A couple of years ago, Sony renamed its ranges by changing letters with numbers, with the Sony Xperia 1 being the high-end classic. After the refurbishment in the form of Sony Xperia 1 II in February last year, the third iteration or Mark III is here: the Sony Xperia 1 III.
The Sony Xperia 1 III is once again Sony’s “number 1” or its high-end classic style where the Japanese have put all the “meat on fire”. It’s enough? Try to make a comparison with the entire Android range such as the OnePlus 9, Xiaomi Mi 11, Samsung Galaxy S21, Poco F3, OPPO Find X3 Pro and Huawei Mate 40 Pro.
Camera
Sony is still the only one to include the front camera in the upper frame, resulting in a more “stretched” phone than normal.
It is therefore the only mobile in our comparison where you can enjoy all the pixels without interruption, as the rest includes one or two, in the Huawei model on its surface. And it’s not a few pixels, because we have a 4K panel. In the competition, there is a link between Full HD + and QHD + panels, but 4K is still a Sony exclusive.
This 6.5-inch OLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate which, although it has become the standard at the high end (it is in all but the Mate 40 Pro), is accompanied by an improved regular recognition speed, at 240Hz. Beyond Sony’s classic 21: 9 aspect ratio and, therefore, a more elongated shape than the one we are used to, the Sony Xperia 1 III does not have too different dimensions from other terminals such as the Xiaomi Mi 11.
Few megapixels
We already know that megapixels aren’t everything in mobile photography, yet sensor resolution continues to increase year after year. Sony remains true to hers 12 megapixel triplet accompanied by a ToF, although it incorporates its own innovations to try to stand out from the competition.
The Sony Xperia 1 III saves the idea of variable aperture in a combination of lenses with far fewer megapixels than the competition
In the meantime, the competition at the high end reaches 108 megapixels in the Xiaomi Mi 11. Without going to such an extreme, the most common is to have a main sensor around 48 megapixels, such as the 48 + 50 + 2 MP combination of the OnePlus 9 in the triple camera or the 50 + 50 + 13 + 3MP of the ‘OPPO Find X3 Pro, in the quadruple.
The photographic analyzes will have the last word, even if Sony saves the idea of variable aperture for your telephoto lens and includes a fourth ToF sensor, just like the previous generation.
Opposite, the Sony Xperia 1 III mounts a 8 megapixel front camera Which, again, doesn’t seem too ambitious. The competition average is around 16 megapixels, reaching 32 MP in the OPPO Find X3 Pro, and the 10 megapixel camera in the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the closest to Sony’s offering.
Lots of storage space
When it comes to performance, we don’t have too many surprises. In the high end, the most common is to find the Snapdragon 888 itself Qualcomm present in the Sony Xperia 1 III, with three exceptions: Samsung with its Exynos 2100, Huawei with its Kirin 9000 and the Poco F3, which is equipped with a slightly smaller Snapdragon 870.
With 12 GB of RAM, the Sony Xperia 1 III is well stocked with memory and is on par with the competition, even if it stands out for its storage capacity up to 512GB. The rest of the terminals in our comparison remain in 256 GB of storage as a maximum option.
With 4,500 mAh of battery, the Sony Xperia 1 III is average. Of course, its fast charging is slower than that of the competition
As for the battery, Sony’s high-end one is equipped with one with a capacity of 4,500 mAh, which has become something of a standard. 100 mAh more or less, it is the same as the rest, with the only exception of the Samsung Galaxy S21, more compact and with a 4,000 mAh battery.
When it comes to fast charging, the Sony Xperia 1 III is a bit more conservative than the competition. It stays inside 30W fast charging, while the competition comes to the load of 65W (Huawei Mate 40 Pro, OPPO Find X3 Pro, OnePlus 9) and 55W (Xiaomi Mi 11). The only one that includes more modest fast charging is Samsung’s high-end, whose load is 25W.
Comparison table
As always, we leave you the complete comparison table of all high-end terminals, so you can see at a glance the specific differences between the terminals, such as where the fingerprint reader is embedded in each case or the presence of wireless charging.
Sony Xperia 1 III |
OnePlus 9 |
Xiaomi Mi 11 |
Samsung Galaxy S21 |
Small F3 |
OPPO Find X3 Pro |
Huawei Mate 40 Pro |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Screen |
OLED 6.5 “ |
AMOLED 6.55 “ |
AMOLED 6.81 “ |
AMOLED 6.2 “ |
AMOLED 6.67 “ |
AMOLED 6.7 “ |
OLED 6.76 “ |
Dimensions and weight |
165 x 71 x 8.2 mm |
160 x 74.2 x 8.7 mm |
164.3 x 74.6 x 8.06 mm |
151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9 mm |
163.7 x 76.4 x 7.8 mm |
163.6 x 74 x 8.26 |
162.9 x 75.5 x 9.1 mm |
Processor |
888 |
888 |
888 |
Exynos 2100 |
Snapdragon 870 |
888 |
Kirin 9000 |
RAM |
12 GB |
8/12 GB |
8/12 GB |
8 GB |
6GB / 8GB |
12 GB |
8 GB |
Memory |
256/512 GB |
128/256 GB |
128/256 GB |
128/256 GB |
128/256 GB |
256 GB |
256 GB |
Front camera |
8 MP |
16 MP |
20 MP |
10 MP f / 2.2 |
20 MP f / 2.45 |
32 MP |
13 MP |
Rear camera |
12 MP f / 1.7 |
48 MP f / 1.8 |
108 MP |
12 MP f / 1.8 |
48 MP f / 1.79 |
50 MP |
50 MP f / 1.9 |
Battery |
4,500 mAh |
4,500 mAh |
4,600 mAh |
4,000 mAh |
4,520 mAh |
4,500 mAh |
4400 mAh |
Other |
5G |
5G |
5G |
5G |
5G |
5G |
5G |