It is built similarly to the Xperia 1 II, using anodized aluminum for the frame and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for the screen and back panel, as well as IP65 and IP68 certifications for water resistance.

The build has a pair of symmetrical bezels on the top and the bottom, where the front-facing dual stereo speakers and the front camera are placed.

The bottom edge has the primary microphone and USB-C port; the rear cameras are arranged in a vertical strip.

The Xperia 5 II is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC and an Adreno 650 GPU, accompanied by 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM.

The display is smaller and has a lower resolution than the Xperia 1 II, using a 6.1 in 21:9 1080p (2520 × 1080) HDR OLED panel which results in a pixel density of 449 ppi.