Introduction

Ease of Use

Front of the Sony Xperia 5 II

Although there is something to be said for large screens in terms of showing off your pictures (and video), the small(er) size of the Xperia 5 II makes for a much more pleasant overall experience in terms of using it as a phone and fitting it into your pocket.

Your feelings on that will be down to your individual preferences, so if you prefer very large phones this won't be the one for you.

The design of the Xperia 5 II is also nicely sleek and stylish, with rounded edges and a pleasingly shiny back. As with most modern smartphones, there's very few physical buttons, aside from a few found on the right edges of the phone.

There's a button which you can use to power on the phone, which also features the fingerprint scanner which you can use to unlock the phone.

Rear of the Sony Xperia 5 II

There's also a volume up and down switch, plus two additional keys, one of which can be used as a physical shutter release if you don't want to use the on-screen virtual one.

In order to open the native camera app, you can swipe up from the bottom right hand corner of the lock screen and the camera app will open in its default option - “Photo”. It's this mode that most people will probably use for the bulk of their picture taking.

Here you have a good range of options to choose between, including moving between the three different lenses - indicated by either three, two or one trees to represent ultra wide, wide and telephoto lenses.

Running along the top of the screen in this mode, some further options include the ability to switch flash on or off, the ability to create a shallow depth of field effect, the option to choose a different aspect ratio (the default is 4:3, but you can also select 16:9 and 1:1), the option to adjust brightness and hue, and switch to the front-facing camera.

Image Playback

A cog icon represents the main menu, and it's here that you can make some additional Changs such as switching on soft-skin effect, the ability to take a burst with the camera key and so on.

In the bottom left hand corner of the camera app, you'll see the word “mode”. If you tap on this, you can choose a different shooting mode, including Slow motion, Creative effect, Panorama, and perhaps most interestingly for any photography enthusiasts, “Photo Pro.”

Entering Photo Pro mode opens up a very well-featured mode which gives you a large amount of control over the image parameters you want to take. Indeed, it takes the same form as a “real” Sony camera, so perhaps if you already own a mirrorless or RX model from the brand you will be very familiar / at home with the set up here.

You'll also notice that almost half of the screen is now taken up with camera settings, so the area you have to compose your shot is much more restricted. It's also primed for shooting in horizontal format, with the buttons and text all aligned to the right - if you shoot in portrait format, the symbols and icons won't switch around.

Camera Mode

In Pro mode, you can adjust exposure compensation, AF-On, AEL, Drive mode, ISO, metering, focus area, white balance, flash, Face/Eye AF and ratio. You can also switch on raw format shooting, with the raw files being the universal DNG format (meaning that they should be readable by any computer), for those that want to adjust their shots in post-production.

To make changes to any of these settings, you need to tap on the icon, and select the setting you require. Once you've selected the setting, press an X to go back to the normal shooting screen.

On the left of the screen, there's some extra settings to take note of. In the top left, you can choose a shooting mode - which again, if you've used a “real” camera before, this will be familiar to you.

There's Automatic, but also P (Program), S (Shutter Priority) and M (Manual) modes - there's no A (aperture priority), since you can't adjust aperture with the phone's fixed aperture lenses.

Sim Card Slot

There's also a “M-R” setting, which is memory recall, allowing you save a group of settings that perhaps you use frequently and want to come back to often.

There's also a menu button, where you an access some further settings, split into Shooting, Exposure/Colour, Focus and Setup. It's basically a more extensive version of the on-screen quick menu, with some extra functions such as Dynamic Range Optimiser and so on.

A display icon allows you to switch on a digital spirit level and a histogram, which is very useful for composing your shots, but can be switched off if you think it's taking up too much space on the screen.

Finally, you can choose which lens you want to shoot with, from the 16mm, 24mm and 70mm options by tapping on the word Lens to the side too. You can also choose focal lengths in between the lenses too, which presumably use some digital zoom to create the difference.

Image Quality

Sony has been impressing us with the image quality inside its cameras for years, and it seems it has taken some of that learning and applied it to its latest batch of smartphones. The Xperia 5 II produces some excellent imagery, with little input required from the user to achieve high-quality results.

Colours are vibrant and punchy and well-saturated without being overly vivid. It will probably suit most people to use the generic “Photo” mode for the vast majority of their shots, but it's good to be able to take further control in the Pro mode should you need it.

You can also create some pleasing creative effects, such as shallow depth of field with a nicely blurred background. The three different lenses all perform well too, with the ultra-wide-angle lens being useful for landscapes and so forth. The telephoto lens is probably the least good performer of the three lenses, but that only becomes particularly apparent when examining at very close detail.

On the whole, exposures are well-balanced in the majority of situations. That said, in some very high contrast situations, some areas can be blown out - so it's worth keeping an eye on exposure compensation when working in such conditions.

Noise

The Sony Xperia 5 II's native sensitivity range covers ISO 64 to ISO 3200, with the option to record in RAW and JPEG separately and simultaneously. Here are some 100% crops which show the levels of noise for each ISO setting.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 64 (100% Crop)
ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 80 (100% Crop)
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

16mm

24mm

70mm

Flash

Flash On

Flash Red-eye Reduction

Flash Off - Wide-angle

Flash On - Wide-angle

Flash Off - Telephoto

Flash On - Telephoto

Portrait Mode

Sample Images

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Product Images

Conclusion

There's a huge amount of competition in the smartphone market, with many of the brands vying for your attention by highlighting just how good the onboard camera is.

It's safe to say that in recent years, Sony has not been a big player in this market, with domination from Samsung, Apple and Huawei.

However with the recent problems Huawei has been having with the US administration not allowing it to use Android, the market has arguably opened up a little.

If you're looking for a smartphone which is reasonably priced, isn't enormous, produces good images and gives you the kind of flexibility to change settings that you'd normally associate with a “normal” camera, then the Sony Xperia 5 II is certainly worth looking at. It's good value for money and does the job well.

There's not much to dislike about the Xperia 5 II, however it doesn't offer the very long zoom capabilities of models such as those in the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, so if that's important for you then that's something to think about.

Although the smaller size of the Xperia 5 II makes it a little more comfortable to use than some larger phones on the market, it's arguably not as ideal for viewing your images or watching movies in playback.

Being able to add additional storage via a MicroSD card is a bonus which you won't find with most other premium smartphones, while battery life is excellent, with fast-charging capabilities for quick power bursts should you need it.

Overall the Sony Xperia 5 II is a great option for those looking for an ideal all-rounder, but who aren't tied to the idea of a camera from one of the bigger-hitters in the mobile arena, such as Apple and Samsung.

If you don't have the desire for an enormous phone, or indeed the budget to go with it, the smaller size and lower price of the Xperia 5 II makes it an excellent choice and it comes highly recommended.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	4.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Sony Xperia 5 II.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Xperia 5 II from around the web.

Specifications

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