SONY XPERIA 5 III

On 14 April 2021, Sony held an online event to announce the third generation of its compact Sony Xperia 5 smartphone, just six months after the Xperia 5 II was released. The Sony Xperia 5 II was unveiled alongside the Xperia 1 III and the mid-range Xperia 10 III, and you can read about how it compares to those devices in a separate feature, but here we’ll look at how it compares to the Sony Xperia 5 III.

SPECIFICATIONS

DESIGN

Both the Sony Xperia 5 III and the Sony Xperia 5 II have an OmniBalance body with a metal frame with angled edges and corners sandwiched between a glass front and back panel. The Xperia 5 III is 0.2mm thicker and 5g heavier than the Xperia 5 II, but otherwise they are almost similar in size and appearance. The Xperia 5iii has an IP65/68 dust and water resistance rating, as well as a physical fingerprint sensor integrated into the power buttons on the right edge and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It also has a pill-shaped rear camera housing, as well as a Google Assistant button and a dedicated camera button.

The Xperia 5 III is available in three colors: black, green, and pink.

DISPLAY

The display is also “operated by CineAlta,” which is designed to provide the same color reproduction on the screen as a film’s Master Monitor.

The phone has a 6.1-inch FHD+ HDR OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has a 240Hz motion blur reduction and a 240Hz touch scanning rate, much like the Xperia 1 III. In addition, the projector spans the entire DCI-P3 color gamut. Not to mention the 21:9 “CinemaWide” aspect ratio, which is a Sony trademark. Furthermore, Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6 protects the phone’s front and back.

HARDWARE

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset powers the Sony Xperia 5 III, which comes with 8GB of RAM and storage options of 128GB or 256GB. We expected it to support microSD cards, but this was not verified at the time of writing. The Xperia 5 III is a 5G smartphone.

Moving on, the phone has a large 4500mAh battery with USB PD quick charging support through the Type-C connector. The phone also has a fingerprint sensor on the side and stereo speakers. The stereo speakers are more powerful, and they support 360-degree audio.

BATTERY

The battery capacity has been increased for the third generation model, with the Xperia 5 III packing a 4500mAh cell. It also supports 30W fast charging, wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging, while keeping the unit cool with a graphene heat dissipation pad.

CAMERA

From its predecessor, the camera department has undergone many changes. The 12MP triple camera configurations on the Xperia 5 III are the same as on the Xperia 1 III. The variable telephoto module and Dual PDAF sensors are the most notable differences between this year’s model and its predecessor. It allows the telephoto lens’ focal length to be adjusted between 70mm and 105mm, enabling it to capture details at a wider distance.

The lens in the front  has an 8MP f/2.0 for taking selfies. Similarly, both of these sensors have been calibrated with ZEISS optics and have ZEISS T* anti-reflective coating. To cater to a wider audience, Sony’s native camera app, Photography Pro, includes a “Basic Mode.”