Sony Xperia lives up to its name

The Xperia 10 II is unmistakably Sony in its design language.

While I haven’t gotten the opportunity to review too many of Sony’s flagship offerings in recent times, their mid-range handsets have been excellent. Over the last few weeks, I have been using the Sony Xperia 10 II, which sports a fabulous 6-inch OLED display and a really wide aspect ratio of 21:9.

Design:

The Xperia 10 II is unmistakably Sony in its design language. There’s no notch of any description, but you do get a sizable top bezel that has the front selfie camera, a speaker for calls and an ambient light sensor. The bottom chin is a little smaller but doesn’t serve any purpose other than to make the phone even taller. On the top edge is a 3.5mm headphone jack that will please many users and the right side has the volume rocker and power/fingerprint reader button. The left side has the SIM/microSD tray that doesn’t need a special SIM ejector tool - just use a fingernail.

The Xperia line was one of the first phones to support waterproofing and the Xperia 10 II comes with an IP68 waterproof seal of approval. The bottom edge has a mic and USB-C port for charging.

Around the back is the vertically stacked and raised triple camera array. Above the modest camera bump is an LED flash that is flush with the rest of the glass back. The matte-finished plastic edges look and feel good and the phone is really nice to hold in part thanks to its narrow frame (157 x 69 x 8.2mm, 151g).

Display:

The 6-inch OLED panel is as good as it gets in this price range. There are no interruptions which is refreshing in a market full of notched displays. While the 21:9 aspect ratio is great for the latest Netflix shows, those who spend a lot of time on YouTube would be better off with a phone that has a more traditional aspect. 

Image quality is fine, but nothing special.

While an increasing number of movies will fill the 21:9 screen, YouTube’s aspect ratio means you’ll have large black bars either side of the image and if you zoom to fill the screen, a lot of the image will be missing from the top and bottom.

The screen is nice and sharp for an FHD+ display and contrast and colours are excellent. It also gets reasonably bright but not as bright as those from more expensive models. This is a 60Hz display, so those looking for a 90Hz or even 120Hz refresh rate will have to look elsewhere.

Cameras:

The three cameras are a 12MP f/2.0 main (1.0x - 26mm), 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide (x0.6 - 16mm), and 8MP f/2.4 (x2.0 - 52mm) telephoto and an 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera.

Image quality is fine, but nothing special. It does have a Night mode that works with all of the cameras including the front. However, the image quality is barely different from standard mode and is bad by comparison to the superior NightSight from the similarly priced Pixel 4a. The front selfie camera is fine but doesn’t produce fine details or sharpness even in good light.

You can capture video up to 4K at 30fps or full HD at up 60fps in either H.264 or H.265 (HEVC) video formats. The front camera can capture full HD.

Hardware and performance:

The Snapdragon 665 CPU is not a powerhouse and 4GB of RAM is the minimum requirement for a mid-range phone. You also get 128GB of storage, which is plenty for most users, but you can expand this via the microSD slot if necessary.

The 3,600mAh battery is good enough to get you through nearly two days and even with heavy usage, you won’t need to hit up the 18W fast charger until the next day. Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging.

Verdict: 

Overall, the Sony Xperia 10 II is a nice looking phone that’s great for watching movies, playing games and social media. 

The cameras are fine, but not class-leading in this price range. The 3.5mm headphone jack is a bonus and you also get excellent Bluetooth audio but only a mono speaker.

Available from €359.99 on Pay-as-you-go from Vodafone.