Hi,
I've been using Xperia 5II since day one and all I can say is that I really enjoy using it - it's compact, powerful with great performance and battery life considering 120Hz refresh rate and the cameras are a real joy to play with but I have to say that the software could benefit from few improvements. Especially desktop mode on external display.
When I was searching for new device one of the things I was looking for was DisplayPort output through USB-C for using it with my portable touchscreen monitor and I was very glad to see that you've kept 4K video out which you introduced along with your 2019 model but unfortunately after using 5 mark II for over half a year I have to say that it is greatly underutilized in it's current state and here's why:
- By default it only mirrors the screen in it's native 21:9 aspect ratio which is terrible when used on 16:9 screen - and watching 16:9 video being mirrored to external display results in black bars on every side and there's nothing you can do about it
- If you enable experimental desktop mode along with freeform mode you get the possibility to open apps in windowed mode and resize them but no taskbar and no dedicated settings which means that the phone screen is always turned on and you have no notifications support
- Using 3rd party solutions like Taskbar improves the situation only slightly but you still don't get true multitasking and notification support.
- But most importantly, when I connect power supply to my portable monitor I lose touchscreen support - it doesn't happen on other devices (checked on Samsung and Huawei) but happens with 5II and when used without additional power supply battery depletes in less than 2 hours.
Right now, more and more manufacturers include their own flavours of desktop mode, we got Samsung DEX (golden standard right now), Huawei's desktop mode, LG's Screen+, Motorola's Ready For (they even included it as an update for their last year flagship Edge+ model) and now even TCL announced their own desktop UI. I think you should consider including your own desktop UI and take advantage of those unique software tricks that you already have - H.S. power control and battery care to bypass battery when connected to external monitor to improve performance and reduce the toll it takes on battery.
You already included native support for windowed mode on mark III series and hopefully you'll soon include proper desktop mode for every Xperia that supports DisplayPort output just like LG has done it starting with their android 10 update when they introduced their screen+ UI and continued to improve it.
You could really do something great if you include video editor with proper desktop UI to work on those CinemaPro projects or RAW photo editor for those shots taken with PhotoPro.
Please think about this cause there are a lot of enthusiasts that would really benefit from proper desktop UI. With proper desktop mode I think that you could win over some of the Samsung users that currently rely on DEX mode, besides there;s nothing better than some healthy competition.
Have a great day.
