Sony Launches First 5G Smartphone With ZEISS Lenses

The cancellation of MWC 2020 threw a spanner in a lot of brands’ plans to launch their newest and greatest phones, but we’ve seen brands go ahead with virtual launches and online live stream announcements, so let’s take a look at which brands have gone ahead with their own launch.

Xiaomi

Credit: Xiaomi

Xiaomi did a livestream of their launch announcement for the Chinese market even before MWC was cancelled, and they announced the new Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro phones.

The global launch has now been pushed back due to the cancellation, but we already have the specs of the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro and they’re definitely exciting.

With a 6.67-inch screen that supports HDR10+ and a screen refresh rate of 90Hz, the screen does look quite impressive on paper, with a punch-hole camera at the top left. The phones both come with a 108MP rear main camera that was first seen in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 phone, and that lens supports 8K video recording as well.

The other lenses are different though, with the Mi 10 having a 13MP ultra-wide camera, 2MP macro snapper, and 2MP depth sensor while the Mi 10 Pro has a 20MP ultra-wide and two telephoto lenses, one 8MP for 10x hybrid zoom and one 12MP for 2x optical zoom that’s also used for portrait mode.

The phones are both running on a Snapdragon 865 chip with 8GB or 12GB RAM options, and storage options starting from 128GB for the Mi 10 and starting from 256GB for the Mi 10 Pro. Surprisingly, the Mi 10 has a bigger battery capacity at 4,780mAh compared to 4,500mAh for the Mi 10 Pro.

Singapore availability is yet to be announced.

Sony

Credit: GSMArena

Sony has just launched their new flagship phone, the Sony Xperia 1 II (read: Sony Xperia One Mark Two) with some exciting changes, particularly to the cameras.

The setup remains unchanged, with a 12MP main, 12MP ultra-wide and 12MP telephoto, but Sony has collaborated with ZEISS to calibrate the new cameras and implement ZEISS’s T* anti-reflective coating.

The ultra-wide lens has a 16mm equivalent focal length, f/2.2 aperture and uses a 1/2.6″ sensor with Dual-PD AF. The telephoto lens uses a 1/3.4″ sensor with PD AF, and has a 70mm equivalent focal length with f/2.4 aperture and optical image stabilisation (OIS).

The main lens has a whopping 1/1.7″ Exmor sensor with Dual-PD AF and OIS, while rocking a f/1.7 aperture. There’s also a 3D indirect Time-of-flight (iTOF) sensor in the setup.

To power all that is the Snapdragon 865 chip, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS storage. The 4,000mAh battery can also be charged wirelessly and the phone has IP65/IP68 water and dust protection.

This is also the first Sony phone to be 5G compatible, using Sub-6 5G. Singapore availability is yet to be announced.

Huawei

Credit: Huawei

Wanted to get your hands on Huawei’s first folding phone, the Mate X, but couldn’t because it was only in China? Well, Huawei has finally decided to bring the second generation of their foldable phone to the rest of the world.

The Mate Xs not only has a new flexible display, but also sports redesigned hinges while using the newest Kirin 990 chipset with 5G capabilities. The Leica SuperSensing Quad camera is also present on this phone, with a 40MP SuperSensing lens, a 16MP ultra-wide lens and an 8MP telephoto lens along with a 3D depth sensor.

With 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, there’ll definitely be more than enough space to store all the photos you’ll be taking. Huawei has announced that the display uses a two-layer polymer top sheet, and unfortunately, it seems that the crease can still be seen from certain angles. It’s just the nature of the beast for foldable phones.

We’re definitely excited to try this phone out when it launches in Singapore later in March though, so stay tuned for our review then.

realme

Credit: realme

The Oppo spinoff has just announced their first 5G flagship smartphone, the realme x50 Pro 5G.

Not much has been revealed about the phone, but it’s running on the flagship Snapdragon 865 processor and has a Super AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate.

The 4,200mAh battery supports 65W SuperDart Flash Charge technology, allowing it to be charged from 0 to 100 in just 35 minutes. Following in the trend of large MP cameras, the x50 Pro 5G has a 64MP main rear camera, 12MP telephoto lens, 8MP ultra-wide and portrait lens and a black & white portrait lens.

With a 32MP wide lens and 8MP ultra-wide lens making up the camera array on the front, wide-angle selfies with the phone will be made much easier.

The phone will start from 599 Euros, and officially be available in Europe from April 2020 onwards. Availability for the Singapore market is yet to be announced.

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We’re sure there’ll be even more phones launching soon, in separate events. The big question is, will supply be affected due to the coronavirus situation shutting down factories? Even Samsung has had to temporarily shut down a factory in South Korea for the weekend, impacting their ability to produce more units of their new Galaxy Z Flip phones.

Only time will tell if these phones will be able to come to market in a timely manner after the initial announcements.