Sony Xperia 1 II coming July 24 for $1200 (4K display, Snapdragon 865, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage)

Sony’s latest flagship smartphone is up for pre-order in the United States and… it’s expensive.

First announced in February, the Sony Xperia 1 II is a phone with a 6.5 inch, 3840 x 1644 pixel HDR OLED display with 643 pixels per inch, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor,  8GB of RAM, 256GB of UFS storage and Zeiss cameras.

B&H is taking pre-orders for $1198.

Update: The web page is still live, but the phone is no longer available for pre-order and the price has been removed. 

Update 2: Sony has confirmed the $1200 price tag, and says the phone will begin shipping to US customers July 24, 2020. The good news is that folks who pre-order by June 28 will get a pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 true wireless noise-cancelling earbuds for no additional charge. They typically sell for $200 or more on their own.

While Sony’s smartphones are typically pretty expensive in the US, this is the company’s priciest to date. At a time when most companies are increasing the prices of their flagship phones, I guess that shouldn’t be a huge surprise. But spending that kind of money on a phone from a company that’s kind of a bit player in the US smartphone space these days.

Last year’s Sony Xperia 1, for what it’s worth, sold for $950 at launch.

That said, the new model does looks like a significant upgrade over last year’s model. While the display resolution remains unchanged, the new model has a faster processor, more memory and storage, a 5G modem, and an updated triple camera system that includes:

• 12MP 16mm equivalent camera (F1.7 aperture, 82 degree field of view)
• 12MP 24mm equivalent camera (F2.2 aperture, 124 degree field of view)
• 12MP 70mm equivalent camera (F2.4 aperture, 34 degree field of view)

Camera features also include support for manual ISO, shutter speed, and white balance controls, RAW capture, 20 fps continuous burst photography, and support for recording 4K video at up to 60 frames per second or 1080p slow-motion video at 120 frames per second.

Other features include an 8MP front-facing camera (24mm, F2.2), a fingerprint reader on the side of the phone, a 4,000 mAH battery, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, a microSDXC card reader, USB 3.1 Type-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo front-facing speakers, IP65/68 water resistance, Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and back of the phone.

via Droid Life