The Sony Xperia 1 III has a spec sheet like no other smartphone and big shoes to fill
Sony Xperia 1 III : Read more
Sony Xperia 1 III : Read more
Sony Xperia 1 III
- Thread starter What Hi-Fi?
- Start date
Gray
Well-known member
Over a grand?
Not in a million years.
Next review.
Not in a million years.
Next review.
Friesiansam
Well-known member
But, offers nothing that would make me consider switching from my iPhone 12, that I expect to keep for several years. Also, I do not want to go back to Android and Google's surveillance.
Gray
Well-known member
How many people really understand what they're signing up to?.....the amount of personal detail Google scrapes and passes on to third parties of their choice.
As is often said, "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product".
23DSHR
Member
I mean from a user perspective, the Xperia 1 III offers a lot of things that the iPhone 12 does not, for example a more color accurate screen, as each individual unit is custom calibrated by hand. The display has a much higher resolution (4K) and offers double the refresh rate at 120Hz, as the iPhone 12 only offers 60Hz at 1080p+. Other things include usb-c and a charger in the box (without a usb c to lightning cable that only works on an iPhone 11 charging head, as anyone with older devices is forced to pay more for seperate charging head and generates more "waste"). More than anything, when you buy from a brand, you buy into their values and for apple that seems to be making money (at the cost of removing stuff, lately the charger, and selling a $1000 stand), child labour that they were aware of, and refusing to admit their faults (butter fly keyboards) etc. After ethos and values, the product itself- the Xperia 1 III brings a headphone jack, 3 months of free tidal, front facing true stereo speakers capable of 360 reality audio (apple's equivalent is spatial audio but that does not work out of the iPhone 12 speakers natively), upscaling tech (visually improves content similar to the upscaling in TV's of 720p/ 1080p content to add more detail and improves audio that is lossy to remove noise and add in missing details), an easy to remove sim tray without any tool other than your fingers for convenience, expandable storage via micro sd card upto 1TB extra, free headphones worth over £200 (bringing effective price to about £999) so a cheaper price depending on market I guess. Other more techy features include a separate gaming 'assistant/ app' that can emulate a 240Hz refresh rate, block notifications, record gameplay with selfie video (audio changer, take upto 600 screenshots in 30s, shadowplay like feature of recording something that happened 30s ago but you forgot to record or something), HS Power Control (bypass the battery to directly power the phone via charger to reduce heat generation and not hurt battery health). Aside from gaming features there are some camera features, although it might not use same level of AI smarts as an iPhone (you can still edit the images in something like lightroom to get the same results, but takes extra time to do), it has the fastest AF right now in a smartphone and with object tracking and eye AF for humans and animals can capture sharp images of running kids, dogs, fast moving vehicles like race bikes which would be impossible to do on an iPhone 12 or any other phone- not to speak of 20fps burst photography, 4K 120fps HDR slow motion, integrated LUT's, full on manual controls, wind filter, balance indicator to show if phone is level, audio level indicator, world's first variable zoom telephoto. Then there are other specs like 12GB Ram, Bluetooth 5.2, fingerprint scanner, NFC, etc. In all the Xperia 1 III is quite the package and offers a lot of world's firsts. If you disagree with me, that is completely fine as everyone has their own perspective. Then again if this flipped, there is not a lot that the iPhone 12 does that the Xperia 1 III cannot do in comparison.
Friesiansam
Well-known member
Well the higher resolution is of little use on such a small screen, the individual pixels are already effectively invisible on the iPhone 12 and, I don't want a 21x9 screen anyway. The iPhone's screen is smooth enough at 60Hz and I never play fast moving games on the phone, or indeed any other games except solitaire and word games. I use the wireless charger I bought for my previous phone, works perfectly. I don't have any ned of a headphone jack, you can see from my sig what I use for playing music. Ethos and values? Google, like Apple and other huge US tech companies, is very far from perfect and the Sony is useless without Google. I don't care about Tidal as I sometimes use Qobuz. I don't want the free headphones. I never use my phone for streaming video, got a TV and a PC for that, both with much bigger screens. The iPhone camera is more than adequate for my use of it and, I have proper camera for when it is not. Face recognition makes the absence of a fingerprint scanner moot.
I think that is enough...
I think that is enough...
Gray
Well-known member
PlanarLife
Member
This phone probably won't pull many iPhone users over to Android. But if you won't give up a headphone jack or expandable storage, how many options are really available? If this can drive ~ 80 ohm headphones, isn't it the last phone standing now that LG is leaving the market?
Gray
Well-known member
Nokia 3.4 has a 3.5mm jack and expandable storage.
Bought one to use as a Volumio control, plus a bit of wi-fi internet- haven't even bothered with a SIM.
Cost me 80 quid, after signing up for a £20 Prime day discount.
("You were robbed" say the phone snobs
)1000+ quid for a phone?.....STFUp!
TheVerge
Member
A negative is the unique design? You gotta be kidding.
From the review:
"...16:9 form that is most common."
Dude... When was the last time an Android flagship had a display with 16:9 aspect ratio? This just reeks of writing something to just reach a minimum word count. Sheesh.
From the review:
"...16:9 form that is most common."
Dude... When was the last time an Android flagship had a display with 16:9 aspect ratio? This just reeks of writing something to just reach a minimum word count. Sheesh.
Xavier2909
Active member
You could buy a quality laptop for a lot less money, I'm in agreement with you.
Gray
Well-known member
Good point.
Probably not regarded as quality, but my perfectly adequate Lenovo laptop was under £300.
With its nice, non-reflective screen, it hasn't put a foot wrong in 5 years.
Where will this (or any other phone) be in 5 years?
SL75
Well-known member
That is true, but it's also the norm that flagship phones are costing this much nowadays. If a laptop suits the purpose better then buy the laptop. I've not bought a laptop for myself since 2005 but do have a need for a high spec phone for myself. My current one is an Xperia Z5 that cost around £500 and has so far nearly lasted 6 years so it's not too bad.
SL75
Well-known member
Nice to see the review mention sound quality from the analogue output, especially as the manufacturer has made a point of having improved this compared to older models. I don't usually see this mentioned when a product is reviewed, for example sound quality from Blu-ray players... is this via internal DAC and line out or via a receiver... Just a small point about system RAM, the 1 III has 12 GB not 8 GB, that's the 5 III
Dan21
Member
For me it's funny to see how apple fans are always pleased with their inferior products.
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