DxOMark's evaluation of the Sony Xperia 1 II audio capabilities requires some nuance

The Sony Xperia 1 II was unveiled early on in the year and took its time to get to store shelves. The phone has now made its way over to DxOMark for an evaluation of its audio capabilities. The results? Unimpressive—at a first glance, at least. 

The Sony Xperia 1 II earned an overall score of 57. That's a terrible score by all accounts, and makes it one of the worst flagship performers on DxOMark's audio chart. It manages to be better than last year's Xperia 1 (45), which is about the only positive. 

In the recording category, the Xperia 1 II recorded a score of 69. That's actually a great score, as it's on par with the Samsung Galaxy S20+ (69) and better than the OnePlus 8 Pro (63). It's in the playback segment that the Xperia 1 II falls on its face, with a score of 53. The OnePlus 8 Pro (68) and Galaxy S20+ (66) come out well ahead. 

DxOMark's evaluation of the Xperia 1 II requires some nuance, of course. While the overall score implies it's a much worse audio device than the competition, that score is mostly influenced by the poor speaker playback. Speaker playback, at the end of the day, isn't that important to most people—who plays music out loud on their phones anyway? On the other hand, audio recording is excellent, and the Xperia 1 II is one of the few flagships on the market to offer a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sounds like a win.