Sony Xperia 1 III

Design

The Sony Xperia 1 III, launched on August 25, 2021, features a relatively tall and narrow design with dimensions of 165mm in height, 71mm in width, and a depth of 8.2mm. It weighs 186g. The phone uses a traditional, non-foldable form factor. Color options include Frosted Black, Frosted Gray, and Frosted Purple.

Display

The device boasts a 6.5-inch OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1644 x 3840 pixels, resulting in a very high pixel density of 643 ppi. The screen supports 1 billion colors, a 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR, though not HDR10+, Dolby Vision, or LTPO technology. Other features include a 240Hz touch sampling rate, 100% NTSC, DCI-P3 coverage, and a 10-bit panel. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The design is frameless, without any notch.

Performance

The Xperia 1 III utilizes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm) chipset, an octa-core processor with a configuration of 1x2.84 GHz Cortex-X1, 3x2.42 GHz Cortex-A78, and 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The GPU is an Adreno 660. The phone features 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. It's available with either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There is no support for external storage via SD card. The device achieved an Antutu v10 score of 889,100. It incorporates a range of sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted), Proximity, Light sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Barometer, Hall, and Color Spectrum.

Camera

The rear camera system is a quad setup featuring three 12MP lenses and a ToF 3D sensor. The main 12MP camera features a Sony Exmor RS CMOS BSI sensor with a 1.7 aperture and 1.80µm pixels. There is a 12MP wide-angle lens and a 12MP telephoto lens. The lenses are ZEISS quality calibrated with ZEISS coating. The telephoto lens offers a variable aperture of F2.3 (70mm) and F2.8 (105mm). It provides a 12.5x hybrid zoom. The rear camera supports 4K video recording at 24, 25, 30, 60, and 120 fps with HDR, optical image stabilization (OIS), and electronic image stabilization (EIS) with intelligent active mode (5-axis). It also offers slow-motion video at 960fps. The front-facing selfie camera is an 8MP Samsung S5K4H7 PureCel sensor with a 2.0 aperture and 1.12µm pixels. Additional camera features include digital zoom, optical zoom, digital image stabilization, optical stabilization (OIS), ultra-stable video, autofocus, touch focus, continuous autofocus, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), continuous shooting, geotagging, panorama, HDR, face detection, white balance settings, ISO settings, exposure compensation, scene mode, self-timer, and RAW capture.

Battery Life

The Xperia 1 III is equipped with a 4500 mAh Li-Polymer battery. It supports 30W fast charging and includes bypass charging. It does not support wireless charging. The battery is non-removable.

Software

The phone initially launched with Android 11 and is upgradable to Android 13.

Pricing

The Sony Xperia 1 III falls into the medium price range. Specific price points depend on the region and configuration. Prices for the 12GB/512GB version are roughly between $429.26 and $904.00.

Overall Verdict

The Sony Xperia 1 III is a high-end device with a focus on its display and camera capabilities. The combination of a 4K 120Hz OLED display, a versatile quad-camera system with ZEISS optics, and the powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset position it as a strong contender. However, the lack of wireless charging and a rather high price point are notable considerations. It caters to users who prioritize display quality, camera features, and a flagship-level performance.