Sony is renewing its “compact” phone for another season with the announcement of the Xperia 5 IV. It’s a step down from the 1 IV in size, price, and features but shares the same emphasis on parity across its camera system. That means all three of the phone’s rear cameras — standard wide, ultrawide, and telephoto — include the company’s excellent Real-time Eye AF for better portraits and are capable of super-fast burst shooting speeds even with HDR enabled. It has other flagship specs to back up its camera features, too, and comes with an equally flagship-y price: $999.
The Xperia 5 IV (side note: what are they going to call next year’s phone? The 5 V?) includes a 24mm-equivalent standard wide, 16mm-equiv ultrawide, and 60mm-equiv telephoto on the rear panel. That tele lens is fixed, by the way; it’s not the optical zoom lens in the 1 IV. Each uses a 12-megapixel sensor — a lower resolution than most 50 or even 100-megapixel flagship cameras these days. Heck, even Apple looks like it will start moving away from 12 megapixels. Sony spokesperson El Deane Naude says that’s an intentional move to make those high readout speeds possible on all of its cameras and to maximize low light sensitivity with bigger pixels.
Each of those rear cameras is capable of 120 fps readout speeds, enabling video recording at 4K / 120p on each one. They can also shoot still photos at 20 fps with autofocus, auto exposure, and HDR enabled. There’s also a new 12-megapixel sensor in the selfie camera.
Outside of photography features, the Xperia 5 IV includes a 6.1-inch 1080p OLED with 120Hz refresh rate and a tall 21:9 form factor, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and a 5,000mAh battery — now, with wireless charging. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, an IP65 / 68 rating, and it hangs on to a couple of fast-disappearing hardware features: a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. There’s sub-6GHz 5G support — no mmWave — and a set of new, more powerful stereo speakers on the handset. The 5 IV is scheduled to ship on October 27th.
Smartphones have point-and-shoot cameras (remember those?) beat in a lot of ways, but there’s one thing traditional cameras still do better than phones: zoom. The new Sony Xperia 1 IV aims to change that with a true continuous optical zoom lens. It’s a technical achievement, for sure, but at this stage, it’s more proof of concept than game-changer.
At $1599, it’s a steeply priced concept, too. To be sure, you’ll find plenty of premium specs on the device, starting with a 6.5-inch 4K (well, 1644 x 3840 but close enough) OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, IP68 waterproofing, 512GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, a 5000mAh battery, and even a headphone jack. But $1600 matches the most expensive variants of the iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, both of which at least give you 1TB of storage for that kind of money.
In any case, the Xperia 1 IV has something that neither Samsung or Google offers: that continuous optical zoom lens. Sure, plenty of smartphone cameras allow you to pinch and zoom, but that’s digital rather than optical zoom. At least right now, optical zoom generally produces better results than digital since it actually uses moving lenses to magnify your subject. Digital zoom is usually just cropping in on a wider image and relying on AI to try and recreate detail it wasn’t able to capture — more like an educated guess than the ground truth.
You might also have a telephoto lens on your smartphone, like the 3x lens (or 77mm equivalent, to use the film-era terms familiar to photographers) on the iPhone 13 Pro or the 10x (230mm equivalent) on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. They aren’t “zoom” lenses either, meaning they’re fixed and don’t allow you to move between focal lengths. The Xperia 1 IV’s telephoto lens is different because it does allow you to set the focal length at 85mm, 125mm, and anywhere in between.
Smartphone makers stick with fixed lenses because they’re smaller and less expensive. Shrinking the moving parts of a zoom lens down to smartphone size is a technical challenge few OEMs are up for, apparently. Oppo showed off a continuous optical zoom concept last year but hasn’t yet brought it to market. To be fair, the Xperia 1 IV exists only in prototype form now and won’t ship to consumers until September, so Oppo could still beat Sony to the punch. But until then, the Xperia 1 IV offers our only real, tangible proof of a true smartphone-sized zoom.
It’s a huge achievement, but it’s also… kind of a letdown.
For starters, it’s a very small zoom range: just 3.5–5.2x relative to the standard 24mm wide angle. Sony says it chose those focal lengths because they’re traditionally used for portraits, and, individually, they’re useful for that purpose. I’m just not sure how valuable the space between them is.
Before we get too far into the zoom lens, here’s a quick rundown on all three rear cameras on the Sony Xperia 1 IV:
24mm F1.7 standard wide: 12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch sensor with OIS
85-125mm F2.3-2.8 telephoto zoom: 12-megapixel 1/3.5-inch sensor with OIS
All three rear camera sensors support 120fps high-speed readout, so Sony’s face and eye detection run seamlessly on each one. Seriously, it’s almost creepy how good it is at finding your subject’s eye and sticking with it, and it works nearly flawlessly on all of the rear cameras. There’s also a 12-megapixel front-facing sensor that now supports 4K HDR video.
The Xperia 1 IV is sometimes capable of fantastic images — photos I’m amazed I was able to take with a smartphone. But the unit I was able to demo is also inconsistent and sometimes makes poor judgments on white balance and scenes with challenging lighting. The phone I’m testing out is a prototype so things are subject to change before the device ships later this year, but Sony’s senior product information manager El-Deane Naude says he doesn’t expect a lot will change between now and then.
First, the good: there is that real zoom lens on this phone, and it works fairly well. It’s a little bit soft but certainly good enough for the small image sizes used on social media. The small zoom range doesn’t make much of a difference for distant subjects, but up close for portrait subjects it provides some added flexibility.
When it gets things right, the Xperia 1 IV is capable of excellent image quality.
This image at 85mm features some unattractive blown highlights and appears to have missed focus.
In good lighting, or consistent indoor lighting, the Xperia 1 IV is smart about choosing a balanced exposure with vibrant colors that don’t look overly saturated.
It occasionally gets into trouble in mixed or dim indoor lighting — unsurprising given its smaller sensor and dimmer aperture compared to the main wide camera. There are also some white balance misses or an HDR effect that turns the white ice in a fresh fish display gray. Some of my shots with the zoom lens look a little overexposed and are softer than they should be. Sony’s Naude acknowledges a problem specific to the prototype unit with the autofocus at 5.1x zoom, which I can see clearly in my device, but these exposure and quality issues are seen at other focal lengths.
There’s also no getting around the fact that the Xperia 1 IV is working with small sensors and small optics compared to a traditional camera. Sharp photos of moving subjects in dim light are a challenge, as they are for all smartphones, and don’t expect to get much subject separation even at the long end of the telezoom.
The Xperia 1 IV offers a ton of manual control for video recording — way more than an enthusiast still photographer like me can hope to understand and use properly. As in previous models, this is all housed in Sony’s Cinema Pro app. Thankfully, there’s a more simplified video recording app available on this year’s model: Videography Pro. It doubles as a livestreaming app, too. I haven’t used it extensively, but, so far, I find it much more comfortable and familiar than Cinema Pro.
Most of my concerns with the Xperia 1 IV stem from its price. For the same MSRP, the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers an excellent portrait mode, a standard wide, ultrawide, a 3x telephoto, and a 10x telephoto. For my money, I’d rather have the long reach of the 10x lens and the portrait-friendly 3x lens with digital zoom in between, rather than two portrait lenses connected by optical zoom.
The Xperia 1 IV is IP68 rated, which means robust protection against dust and water, but it’s not clear how tolerant the lenses inside of the Xperia’s zoom will be to everyday bumps and wear and tear. Sony hasn’t responded to my question about this as of now, and I’ll update this article if they do. Until then, it seems like moving optics could be jostled out of alignment more easily than fixed lenses. If I spent $1,600 on this phone, I’d want to know just how careful I should be with it.
Bottom line, Sony put a good point-and-shoot zoom in a smartphone. That’s an impressive feat. In practical use, it’s a bit less impressive. It’s essentially two lenses that serve the same function: portrait photography. The fact that there’s optical zoom connecting them doesn’t make them much more versatile. Maybe the next iteration will go a step further with a longer zoom range. In the meantime, this concept feels like it’s still under development.
Sony definitely likes to take its sweet time launching smartphones – specifically, the Japanese company is probably the one to constantly let the most time pass from a new device’s announcement to its release. Case in point: the Xperia 5 III. Unveiled in April of last year, it was eventually released in October, half a year later.
Not in the US, though. In the US, the Sony Xperia 5 III has only become available today, almost nine months after its announcement, and nearly three months after it was in stores elsewhere. We can’t help but think Sony doesn’t care very much about the US market when it comes to smartphones.
And that thought is compounded by the price: you’ll have to pay $999.99 for the device, which is hardly competitive with other phones powered by the Snapdragon 888 from last year.
On the other hand, Sony does throw in a pair of WF-1000XM3 wireless earbuds to sweeten the deal, and while these are nice, they’re not Sony’s latest and greatest – those would be the WF-1000XM4. Anyway, you also get 43,200 Call of Duty Mobile COD points, and four free months of Amazon Music.
The Xperia 5 III can be bought from Sony’s own online store. The phone comes with a 6.1″ 1080×2520 OLED touchscreen with 120 Hz refresh rate, the aforementioned Snapdragon 888 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128 or 256GB of expandable storage (it’s unclear from Sony’s website which it’s offering), a triple rear camera system (12 MP f/1.7 main with OIS, 12 MP f/2.2 ultrawide with 124-degree field-of-view and autofocus, 12 MP variable 3x/4.4x optical zoom), an 8 MP selfie snapper, and a 4,500 mAh battery with 30W fast charging. It runs Android 11, but an update to Android 12 should be available right away.
Sony’s Xperia 1 III has a few things that other flagship phones don’t, including a near-4K, 120Hz OLED display, along with plenty of high-quality manual photo and video controls, dual front-facing speakers, and a headphone jack. And yet, The Verge’s Allison Johnson couldn’t recommend it — mostly due to its high $1,300 cost. Though, today’s deal on the phone makes the price just a little more digestible. For only the second time since it launched during the summer, Sony’s unlocked Xperia 1 III smartphone has returned to its all-time low price of $1,198 at Amazon and Adorama.
For context, that’s around the same price as the iPhone 12 Pro Max and even cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with equivalent storage capacity. Best Buy also has the smartphone on sale for $1,199.99, yet the retailer is also throwing in a free Microsoft 365 trial and a 50 percent discount on an Ultra Mobile SIM kit, if those things matter to you. For those impressed enough by the promise of the phone’s screen and its excellent photo and video-shooting capabilities, this could be a great chance to snag the device before the price goes up.
Sony Xperia 1 III (256GB) smartphone
Sony’s new Xperia 1 III smartphone boasts unique features like an OLED 120Hz screen, manual photo and video controls, dual front-facing speakers, and a headphone jack.
Lenovo’s excellent Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop is selling at a great price over at Antonline. While it costs around $1,850 at Walmart (it’s rarely in stock for its $1,530 MSRP, unfortunately), it’s down to $1,489.99 at Antonline, and the value is tough to beat for this price. This model has a 16-inch 16:10 aspect ratio display at QHD Plus resolution, AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H processor, Nvidia’s RTX 3070 graphics chip (with a total graphics power of 130W), 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Basically, it’s a stacked machine.
The Verge’s Cameron Faulkner reviewed this laptop in 2021, praising its performance and specs for the price. He even went as far as to refer to it as “Lenovo’s best gaming laptop yet.” The Legion 5 Pro also impressed with its typing experience and the amount of ports available. It’s tough to find a laptop that’s this powerful for under $1,800. For context, it’s about as capable as Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G15. Read our review.
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro
Lenovo’s 2021 Legion 5 Pro features a 16-inch QHD display, the RTX 3070 graphics chip, AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H, and it supports expandable storage and RAM.
Looking to warm up your home while saving a bit of money on heating costs? Right now, Amazon is selling the Ecobee SmartThermostat for $199 ($50 off), matching its Black Friday price. The smart thermostat features a touchscreen display that we found was more responsive and easier to navigate than the one on its predecessor. It also supports voice controls and flexible scheduling, and it includes an external temperature sensor that will help maintain comfort in remote rooms. This smart thermostat offers support for HomeKit and Siri and is also compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and SmartThings.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat
The Ecobee Smart Thermostat with voice control offers a lot of customizable options and comes packaged with an external temperature sensor, helping with maintaining comfort in remote rooms.
One of our picks for the best SSDs compatible with the PlayStation 5 recently dropped to its lowest price to date. Normally $229.99, B&H Photo is selling the 1TB version of Samsung’s lightning-quick 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD for $149.99 (discount applies at checkout). That’s $80 off one of the few drives out there that meets Sony’s performance requirements for its latest console, assuming you have a heatsink like EKWB’s EK-M2 NVMe to pair with it. This M.2 SSD also works with PC, but you need to have a compatible motherboard to enjoy its advertised PCIe 4.0 speeds. Otherwise, it’ll still work but at slower speeds.
If you prefer earbuds to headphones, you still have four days left to snag a set of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 for their lowest price to date. Regularly $149.99, Woot is selling the true wireless earbuds — which come with support for active noise cancellation — for $99.99 through January 3rd. Note, however, that these don’t come with Samsung’s one-year warranty but rather a 90-day warranty through Woot. Think twice about this. We’ve seen the price at other retailers dipping down to around $110, but Woot’s deal might be the one you want.
After reviewing them, my colleague Chris Welch was impressed by their audio quality as well as their small, discreet design. In fact, these wireless earbuds are easily some of Samsung’s smallest and lightest yet. Read our review.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2
The Galaxy Buds 2 are the new entry-level wireless earbuds from Samsung. Despite this, they’re packed with enough features that people on a budget might be happy choosing these over the pricier Buds Pro.
Some other good deals happening now:
If you need a new power adapter, you can buy Apple’s official 20W USB-C adapter for $15.69 instead of $19 at Amazon, its lowest price to date.
A few of Oculus’ must-have accessories for the Quest 2 headset are still discounted, including the Elite Strap at $39 (usually $49) and the hard zip-up case for $39 (also normally $49).
You can reserve a pair of the AirPods Max at Micro Center for $429.99, though they’re currently only available for in-store pickup in select regions.
Amazon is discounting the Eve Energy Strip, selling it for an all-time low of $79.96 when you clip the on-page coupon. The Eve Energy Strip makes it easy to independently control three power outlets via Siri, an app, or using a handful of other devices while at home or away.
Amazon and Best Buy are both selling Razer’s Basilisk v2 wired gaming mouse for $34.99 instead of $79.99. The latter is also offering a $10 discount on Microsoft’s PC Game Pass with your purchase.
At the start of 2021, Sony introduced the $2,500 Xperia Pro. It was a phone the company made for video professionals. Now, Sony is back with a second professional-grade smartphone designed to appeal to photography enthusiasts. The headline feature of the Xperia Pro-I is a 1-inch sensor borrowed from the company’s RX100 VII point-and-shoot camera. That’s a much larger sensor than you’ll find on most phones.
To put things in perspective, the primary sensor on the Pixel 6 Pro features a pixel pitch of 1.2µm. By contrast, the main sensor on the Pro-I has 2.4µm-sized pixels, making it much better in low light. It can also shoot 12-bit RAW files and native 4K video at 120 frames per second with eye-detection auto-focus. Speaking of auto-focus, it comes with 315 points that cover 90 percent of the frame.
The Pro-I also includes one of Sony’s BIONZ X imaging processors, giving it the ability to shoot up to 20 frames per second with both auto-focus and auto-exposure enabled. The fast readout speed of the sensor allows it to avoid a rolling shutter effect, a feature Sony says helps the Pro-I stand out from other phones with 1-inch sensors like the Mi 11 Ultra. Those handsets also don’t have phase-detection autofocus like the Pro-I does.
Complimenting the 1-inch sensor is a 24mm lens made from glass that can switch between f/2.0 and f/4.0 apertures. Sony went with an aspherical design to make the optics as small as possible. Flanking the primary camera is a 16mm ultrawide camera and a 50mm telephoto camera. Sony says it chose that lens arrangement after consulting with photographers who told the company they wanted a setup that matched their collection of prime lenses.
Once you get past its camera, the Xperia Pro-I is essentially a souped-up Xperia 1 III. Internally, the phone features a Snapdragon 888 supported by 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. You can add up to 1TB of additional storage with the help of a microSD card. Powering everything is a 4,500mAh battery Sony claims will allow you to use the Pro-I for a full day on a single charge. Inside the box is a 30W power adapter that can charge the phone to 50 percent in 30 minutes.
The Pro-I also features the same 6.5-inch OLED that came on the Xperia 1 III. It’s a 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 21:9 aspect ratio. On the audio front, the Pro-I not only comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it also includes Sony’s LDAC and DSEE technologies.
All of those capabilities come with a hefty price tag. In the US, Sony plans to sell the Xperia Pro-I for the eye-watering price of $1,800. The way the company sees it, you’re effectively getting a flagship phone and RX100 VII for less than the price of buying those devices separately. However, the Xperia Pro-I isn’t a one-to-one replacement for the RX100 VII. Sony’s point-and-camera outputs images at 20.1-megapixel, using the full readout from its sensor. The Pro-I uses a crop because taking advantage of the entire sensor would necessitate a much larger lens than would be feasible to include on a smartphone.
Pre-orders for the Xperia Pro-I open on October 28th, with general availability to follow in December.
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Sony has teamed up with Chinese smartphone company Meizu.
The partnership will see several Meizu apps and services being available on the Xperia 1 III.
This is ostensibly limited to China only for now.
China seems to be a tough market to crack if you’re a non-Chinese smartphone brand. Sony is indeed one of these companies, but it looks like the Xperia maker has a rather interesting plan up its sleeve.
The company announced a “strategic” partnership with rival manufacturer Meizu today in a bid to offer better localized services on the Xperia 1 III flagship phone in China. So what does this partnership actually entail, then?
Sony will pre-install or allow users to download several apps from Meizu’s Flyme Android skin on the Xperia 1 III and newer devices in China. More specifically, Chinese users can download the Flyme app store as well as services related to news, email, and weather. You’ll need the system update that was apparently pushed out to devices in October to take advantage of this.
Just the first step?
“During the strategic cooperation period, Sony and Meizu will further explore more Flyme functions and application cooperation possibilities on different products,” read a machine-translated excerpt of the announcement.
It’s a rather interesting partnership, as neither party is a major player in China. Meizu in particular has seen its market share decline significantly in its home market since its highs in the mid-2010s, accounting for less than 1% by the last count.
In any case, we’ve asked Sony whether the services will be available globally as well as whether the company is open to adopting Meizu’s Flyme skin in China. We’ll update the article if or when the company gets back to us.
Sony is announcing two new phones today, the Xperia 1 III and the Xperia 5 III. Both are the latest in Sony’s campaign to redefine the Xperia brand as a kind of sibling to its well-regarded Alpha digital cameras. As such, the camera system is once again the main focus, and Sony specifically is touting the “world’s first smartphone with a variable telephoto lens paired with a Dual PD sensor” and improvements to its already fast and accurate autofocus system.
Pricing was not announced, but they should both be available in the US “this summer.”
Each phone has the basic specs you’d expect on a top-flight Android phone: three cameras on the rear, a Snapdragon 888 processor, and support for 5G. Actually, the 5G support is worth noting because these Xperia phones will be able to work on 5G networks in the US, something weirdly lacking on the last models. However, they’ll only work on the regular sub-6 networks on Verizon and T-Mobile, without support for AT&T’s 5G network. As is fairly usual for Sony, these will be sold directly rather than via carriers.
The phone also keep the Xperia design language Sony landed on with the original Xperia 1. They’re tall and narrow, with lots of glossy black and small curves on all the angles, giving them the most monolithic look of a smartphone today. I think they look great, but I’m also aware that they’re likely to cost a lot of money when Sony gets around to announcing the price.
In order to establish the Xperia brand, Sony has also been pushing a lot of other nice specs that are relatively hard to come by on other Android phones. The Xperia 1 III has a 4K OLED screen that now supports a fast (though locked) 120Hz refresh rate. There are dual speakers that are 40 percent louder and will work with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format.
Sony is also enabling a special mode for the USB-C port that allows you to use a special cable to take an HD-resolution video signal from an SLR camera so you can use it as a monitor – much like the Xperia Pro can do with HDMI. That could also make them an interesting option for live streaming.
They’ll come in both dual-SIM and SIM+microSD variants. And there’s even a good ol’ headphone jack and a shutter button.
There’s also the more standard fare, like wireless charging and a 4,500mAh battery. When plugged in and gaming the phones can redirect power away from the battery to reduce heat. Both phones will ship with Android 11, but as of right now there’s no clear commitment to future software updates.
If you step down from the Xperia 1 III to the Xperia 5 III, you’ll get a very similar set of specs with a few exceptions. It’ll be smaller, of course. The larger phone has a 6.5-inch 21:9 display while the 5 has a 6.1-inch 21:9 display — at 1080p resolution instead of 4K. But it still has support for the periscope-style variable lens.
But again, the big push is on the cameras and here Sony has done quite a bit to improve the hardware. Sony is using three 12-megapixel sensors on the back, and both the main and telephoto lenses support OIS. (The Xperia 1 III also gets a time-of-flight sensor.)
Sony says it has lenses that are the equivalent to 16mm (f/2.2 ultrawide), 24mm (f/1.7 wide), and 70mm (f/2.3 telephoto), but that the telephoto can also reach to an f/2.8 105mm equivalent. That extra telephoto zoom comes thanks to a folded periscope lens design, and the Xperia is physically moving the lens elements to get different focal lengths.
The idea is that photographers will mostly stick to those focal lengths, but should they want to zoom further or use a zoom level in between the Xperia phones will utilize digital zoom.
Beyond the fancy hardware, Sony has iterated on its software. Unlike Google, Apple, and even Samsung, Sony is putting its emphasis on technical features rather than computational photography. It is claiming some improved low-light performance in some situations, but really the main emphasis is on features like autofocus and shooting speed.
These phones can take photos at up to 20fps with focus/exposure readings happening at 60fps. They also support 120FPS 4K in HDR. There’s still eye-tracking autofocus, but this year there’s real-time tracking for that autofocus. In a demo, Sony showed a subject turning around and when their eye was visible again, the camera adjusted.
Sony is finally integrating its pro camera app with the main camera app. There’s the “basic” mode like any smartphone, but it’s now quicker to get to the pro mode. Sony’s pro mode really is angled towards people who use Sony’s cameras, too: the interface is very similar.
On paper, all of this sounds really great. We’ll need to review them to see if these specs can translate to great experiences. Previous Sony Xperia phones have also had great camera hardware specs, but for taking quick shots they have often missed the mark. Treating a smartphone camera as a pro SLR-style camera could limit their appeal.
Sony’s tack with the Xperia line is to pack them to the gills with specs and features that will appeal to photographers and even videographers (there’s an excellent workflow-based video app included). In reality, however, Sony has struggled mightily to gain any measurable marketshare in the US. A lot of that has come down to higher prices than is the norm for even flagship Android phones, but some of it also comes down to availability. Without carrier partnerships or massive marketing budgets, these Xperia phones are more likely to appeal to camera enthusiasts than mainstream Android buyers.
Sony has quietly updated the official Xperia page’s YouTube banner to reveal that it’s announcing a new product in a couple of weeks. As noticed by Droid Life, the banner says the company is launching a new Xperia product on April 14th at 4:30PM Japan time or 3:30AM Eastern time in the US. Seeing as Sony used Xperia’s YouTube banner for the announce reveal, it’ll likely stream the event on the video platform.
The company didn’t say what kind of product it’s unveiling, but rumored specs for a phone that’s reportedly named Xperia 1 III have been going around. According to those rumors, the phone will have specifications to rival other companies’ flagship devices. It will reportedly have a 6.5-inch 4K OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a periscope lens that will be made in-house by Sony’s CyberShot division.
The phone is said to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, the brand’s latest premium processor for smartphones, and can have up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Other possible features include a 5,000mAh battery, an SD slot and a headphone jack. The model will reportedly cost around US$1,370 when converted from Chinese Yuan, which doesn’t come as a surprise, seeing as Xperia 1 II was priced at $1,200 at launch.
We’ll know for sure on April 14th — we’ll let you know by then if Sony indeed unveils a new phone.
Sony has quietly updated the official Xperia page’s YouTube banner to reveal that it’s announcing a new product in a couple of weeks. As noticed by Droid Life, the banner says the company is launching a new Xperia product on April 14th at 4:30PM Japan time or 3:30AM Eastern time in the US. Seeing as Sony used Xperia’s YouTube banner for the announce reveal, it’ll likely stream the event on the video platform.
The company didn’t say what kind of product it’s unveiling, but rumored specs for a phone that’s reportedly named Xperia 1 III have been going around. According to those rumors, the phone will have specifications to rival other companies’ flagship devices. It will reportedly have a 6.5-inch 4K OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a periscope lens that will be made in-house by Sony’s CyberShot division.
The phone is said to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, the brand’s latest premium processor for smartphones, and can have up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Other possible features include a 5,000mAh battery, an SD slot and a headphone jack. The model will reportedly cost around US$1,370 when converted from Chinese Yuan, which doesn’t come as a surprise, seeing as Xperia 1 II was priced at $1,200 at launch.
We’ll know for sure on April 14th — we’ll let you know by then if Sony indeed unveils a new phone.
Sony has, in a very low-key way, just announced that its upcoming Xperia event will be on April 14th (via Droid Life). The news comes from the Xperia YouTube channel’s banner, where it lays out that there will be a new product announcement happening at 4:30PM Japan Standard Time — that’s 3:30AM EST, or 12:30AM PT (if you feel like burning the midnight oil to watch live).
The banner gives no real hints as to what will be announced, but there have been a few rumors floating around — one about a new flagship, the Xperia 1 III, and one about the return of the Xperia Compact, which could end up being an Android answer to the iPhone Mini.
Image: Sony
It’s worth noting that there are other rumors that mention new versions of the Xperia 5 and 10, leaving out the Compact entirely. But pretty much every rumor indicates that we’ll see a new entry in the flagship Xperia 1 line. Leaks indicate that the 1 III will have a periscope zoom lens, and Techradar recently published what could be the full specs. It’s mostly what’s expected from a flagship Android phone: Snapdragon 888, 12GB of memory, 5G, and a 4K 120Hz screen.
It’s probably a safe bet that if there’s only one phone being announced (which is hinted at by the singular “product” in the image from Sony), the Xperia 1 III would be it — the 1 line seems to be on a yearly cycle. The Compact is much more of a wildcard — the last time Sony released a “Compact” branded phone was in 2018, though it does use the word to market the Xperia 5 II, with its 6.1-inch screen, which is around the same size as an iPhone 12 Pro or Galaxy S21. The rumors for a 2021 version of the Compact say that it’ll have a 5.5-inch display, which is only a tiny bit bigger than the screen on an iPhone Mini.
Both potential phones are rumored to come with headphone jacks. As for what we’ll actually see on the day, only time will tell — but thankfully there’s not much of it left.