Hi Sony,
To start off always have been a Sony fan. I truly believe Sony is one of the truly amazing technologically advanced companies that delivers the best out there.
Had the pleasure of checking out a review unit in store before pre-orders. Have to say XPERIA 1 II is one of the best designs Sony has come up with in recent times.
But I want to ask what are you competing against? I know you want to create the best gadget possible without thinking about what anyone else is doing but to a user they will compare and check what else is there in the market before investing over 1000€ on a smartphone.
Having said that things you have got it right. Amazing 4k display. Please don't change that unless you decide to move to AMOLED screens. Slimmer taller display is much easier to handle than the now increasing wider displays also asthetics are more pleasing with 21:9. Maybe the total brightness could be a little better but honestly no complaints with the display. Amazing software keeping it nice and clean as close to the stock Android version as possible. That's one of the things I love the most about Sony. Coming to the design. It's amazing. Great that you went with a slim camera system instead of the huge ugly looking abominations out there like example s20 ultra. Love the camera shutter button. But ergonomically speaking I feel it would be better if you moved the camera button a little further down. Why? Because I think it produces less shake when taking a picture while pressing the button parallel to the phone instead of perpendicular right now. Just something for you to consider. Thanks for bringing the headphone jack back. Amazing pre-order offer with the wh-1000 I almost bought the phone just to get those headphones. I hope you can come with similar bundles in the future, making it worth the value.
But few complaints. I truly believe it needs at least a minimum of 5000 mAh battery to begin with for such a beautiful display. For browsing watching movies and easily lasting all day without having to worry about the camera. Then a little bit improvement in the fast charging would be appreciated. If you say it affects the battery life with what the competition does then I would believe you.
Coming to the camera. Good main camera but could be better. Also Sony produces the best camera sensors in the market so why would you use something as useless as the Samsung sensor in your best phone? Do you not trust yourself? I would have loved it if you would have managed to used your own better Sony sensors for the other two cameras as well. The pictures were good in pro mode but not outshining the competition with normal pictures. I would say you have gone above and beyond with the ability to capture fast moving objects so clearly. But for someone like me who loves to do landscape still photography it doesn't help much. Would love to have a camera where after taking a picture could zoom in a bit still having crispy great details. But right now no one does that. So a bit disappointed there. Ultra-wide and telephoto lenses are equally important. I hope this is something you would consider in the future. Why does something like an iPhone that uses Sony sensors produces Better pictures. I truly hope Sony would beat them.
Considering the price tag competition with s20 ultra which does so many things wrong than right and LG v60 which does so many things right and only failing with a useless screen I would say Sony you are still not quite where you could be. Adding to it one important point from my perspective I love the pro mode and all the manual controls that you give me with the camera. That is exactly what I desire on my future smartphone. So the thing is I don't want RAW neither do I care about RAW because I'm not going to be spending hours on an editing software that provides an image which is not real. So instead what I want from Sony is to be able to help me use all the manual controls available and take the picture as I see with my eyes and presents true reality and beauty of nature. Love to be able to do this with all my lenses as I explained why every one of them are equally important. So love to get a final picture right out of the phone without having to edit anything later. Also to be honest you would agree with your front camera issues I'm sure if you are being honest.
I just keep wishing someone would come up with a perfect smartphone and if someone could do it I believe it's you. So I hope you'll add the best hardware still and make it perfect, I don't mind buying a 1400€ phone if everything was perfect so please don't cut corners with camera or battery or any other stuff. Or cut corners and reduce the price to be the best in the lower price bracket. This just feels like you are caught between two positions. Being really good but not great. When there's so much money on the line and people are looking to spend 3-4 years with their phones using to share and capture their personal moments. Also choosing to spend their leisure time with multimedia viewing on your phone I'm sure you would want to go that extra mile for them.
Over the last 15 years I have used Motorola, Samsung, Sony , OnePlus and without any hesitation I can say the best phone with the most beautiful design that I have ever used was Sony Xperia Z1. Please bring back the good old days and provide some good value for money then I'm sure everyone will be able to trust Sony more and become a fan like me.
Giving a pass on the Xperia 1 ii but hopefully it'll be better next year. Colour suggesion I have this blue gold limited edition PS4 which I absolutely adore and looks stunning. So ignoring the gold could you try to get that amazing blue to the Xperia as well. Also the purple with a darker hue would be so much better. But then those are just my personal preferences.
I also read some reviews about people complaining about not having your default gallery app. You had it in the past and it was so good why would you remove it. Just keep the things that are perfect and build on them I'm sure you'll achieve the top spot again.
Thanks for bringing in so many wonderful gadgets over the years in our lives Sony.
