Sony Xperia 5 III review
introduction
Announced in April, the Xperia 5 III is finally here with us, but you'll have to wait several weeks before you can score one yourself. This is the reality of flea supply during a pandemic. While anticipating that little Sony will hit the shelves, it would be wise to browse the following pages to get an idea of what things it does well and what will have to wait for Mark 4 to address.
For the third year in a row, the smaller Xperia 5 is trying to keep up with the real flagship, the Xperia 1, in terms of hardware - something you don't necessarily get from other manufacturers. Most notably, the 5 Mark 3 gets the camera system of the 1 Mark 3, including the dual-focal telephoto lens - on a Galaxy or iPhone, only the Ultra or the Max get the ultimate cameras, the rest get. content with lesser bits. Of course, the ToF module did not succeed on the 5 III, but it is not a loss that one would complain about.
Most of the fields in the side-by-side spec comparison look similar too, so let's take a look at the few differences beyond the obvious size and weight. On the one hand, the Xperia 5 III uses Gorilla Glass 6 for screen protection, as opposed to the Victus on the 1 III. It's not a 4K resolution display either - it's still an Xperia 1 exclusive, but 1080p is good enough for the 6,1-inch diagonal, and you get the 120Hz refresh rate and support. HDR.
Xperia 5 III (left) next to the Xperia 1 III
Si tu must have 12GB of RAM, you'll have to look at the Xperia 1 III as the 5 III only ships with 8GB, and the storage options are 128GB and 256GB (256GB and 512GB on the larger model ). And then comes the one main difference that might bother some - there's no wireless charging on the Xperia 5 III, while the 1 III has that covered.
The rest of the specs are the same between the two sizes of premium Xperias. This includes core components like the top-tier Snapdragon 888 chipset and secondary ones like stereo speakers, headphone jack, and microSD slot, as well as external monitor functionality. Quite unusual, the smaller phone even has the same battery capacity.
Features of Sony Xperia 5 III at a glance:
- Body: 157,0 x 68,0 x 8,2mm, 168g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 6), glass back (Gorilla Glass 6), aluminum frame; IP65 / IP68 dust / water resistant (up to 1,5m for 30 minutes).
- Pin up: 6.10 ″ OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR BT.2020, resolution 1080x2520px, aspect ratio 21: 9, 449ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5nm): Octa-core (1 × 2,84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3 × 2,42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4 × 1,80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
- Memory: 128 GB 8 GB RAM, 256 GB 8 GB RAM; UFS 3.X; microSDXC (uses the shared SIM slot).
- Operating system / software: Android 11.
- Rear camera: Large (main): 12 MP, f / 1,7, 24mm, 1 / 1,7 ″, 1,8 µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f / 2,2, 124˚, 16mm, 1 / 2,6 ″, dual pixel PDAF; Telephoto: 12 MP, f / 2,3, 70mm, f / 2,8, 105mm, 1 / 2,9 ″, Dual Pixel PDAF, 3x / 4,4x optical zoom, OIS.
- Front camera: 8 MP, f / 2,0, 24mm (wide), 1 / 4 ″, 1,12 µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K @ 24/25/30/60 / 120fps HDR, 1080p @ 30/60/120 / 240fps; 5-axis gyro-EIS, OIS; Front camera: 1080p @ 30fps, 5-axis gyro-EIS.
- Drums: 4500 mAh; Quick charge 30W, 50% in 30 min (announced), USB Power Delivery.
- Various : Fingerprint reader (mounted on the side); NFC; 3,5mm jack; Native Sony Alpha camera support.
Unboxing the Sony Xperia 5 III
There are no surprises with the presentation - the Xperia 5 III arrives in the typical understated white box that Sony has been shipping for a few years. The content isn't extraordinary either - aside from the phone, we got the 30-watt USB PowerDelivery Adapter (XQZ-UC1 Sony calls it) and a USB-C cable to go with it. Just note that retail units may differ in terms of bundled accessories, and there could be regional variation on top of that.
