Sony Xperia 1 III Review - The Thinking Man's S21 Ultra? By The Tech Chap

All right: let's do this, hey guys, I'm tummy tech chap, and this is the new Sony Xperia one mark three. Now I love reviewing these Sony phones, I think they're, some of the most uh innovative and actually interesting phones to talk about, but every year I get told off because apparently I'm just not using it properly. These past Xperia reviews have been some of my most disliked videos, which is a real shame, because my job is to your know, share my experience of a product and then hopefully help you make a buying decision but Xperia after Expedia. When I criticize it when I say the camera's not quite up to snuff, I just sort of get told off that I'm not using it properly. I need to be using pro mode and tinker with all the settings all the time to get the most out of it, and I'm just being a bit well, I think there's only one word to describe it, and it's at the top right there if it'll focus I'm just being a bit basic, and it's an enthusiast phone, a professional's phone and in some ways I would describe this as maybe as the thinking man's galaxy s21 ultra, but just because this is considered a more advanced user's phone doesn't automatically make it the best or, more importantly, good value, because the first thing you should know about the mark iii is that it costs 1200 pounds. That's the same as the galaxy s21 ultra Sony is still pitching this as a proper but clenching, expensive, flagship phone and to be fair, there's pretty good reason for that price.

We have all the latest and greatest specs, including 12 gigs of ram and a snapdragon triple eight. But the highlights really are this stunning 4k 21x9 OLED screen. That's now 120 hertz! No one else has anything like this. There's also, this triple well actually quad camera setup with a brand spanking new variable, telephoto lens, so the glass physically moves inside to give you both a 70 and a 105 mil focal length which is seriously impressive engineering and again no one else is doing this, and I could absolutely see this becoming a new kind of standard for phone cameras. Instead of just packing in more and more lenses.

We also get the latest guerilla glass Vitus to protect the screen, as well as this gorgeous frosted glass. Soft touch finish on the back. The power button continues to double as a very reliable fingerprint reader, although bizarrely there's still no face unlock option here, but there's a plethora of other extras that are all too rare on flagship phones. These days, like micro SD card support, a headphone jack, a physical camera shutter button, a LED notification, light custom buttons, great sounding stereo speakers that are actually 50 louder than before, along with best-in-class haptics and there's not a notch or hole punch in sight. So, there's genuinely a lot to love about the mark iii and it kind of goes to show that when other brands say oh well, we can't find room for a micro, SD or headphone jack.

Well, Sony's done it. Why can't you? But for me the cherry on top is the lovely software which feels like stock android 11 with a thin sunny UI on top that adds about a billion features which you can either leave alone or really dive into and tinker with, and this taller screen is great for apps, that use feeds or, if you're reading online, because you can basically have more on the screen at once and if you double tap the edge here, you bring up side sense for some quick app shortcuts. You've also got multi window for split screening, which is actually somewhat usable on a screen like this, especially in landscape mode, so minimal blow, wear lots of handy extras, it's just great to use, and actually I haven't experienced that slow, auto rotate that Marquez talked about in his review. It seems pretty normal on my phone. You will, however, struggle to find the regular android camera app because it's actually been subsumed entirely by Sony's photo pro app, as you can see here, which by default, takes you into basic mode, but you can switch to more advanced modes if you want more fine control, so for some people this will be the absolute dream phone.

I mean 4k ultra-wide fantastic speakers, so it's great for watching movies on more camera options than you could shake a stick at, and it's all in this beautiful thin and light extra long slab of glass. And for me, I actually love this form factor. I think a little narrower but taller design, while, obviously you have to do some finger gymnastics to reach the top, although there is a one-handed mode. I think this is quite a bit more comfortable than a massive s21 ultra. So it's a genuinely lovely phone, but I wouldn't buy one and that's for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the battery life is very average. The 4500 William cell is a decent size, given the form factor of the phone, but it's the cost of having a 4k 120 hertz screen, and so I'm only getting about five and a half hours of screen on time with this, and I'm down to about 10 by 11 pm, although we do now have faster 30 watt, charging, plus wireless and reverse wireless charging. But what really bothers me about this is how, in every other regard it's kind of like you know the advanced user's phone. They assume. You know what you're doing.

That's, why there's so much uh fine control over the camera and the display. So why is it that we can't change the resolution? It is stuck at 4k, which means it's always lovely and crisp and sharp, but it has such an impact on your battery life and for me, when I'm you know out and about- and maybe I don't have access to a charger, I would love the ability to drop this down to 1080p, which is still pretty reasonable on a six and a half inch phone. But you don't have that, and also with the refresh rate. Obviously you can choose between 60 and 120, but it's not dynamic. There's no auto mode.

There's no 90 hertz option. It's just kind of strange. How, in every other aspect you can really. You know, have that fine control, but not when it comes to that 4k resolution, which honestly, I just don't think you need on a phone. Obviously it is quite satisfying to jump into the YouTube, app and then select 4k and know that you're watching a 4k video back natively, but unless you're really bringing up close to your eyes, you're not going to notice that much difference and the cynical side of me just thinks that it's partly marketing because of course the Sony bra via TV side of things they just want everything 4k and so as gorgeously sharp as this screen is.

I just don't think that 4k res is really worth the impact on battery life, at least in my opinion. Also, the screen just doesn't get bright enough next to something like the s21 ultra or the Oppo f5 x3 pro the sub 700 nit peak HDR brightness. Just doesn't pop, and it's a little harder to use in daylight and then there's the camera, and this is where maybe I should tread a little more lightly, because Sony's pedigree is best in class. I use the fantastic a7s iii as my video camera. I know how good the alpha range and Sony's optics are.

Furthermore, I also know how innovative this variable telephoto lens is, and I also very much appreciate that Sony's processing is geared toward offering the most natural and most realistic photos, and we're getting top-notch autofocus and 20 fps burst mode options plus. Furthermore, I love the fact that a half press of the shutter button focuses with the full press taking the shot. It's really satisfying and most of the time the camera shines well, at least in good light. But of course photography is a beautifully subjective art form, and while I don't personally love Samsung's, overly vivid and sharpened photos, I do appreciate the wider dynamic range we get so the detail in the darker and brighter areas of the shot. Sony zoom also maxes out at a respectable 4.4 times, but it can't compete with the three times and 10 times optical lenses on the s21 ultra to its credit, the shutter speed on this is insanely quick. So we can keep up with fast moving subjects and in terms of selfies.

Well, even the most hardcore Xperia photography enthusiast, I'm sure occasionally takes a selfie or two but side by side points to Gryffindor I mean Samsung, but it's in low light, where the Xperia really does start to struggle Sony says they don't need a dedicated night mode because it looks too fake on most phones, but it just can't keep up now. I appreciate that a big selling point of this is that you do have that fine control over the camera settings, and you do, but that doesn't necessarily always mean you're going to get a better shot, and actually one of the things that I thought was fascinating mentioned by Mr mobile and David Logan in his review is that obviously we have a fixed aperture with these phone cameras, only the uh Galaxy S9 had that variable aperture, which was pretty cool but then went away so really there's only so much you can do with the ISO and shutter speed. Video quality is solid, although it's a bit of a shame, there's no 8k option and also selfie video tops out at 1080p, but that's not really a big deal. Overall, it looks good, but it's nothing really to write home about, so there's an awful lot of flexibility with the camera, and I'm very impressed with the engineering of that telephoto lens, but where it counts. The end results.

I just don't think it's good enough, although again that is just my opinion. I was listening to MHD's podcast a couple of days ago and my good friend, David impel, was on it talking about the Sony mach3, and he described it in so many words as the quintessential android Subreddit user's phone, which I thought was pretty funny, because I know I'm going to get some comments for this, but there does seem to be an air of superiority, perhaps in the Xperia fan base, and maybe that's fair enough, because this is more of an enthusiast, advanced user's phone but, as I said at the beginning of the video that doesn't automatically make it the best phone and if I was going to go out and spend like 1100 pounds over a grand on a phone personally, I would probably go with the s21 ultra, but then again, maybe I'm just a bit basic but anyway, I hope this video was useful, and I do welcome your feedback and your criticism. Uh. You know, let me know what you make of this in the comments below. Do you agree with me? Do you think I couldn't be more wrong and if you haven't raged quit out of this video, then why not? Give me a cheeky sub and a thumbs up, and I will see you next time right here on the tech chat thanks for watching.

Source : The Tech Chap