New Sony Xperia 1 II smartphone looks handsome, costs a ridiculous $1,300

The Sony Xperia 1 II.

It would have been Mobile World Congress this week if not for the panic over the coronavirus—so get ready for plenty of news from the world of international smartphones. First up, we have a reminder that Sony is still out there making cellular telephones, and last night it announced the "Sony Xperia 1 II." Wait, the what?! The "Sony Xperia One Two?" Actually, this is branded similarly to the Sony cameras, so just as the "Sony A7 III" is pronounced "Sony Alpha seven mark three," this thing is apparently the "Sony Xperia One Mark Two." Wild.

Like most of the phones that will be announced this week, this is a flagship 2020 smartphone with the Snapdragon 865 and 5G, though Sony opted to only include mid-band 5G and not mmWave. There is a 6.5-inch, 3840×1644 OLED display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 4000mAh battery. The phone is IP68 rated, and it has a MicroSD slot and wireless charging. It may also be the only flagship smartphone in 2020 with a headphone jack.

Like every other Sony smartphone, the design is very square and rather handsome looking. While the rest of the industry is all about maximizing display space with camera notches and other display blemishes, Sony has a pair of symmetrical bezels on the top and bottom that house front-facing stereo speakers and the front camera. The combination of bezels and a 21:9 display makes this one of the tallest smartphones on the market, with measurements of 166mm×72mm×7.9mm.

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