Xperia 1 II out now in Japan; US faces two-month wait

by XB on 25th May 2020

in Xperia - Japan Models, Xperia 1 series



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.

Also, Sony has confirmed that 5G wireless bands will not be supported by the US version of the Xperia 1 II, it is 4G only unfortunately. What we don’t know is if this is a software limitation that can be worked around by flashing a different regions firmware – much like what happened with the US versions of older Xperia devices that shipped without a working fingerprint sensor. One could easily re-enable the sensor by flashing any other region firmware.

To sweeten the deal, Sony said that the WF-1000XM3 wireless noise cancelling earbuds will be bundled with the handset during a pre-order promotional period which starts on 1 June and ends on 28 June. The handset will be priced at $1199.99, which is in line with the price flagged by B&H Photo recently. The Xperia 1 II will only be available in Black in the US, and Sony says it will be compatible with compatible with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket and MetroPCS networks.

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