The Sony Xperia 5 III comes right after the Sony Xperia 1 III, which was Sony’s best smartphone in years. It looks like the same phone, but it’s much smaller and much cheaper. It has the same long design that puts landscape media content ahead of everything else, the same top-level performance, and almost the same flexible triple-12MP camera system.
But there are a few ways in which the Xperia 5 III isn’t quite as good as its bigger brother. The design isn’t as sharp, the haptics aren’t as good, it doesn’t have wireless charging, and its screen isn’t even as sharp as QHD, let alone 4K. None of these things are a big deal when you consider how much the Xperia 1 III costs. But in its own way, the Sony Xperia 5 III also seems to be quite expensive.
Features:
- Beautiful display
- Excellent audio
- Small size
- IP65/58 water-resistance
The Xperia 5 III, like other recent Xperia phones, has an unusually tall and thin design that you might notice first. The main reason for this is Sony’s preference for a 21:9 aspect ratio display, which is meant to be great for watching movies. However, there are more reasons to like it than just that, including the fact that the thin screen is much easier to hold.
When you consider that the Xperia 5 III is basically a smaller version of the top-of-the-line Xperia 1 III, you get one of those increasingly rare things: a small phone that doesn’t skimp on specs. It helps that it’s a high-quality phone with a frame made of aluminium and a Gorilla Glass 6 coating on both the front and back. I reviewed it in black, but depending on where you live, you can also buy it in green and pink.
The 5 III is a strange phone in more ways than just its slim size. One thing is that it still has a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is becoming less common in high-end devices. There’s the fact that Sony put the selfie camera in a thick top bezel instead of a notch or a pinhole. That does give you a continuous display, but it also makes things look longer and maybe a little less modern.
How to get Sony Xperia 5 III?
The screen on the Sony Xperia 5 III looks the same as it always has. Another 6.1-inch OLED, this one has a resolution of 1080 x 2520 (FHD+) and 449 pixels per inch. No, that’s not as good as the 4K quality of the Sony Xperia 1 III or even the QHD quality of almost every other Android phone in this price range. But it’s not clear how useful it would be to put so many pixels on a 6.1-inch screen. When put next to the Xperia 1 III in Sony’s Standard mode, it has a much warmer screen, but it can get just as bright. Like its bigger brother, it has an optional Creator mode that makes colours in movies look more like they really are.
