Sony Xperia 1/5/10 III

Caporegime
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Surprised nothing has appeared on here yet, Sony have just announced their next series of flagship. At a quick glance, they look good though 4K @ 120 will be interesting on the battery.



The specs sound very similar with the 5 being smaller.

Rest of post - pending.

Specs

Design
  • Xperia 1 III: 165 x 71 x 8.2mm, 186g
  • Xperia 5 III: 157 x 68 x 8.2mm, 168g
  • Xperia 10 III: 154 x 68 x 8.3mm, 169g
Display
  • Xperia 1 III: 6.5-inch, 4K, OLED, 21:9, HDR, 120Hz
  • Xperia 5 III: 6.1-inch, FHD+, OLED, 21:9, HDR, 120Hz
  • Xperia 10 III: 6-inch, FHD+, OLED, 21:9, HDR, 60Hz
Hardware & specs
  • Xperia 1 III: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 5G, 12GB RAM, 256/512GB storage, 4500mAh
  • Xperia 5 III: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 5G, 8GB RAM, 128/256GB storage, 4500mAh
  • Xperia 10 III: Qualcomm Snapdragon 690G, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, 4500mAh
Camera
  • Xperia 1 III: Triple 12MP camera + ToF, 8MP front camera
  • Xperia 5 III: Triple 12MP camera, 8MP front camera
  • Xperia 10 III: Triple rear camera (12MP main, 8MP ultra wide, 8MP telephoto), 8MP front camera
 
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Soldato
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There always seem to be tasty contract deal available at launch with Sony and a decent set of headphones thrown in, but strictly RRP speaking, they are not cheap.

Xperia 1 III does look tasty though with 4k 120Hz panel and offering a few features on a flagship that can now be considered "legacy" such as 3.5mm headphone jack and expandable storage. Rest is also up to spec as expected with latest SoC etc, not entirely sure how the "variable zoom lens" works though, just digital trickery or actual variable lens within a phone?
 
Soldato
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At least they seem to be releasing the phones all at once instead of weird staggered approach, just not entirely sure where Xperia 5 fits. Not small enough to be called a compact phone and almost identical to Xperia 1, bar wireless charging and lower res screen. Guess the 21:9 ratio makes it hard to shrink it below that 15cm mark without it getting weird ergonomics.

Still interested in the variable telephoto lens as it appears to be all optical without any digital trickery, think it's a first in the mobile phone industry?

Here, the Sony Xperia phones have the ability to move the position of the lens elements within the periscope module, effectively changing the focal length of that lens. The sensor stays the same behind it, but it means it can switch between 70mm and 105mm for two different telephoto options.

The aim is to give better quality results, allowing an f/2.3 aperture at 70mm and f/2.8 at 105mm. Those focal lengths equate to approx. 3x and 4.4x - but these are both optical, with optical image stabilisation.
 
Soldato
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What are Sony like for updates? Been Samsung all my Android life and even now the S10 is still getting regular updates. The idea of something a bit different is starting to swing me round and the Xperia 1 III looks a nice bit of kit but Sony kind of feels like it might soon head the same way as LG.
 
Capodecina
Soldato
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What are Sony like for updates? Been Samsung all my Android life and even now the S10 is still getting regular updates. The idea of something a bit different is starting to swing me round and the Xperia 1 III looks a nice bit of kit but Sony kind of feels like it might soon head the same way as LG.

Things are looking up for them, apparently.

Now, new data suggests the worst may finally be over.

Sony Xperia sales remained stable last quarter

Sony shipped 600,000 Xperia smartphones in the quarter ending September 30, 2020. That may seem like nothing when measured up to the millions of units sold by Apple and Samsung, but it compares well with previous results.

In the equivalent 2019 quarter, Sony sold the same number of Xperia smartphones, which means sales have finally stopped stopped shrinking after half a decade of (almost) constant year-on-year drops.

Considering the circumstances, that's certainly no mean feat. The global economy is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and smartphone demand isn’t entirely back to normal levels.

Sony still expects the Xperia business to post a profit

There’s more good news, too. The Xperia smartphone division generated $759.46 million in revenue last quarter, up slightly from the $746.04 million generated a year earlier.

Sony revealed in August that its Mobile Communications division was on track to post its first yearly profit in four years, and that continues to be the case following the most recent results.

https://www.phonearena.com/news/sony-xperia-smartphone-shipments-q3-2020_id128088

With regard to updates, I can't comment since I have not updated to Android 11 on my Xperia and plan to keep it on Android 10 for the foreseeable future.
 
Soldato
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Not sure what it's like now, but I had the XZ Premium a couple of months after it launched, and security updates was mostly on time, just a couple of weeks after the Pixels got them. OS updates was a little on the slow side but it wasn't too bad, usually 3-5 months after the latest version is announced.

The awkward part though was the XZ1 series shared a lot of the internal hardware with the XZP, so when the 2 years of the XZP was up, so was the XZ1 phones meaning they never got the 2 full years. It should be fine with the mark III phones at least since they were all announced at the same time.
 
Associate
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Recently got myself a 10 II, one of the best phones I've owned, I love it.

Good to see things are moving forward for Sony.

Picked up one last weekend to replace the Xperia Z5 I've been using for the past 5 years. Excellent phone that does everything I need and has a good battery life.
 
Caporegime
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If the new ones have a good battery life, decent cameras and come with a pair of XM3s...................:D

Will complete my Sony trifector after buying an A7iii recently.
 
Soldato
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Put a case on, no problem?
I've never needed to use a case on any other phone (admittedly not glass on both sides), it kind of defeats the point in a making a phone look 'nice' too.

Either way I don't think the idea of glass on both sides is a good idea, it's glass, it breaks far easier than things like plastic or metal, even in a case.... it's the one thing I just don't get the logic in using on a device you'll be carrying around with you daily and could drop or smash against things while in your pocket/bag. I'm pretty gentle with my stuff anyway but it's the one thing that makes me think twice about something I'd carry around with me.
 
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