Sony Xperia 5 III review

03 August 2021


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Conclusion: Get this over Xperia 1 III if you don't mind FHD+ resolution, but if your budget is tighter Xperia 5 II is overall a better buy because it's essentially the same phone as 5 III with a slightly worse camera.

I feel like it's time for Sony to use a newer gen. panels for high end Xperias. Sure it's got a very good colour accuracy, but the max brightness of 580 nits (which is only achievable using whitelisted select apps in creator mode) for a $1000 phone is such a poor showing when there are some sub-$300 phones that can reach 700 nits comfortably. The phone seems to throttle hard under load so probably it isn't very suitable for gaming as well.. definitely needs a better cooling solution next time.

But otherwise, this is easily one of the best-in-class products among all the compact smartphones in the market. The cameras are great for still photography (The difference in image quality between this and 1 III is so significant that it's utterly ridiculous), battery life is pretty decent for a SD888 equipped device, the speakers aren't too shabby and it comes with a lot of nice-to-have features like a headphone jack, a microSD card slot and IP65 water resistance, which definitely help make it stand out from the rest. I'm looking forward to see what they will bring to the table next year.

    I'm very satisfied with the camera output, it's a pity I can't get one these babies in my country. To import it, would cost me almost three times the international price🙃.

      "Has a tendency to overheat under sustained load, with heavy throttling too." 888.

      I hope the 2022 chipsets no longer have that issue, but might still from what I read on other tech sites, 4nm will help, but not by much. until 3nm rolls out, phones will remain warm.

        • R
        • Rkm
        • Dk@
        • 04 Aug 2021

        Shui8, 04 Aug 2021I dont know what is going on. Last Xperia 5ii also the bett... moreI don't know man. This seems there is something wrong fundamentally with the 1iii (or that specific unit).
        It seems similar to when you forget to turn off lens stabilization on tripod when using a camera and it acts weird.

          • S
          • Shui8
          • KZK
          • 04 Aug 2021

          Rkm, 04 Aug 2021Wow, the telephotos look way better than 1iii. It captured ... moreI dont know what is going on. Last Xperia 5ii also the better one than 1ii. If some people said about newer firmware used in 5, up until today 1ii still softer & worse telephoto than 5ii. 🥴

            • R
            • Rkm
            • ypc
            • 04 Aug 2021

            Wow, the telephotos look way better than 1iii. It captured sharper images is an understatement. It's almost as if 1iii is a couple of generations behind.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • vGG
              • 04 Aug 2021

              Even 158 mm is not really compact. I really like this phone though

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • vGG
                • 04 Aug 2021

                158 mm is not really compact. Although Sony's effort is praiseworthy. Something like iPhone 12 mini would be better worthy of being called a compact phone since it is much smaller. Sony stopped the true compact line-up which is unfortunate

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • JT5
                  • 04 Aug 2021

                  mahbubbinramij, 04 Aug 2021Price is so highNo , it is not. It comes with 🎧.
                  In 2018, Oppo asked $1000 for Find X.

                  - No sd slot
                  - mono speaker (last xperia flagship with mono was Z1)
                  - no jack
                  - no NFC (LOL, last xperia without NFC was E4 in 2015)
                  - usb2.0 (3.1 was available since 2017)
                  - low quality screen

                  * because of cam system, i am not counting lack of IP rating.



                    Price is so high

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • JT5
                      • 04 Aug 2021

                      [deleted post]Sammy boys are gonna b**** about brightness to make us forget galaxy has low accuracy screen.
                      5iii = delta 0.8, screen supplied by samsung.

                      Other OEMs buy Isocell and do better than Samsung.
                      Other OEMs buy storage/ram from Samsung and have better performance.
                      Other OEMs buy screen from Samsung, offer better images.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • JT5
                        • 04 Aug 2021

                        Shui8, 04 Aug 2021As expected, 5iii is the better one than 1iii. A full fe... moreAlso cheaper.
                        But still, 1 series is better seller.
                        Exactly what they want.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • w8i
                          • 04 Aug 2021

                          Does Sony have ANY intension to fix that god awful video recording UI? This is 2021, a user should be able to record 4K in 60fps without entering the pro mode and start the project or switch lenses during the recording process! Has it fixed the underexposure problem still plaguing Xperia 1 at night, where the footage becomes so dark that it is almost unusable? No? Catering for enthusiasts do not mean they can just leave general audience behind, they are not mutually exclusive 🤷

                            • S
                            • Shui8
                            • KZK
                            • 04 Aug 2021

                            As expected, 5iii is the better one than 1iii.

                            A full feature phone that I love 👍🏻

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • jAg
                              • 04 Aug 2021

                              Blogietis, 04 Aug 2021Xperia flagships are for confident grown ups - Xperias look... moreDepends. Asus Zenfone 8 lacks band 13, which makes it incompatible with Verizon, one of the largest carriers in the US. So for many folks in the US, the Zenfone 8 is unfortunately a no-go. If it weren't for that, I'd probably have gone for the Zenfone.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • JT5
                                • 04 Aug 2021

                                Please haters.

                                Come hate because your phone does not have optical zoom but you think it has because they told you the periscope the OEM bought (cause they do not know howmto make one) is prime lens.

                                To the Oppo boy : There were Sony Vaio with 90W charger, in case you again say xperia has 30 because they "do not know how to do it or battery is low quality ".

                                This device does not have cheap pieces like chinese OEMs use to lower the price.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • nYE
                                  • 04 Aug 2021

                                  Blogietis, 04 Aug 2021Xperia flagships are for confident grown ups - Xperias look... moreZenFone 8 is my second pick to the Xperia IIi, because the latter would be a better replacement of my LG.

                                  But the Xperia will be pricey, while the ZenFone 8 is already around €650 in my country for the 256gb/16gb model...

                                  This one is though for me, but time will tell which one I pick in 2 months from now.

                                    Xperia flagships are for confident grown ups - Xperias look elegant, are built really nice and they just work well. We need to kill of this pathetic misconception that Xperia flagships are for niche users, because since when having a device loaded with most important features is niche... but to be fair that Asus Zenfone 8 is a monster of a proposition which easily makes more sense than all other compact flagships when you put your OEM bias aside 👀

                                      • J
                                      • Juri
                                      • 4MU
                                      • 04 Aug 2021

                                      Any idea when the US is going to get this? This has everything I need in the smallest formfactor. My S9 battery is on it's last legs so it's time to upgrade or deal with replacing the battery.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • nYE
                                        • 03 Aug 2021

                                        Xperia 5 III has like expected a better battery life, not great but I blame the 888 for that.

                                        In a nutshell this phone is a jack of all trades, but master of none, made for the niche audience like me who had a LG phone.

                                        However that doesn't mean I would get this, LG was cheap and this is not, so I would only get this if I really need all the niche stuff Xperia 5 III provides.

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