The Sony Xperia 1 II was announced back in February but Sony has only just revealed the price – and while the phone was always going to be expensive, it’s even more so than we expected.
It’s set to cost $1,199.99, which equates to roughly £985 / AU$1,840. Now, we wouldn’t expect an exact price conversion, but the Sony Xperia 1 cost $949 / £849 (roughly AU$1,365) at launch, so the Sony Xperia 1 II is around $250 more and is likely to see a similar bump in other regions.
That’s a price that could make it one of the most expensive phones of the year. It’s in line with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, and will likely be more expensive than at least the basic Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and iPhone 12 when they launch.
Still a while to wait
Speaking of launch timings, Sony has also now confirmed when you’ll be able to buy the Sony Xperia 1 II. It will go up for pre-order in the US on June 1, but won’t hit stores until July 24. So there’s still a while to wait.
However, if you pre-order by June 28 then you’ll also get a pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 true wireless earbuds thrown in. They cost $230 / £220 / AU$400, so could take some of the sting out of the Xperia 1 II’s price.
It hasn’t yet been confirmed whether that same incentive will be available outside the US, or what date the Sony Xperia 1 II will be available from in other regions, but we’d expect it will be similar.
As for what you get for all that money, the Sony Xperia 1 II has a 6.5-inch 1644 x 3840 screen with a super-wide 21:9 aspect ratio, a top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, 5G, a 4,000mAh battery, stereo speakers, and water resistance.
It also has a quad-lens camera, with a 12MP main sensor, a 12MP telephoto one (capable of 3x optical zoom), a 12MP ultra-wide one, and a depth sensor.
It’s suitably high-end then, but competition at that end of the market has never been tougher, so it remains to be seen how it will fare with that price. You might want to wait for our full review before taking the plunge.
Source: techradar.com
