameras have equally big advantages. The small Xperia 1 II fits into my bike jacket.
Then I can take pics like this at sunrise.
This brings us to the other camera app. The ordinary version, simply called «Camera». It still has Al and all the usual trappings. The pictures are okay at best. I did the same shot as above use «Camera».
It's just not good. Or just not good enough for Sony to boast about. The AI isn't intelligent enough. It just tries to brighten everything up and doesn't consider drama or darkness. But it's fast. So there's that.
So I can either take my time and use the Alpha app or attempt an inferior AI shot, but save time. I usually choose the former and take a nice picture.
Even better: to take a picture in Photo Pro, you have to press the separate release button on the Sony Xperia One II. A separate trigger. How cool is that? Even better: the Xperia fits in your hand quite nicely thanks to its hard edges. Sony did a great job on that front.
Risking failure
The Photo Pro app can do anything. In theory. You could easily get used to a smartphone camera taking such high-quality pictures. Even if not aesthetically beautiful, they're at least technically perfect. A cloudy sky never dissolves into endless whiteness. The depth of field is always mechanically perfect and the colours are vivid and beautiful. Al is always there for you.
This doesn't apply to the «Alpha App». That's where Al takes a break. You've got autofocus and auto-ISO, but you can't rely on automatic post-processing. In other words, you run the risk of taking a technically poor picture.
It's happened to me before.
I slightly messed up the white balance in the picture above. Or the exposure time. Or the aperture setting. In the end, the sky behind the valley turned white instead of light grey. But you know what? I look at the picture and am happy about the imperfections.
Other times I accidentally managed to create pictures that tell a completely different story. The picture above was in bright sunshine. But it looks like there's a storm coming. That's why I like photography.
In other words: the Alpha App, which is actually called Photo Pro, is where the XPeria 1 II really knocks it out of the park. But only if you have some understanding of photography. Or if you're willing to invest the time and effort to learn about it. Either way, the Sony Xperia 1 II is worth it. In general: photography is worthwhile as a skill in life. Sure, point-and-shoot is nice and fun, but if you know what you're doing, photography gives you more than nice selfies and food porn.
The fingerprint reader sucks. The rest does too
In order to keep the camera experience as complete as possible, Sony has made an effort to keep the screen as large and wide and unadjusted as possible. That’s great! There's no notch, the screen has an aspect ratio of 21:9. It's good in that way, because I can record videos in cinema format. Yeah it's a gimmick, very few of us actually make movies. But the unusual screen format gives the viewfinder and all the options at the edge of the screen enough room to breathe.
The fingerprint sensor has fallen victim to this concept. Or rather: it fell victim to it years ago. Sony has its fingerprint sensor on the side. This never worked particularly well and still doesn't. If you have a smartphone that is less than 10 millimetres thick, there isn't much contact surface for a sensor that has to measure exact data. If your hands are dry and clean, and the sensor is clean too, then it works great. But there better not be a speck of dust within ten feet of you.
Sony, just forget about the fingerprint scanner. If the concept was worth it, then all the development and all the effort would have made it work by now. It's not the fingerprint detection technology that's the problem. Simply the idea of a scanner on the side, no matter how cool it sounds on paper, is stupid. There are two possibilities:
- A fingerprint scanner beneath the glass.
- Just remove it.
Nowadays, the latter option sounds extremely radical. But if Apple has proven anything with the iPhone, it's that a flagship product can get away with not having a fingerprint scanner. But to do this, Face Unlock would have to be built into the Sony Xperia 1 II. This feature isn't present.
Seriously?
Sony's Alpha App is light-years ahead of the competition, but for some reason Face Unlock is still absent. This pattern applies to the rest of the Android Distro. A lot is directly borrowed from the base Android version, but then there are tutorials everywhere for things like Side Sense. Side Sense is enabled when you tap the side of the screen twice. It only kinda works and doesn't do anything useful, but there are guides and «Wanna try?» pop-ups everywhere. Need to add another email account? No. Go away. What about a Multi-Window tutorial? No! Just let me use my phone, Sony. Seriously.
The Sony Xperia 1 II is emotionally exhausting and that's why I like it. Sony has clearly gone and made a phone in the full knowledge that its mass production capability isn't as ensured as it is for flagship phones. If you just want a point-and-shoot camera, the Sony XPeria 1 II isn't for you. But if you want to embark on the adventure of photography while simultaneously using the same device at your leisure, then take it into consideration.
If you're a photographer or videographer and want a compact device with a whole bunch of power: get it.
And that’s a wrap. Photo Pro also has RAW support.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
