Sony has published the official pricing of the Xperia 1 II on its German website, giving the first indication of pricing for mainland Europe. The handset is listed at €1,199, with one retailer – mobilcom-debitel.de – already taking pre-orders. The retailer suggests that Sony’s latest flagship will launch from Week 25, which is mid-June 2020.
A pre-order promotion for Germany was also listed, with pre-orders entitled to a free pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones. This was for orders up until 7 June 2020. However, the promotion now appears to be removed, so either it was in error or it was put up too early (you can see the promo image below). [read more…]
As Xperia fans, we can be thankful that Sony has not ridden the bandwagon to introduce notches and punch-hole cameras into their devices. All of Sony’s smartphones gives users a full view of their smartphone display barring the budget Xperia L4, which sports a notch. Sony has continued to largely ignore the trend of notches which we are thankful for, but will that continue to be the case going forward?
Well LetsGoDigital uncovered a new patent filed by Sony that was approved on 14 May 2020 and published in the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) database. The patent highlights a smartphone device which incorporates both a pop-up selfie camera, as well as a ‘pop-down’ speaker. [read more…]
Sony’s new super mid-range handset, the Xperia 10 II (Mark 2) is now available in select Asian regions, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. The dual SIM version of the Xperia 10 II is available (XQ-AU52) in these regions. Firmware build 59.0.A.1.296 is shipping on these devices with March 2020 Android security patches, but a new build version is currently rolling (59.0.A.3.45) which updates these patches to the May 2020 version.
The Xperia 10 II is available in four colours (Coco Black, Cream White, Mint Green and Berry Blue) and priced at NT$ 11,490 in Taiwan, and HK$ 2,599 in Hong Kong. You can check out some hands-on pics of the device below. We’ll bring you news once the Xperia 10 II starts to become available in other regions too. [read more…]
Now that the Sony Xperia 1 II and Xperia 10 II devices are slowly hitting retail, the firmware system dump for each phone is available for us to have a sneak peek. One of the first things we always look for are the selection of wallpapers, and we are able to share these static wallpapers with you in the links below.
Altogether, there are 25 wallpapers available for the Xperia 1 II, and 29 wallpapers available for the Xperia 10 II. You will find a thumbnail preview of the wallpapers below. Enjoy! [read more…]
If you live in Japan, then you are lucky that the Xperia 1 II launched a few days ago (Friday 22 May) through au by KDDI. The device is available nationwide, and au managed to get the phone released ahead of one of its major competitors, NTT docomo, where it is expected to launch in the coming days.
While we wait for official word on when the phone will release in other markets, the news on the United States launch certainly doesn’t provide any encouragement for Europe. Sony has officially announced that the Xperia 1 II will be released on 24 July 2020 – if it wasn’t a long enough wait already, fans will still have to wait a further two months to get their hands on Sony’s latest flagship. [read more…]
Sony has just released six promotional videos giving tips on how to use the new ‘Photography Pro’ app that will debut with the Xperia 1 II. The videos cover a number of different areas including the basics (such as focal length), P Auto mode for capturing pets and children, S Mode to adjust shutter speed, Exposure and Focus.
The release of the videos indicate that the launch of the Xperia 1 II is probably now very close. If you’re interested in the camera features of the phone, they are well worth a watch, and give a closer look at the UI in Sony’s new app. We’ve also attached another promotional video which looks at low-light optical steadyshot performance in action, which looks quite impressive. We’ll bring you more news as we edge closer to the launch of the Xperia 1 II as we have it. [read more…]
It looks like Sony has opened pre-orders for the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) in the United States, as B&H Photo Video – an authorised Sony dealer – has the phone listed at $1,198. While pre-orders are live, there is no release date on the listing, so we still don’t have any confirmation on the US launch date.
One point that is not clear to us is that the phone is listed as the ‘North American variant’ and that it supports 5G networks. Our understanding when the Xperia 1 II was first announced, was that the US model would only support 4G. So, the listing could either be a mistake, or Sony has u-turned on gimping the US model. We’ll try to bring some clarity on this point as soon as we have it. [read more…]
Sony is rolling out the May 2020 Android security patches for its recent flagship devices. The Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 sees new firmware build 55.1.A.8.1, while the Xperia XZ2 and XZ3 family sees firmware build 52.1.A.2.1. There does not seem to be any other changes, and as usual Sony hasn’t provided any changelog. We imagine we are looking at small bugfixes at best. If you have downloaded the update, please let us know your impressions below. [read more…]
Okay Sony Xperia fans, it looks like the excruciating wait for the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) is slowly coming to an end. Japanese carrier au by KDDI has announced that it will be releasing the Xperia 1 II (SOG01) on 22 May 2020 – that’s later on this week! The phone will see a nationwide release in Japan and cost 133,600 yen (£1,029, €1,152, $1,245).
We imagine that the other major Japanese carrier, NTT docomo, will also follow-up with a release of the phone around the same time, although details are yet to be confirmed. As for the rest of the world, we’ll bring you word as soon as we have it. Given that no pre-orders are even open in western markets, a June release is looking more and more likely. [read more…]
by XB on 13th May 2020
in News
Sony has released full year results for the year ended 31 March 2020, giving us a glimpse into the latest performance of the business, particularly in light of COVID-19 disruptions. As expected, the mobile business had a weak last quarter. Sony shipped just 400,000 smartphones between January and March 2020, against a forecast of 700,000 smartphones. This meant that overall, Sony shipped 3.2 million smartphones during the fiscal year – this is half of what it shipped the year before (6.5 million smartphones).
Interestingly enough, last year’s figure was also half of that from the year before, when it shipped 13.5 million smartphones. So, the trend down has been pretty depressing. Sony has understandably not revealed forecasts for FY2020, given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s difficult to know how much Sony expects its smartphone business to bounce back. [read more…]
Spare a thought for Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus owners who have been waiting months for the Android 10 update. Sony initially said that the phones would receive an update from “early 2020 onwards”, so some may be aggrieved that May 2020 isn’t exactly ‘early 2020’. But, better late than never they always say, so we’re happy to report that Android 10 has indeed started to roll for the 2019 Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus devices. [read more…]
