Sony Xperia 1 III review - Everything you want, and that's a problem

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the camera bump on the new sony xperia 1 mark iii you see that large circle at the bottom it houses a variable zoom lens with tiny lens elements that move to give you two different optical telephoto links it's kind of like having two cameras in one but does innovative camera hardware along with 5g support in the us and the first ever 4k high refresh rate display make the xperia 1 mark 3 worth its 1300 price let's find out among the exhaustive expanse of smartphones the sony xperia 1 mark iii positions itself as a tool for photographers filmmakers audiophiles and gamers this is sony's third take on a phone targeted at creative types and like a band on its third album its ambitions only succeed some of the time sony lent me a pre-production version to test for about a week i found it equal parts impressive and full of wrinkles greeting you on the front of the xperia one mark iii is a 6.5 inch 4k display it's pretty fantastic indoors and colors look amazing it can be set to 60hz or 220hz which makes animations and gaming look smooth the refresh rates are fixed so if it's set to 120 hertz it's always at that rate which has a significant impact on battery life and as impressive as the 4k resolution is it's hard to appreciate the screen i mean it's not dramatically better than a lower resolution screen with a high refresh rate like the one on the galaxy s21 ultra however using the phone outdoors is where the display's weakness is revealed it's not that bright if it's sunny it's almost impossible to make out clearly what's on the screen like the sony xperia pro you can use the xperia 1 mark iii as an external monitor for a dedicated camera it doesn't offer everything the pro does but it's nice to have when i tested the external display app on the xperia one mark iii it was buggy when it did work it was lovely but after a while it only showed my camera's feed zoomed in with a green overlay on the back are three cameras a main 12 megapixel wide angle camera with a larger sensor for better low light performance a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera and a 12 megapixel telephoto camera with a variable optical zoom lens the variable telephoto lens is no doubt a remarkable achievement it's basically two lenses in one but in terms of benefits you actually noticed the dual telephoto lens remains a question mark for example despite taking up less room it doesn't make the phone any cheaper in fact the xperia one mark iii cost a hundred dollars more than last year's xperia mark ii in terms of versatility it's nice to have the option of two telephoto cameras but other phones like the galaxy s21 ultra achieve something similar with two separate telephoto cameras fortunately the xperia 1 mark 3's zoom lens captures good photos especially in terms of image quality and detail in fact across the board the rear cameras on the xperia are closely matched in terms of image quality and color but the standout feature isn't the variable telephoto lens it's eye autofocus this isn't new to the xperia line of phones in fact it comes from sony's popular line of alpha mirrorless cameras essentially when you open up the photo pro app to take a photo the phone can identify people or animals in the viewfinder and lock focus on their eyes there's even a green square to let you know that it's locked on even if they move or look away eye autofocus follows them you don't even need to tap the screen now for parents trying to grab that nice in-focus photo of their kid or pet parents wanting a non-blurry snap of their fur baby eye autofocus is the answer you've been looking for overall the xperia one mark iii is capable of some wonderful photos take a look at some of my favorite ones that i've taken the xperia 1 mark iii retains the hardware shutter button which is nice also instead of having a default android camera app and two separate pro camera apps the xperia has a photo pro app and a cinema pro app i appreciate sony simplifying things but it's so a little odd how it's done essentially sony took what was the default android camera app and put it inside the photo pro app under a mode called basic and yes that's actually what it's called sony removed a camera app but kind of created a little conundrum it's strange opening the photo pro app in order to record videos and access slow motion mode there just has to be a better way also when you record a video in basic mode there's a long delay between hitting the stop record button and the recording actually stopping i end up thinking my tap didn't register so i tap a second time which results in the first video stopping and a new recording starting oh it's just annoying also when you record a video you can't switch between cameras you're limited to just digital zoom on the camera you started recording with if you're into manual controls or taking a more cinematic approach to capturing videos with your phone the cinema pro app is for you on last year's xperia one mark ii i actually shot an entire short film with the app and like the xperia 5 mark ii the cinema pro app on the xperia 1 mark iii now has the ability to record 4k 120 frames per second video with the main camera save it as a 30 frame per second video file and slow motion footage looks incredible in fact as with previous xperia phones the cinema pro app yields some gorgeous looking videos take a look at some of the ones i recorded the cinema pro app does have some limitations low-light videos are bad and that's because the app is designed to shoot at a maximum iso of 800. also when shooting outdoors on a sunny day it's easy to bottom out the iso which means using a ridiculously low shutter angle to compensate now if you're planning on using the xperia and shooting with the cinema pro app outside i definitely recommend finding a neutral density filter solution now there is a selfie camera and let's talk about it when compared to the rear cameras the selfie camera is just okay it has an 8 megapixel sensor and photos are average when it comes to videos it has this huge crop here take a look i took a selfie photo and then i didn't move my hand and i went to go film a selfie video in the same position right okay look i expect more from any phone aimed at photographers especially one with a 1300 dollar price tag i wish the selfie camera was closer in image quality to the rear cameras and also it'd be nice to use the selfie camera to film yourself in the cinema pro app the xperia one mark iii is the first regular sony phone to get 5g in the us the 2500 xperia pro had 5g support in the us for sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g the xperia one mark 3 supports mid band and low band 5g i tested it on t-mobile's 5g network here in greenville south carolina now the indicator displays a 5g icon but most of the time it's actually just lte and this happens on other 5g phones i tested on t-mobile's 5g network as well data speeds were kind of all over the place but calls sounded clear the xperia has a snapdragon 888 processor and 12 gigabytes of ram which translates to solid performance especially for recording videos and playing games the only time i had an issue was taking photos and filming videos on a 92 degree day outside within half an hour the temperature warning popped up and then there's the battery which is more disappointing than the friends reunion in light use i was able to mostly get through a day but on days where i played games or did a lot of photography i needed to top it off by dinner time in our cnet battery test with continuous video playback and airplane mode it lasted 16 hours and 12 minutes with the screen set at 60 hertz which is an okay time and better than the xperia 1 mark ii when i ran the same test with the screen at 120 hertz it lasted 10 hours in 45 minutes which yeah that's not even remotely good and all of this raises the question is sony trying to do too much and inadvertently mucking up what would otherwise be a magnificent phone the xperia is packed with features that check all of the android flagship phone boxes and then some headphone jack expandable storage and led notification light on the front i mean get out of here right but a nose bleeding high price of thirteen hundred dollars buggy software and a confusing way of organizing some standard photo and video features make it hard to recommend the xperia one mark iii yet i kind of wonder about the xperia 5 mark iii on paper it seems like it could be a more balanced phone and a better well value we'll have to test it and see if you're set on getting an xperia 1 mark iii check out the link in the description pre-orders are live and will ship starting august 19th now sony also has an offer until september 26th where you can get the phone as well as sony wf-1000xm3 wireless noise canceling earbuds and 43 200 call of duty mobile cp points for 1300 which lessens the sting just a bit i guess but now i want to hear from you what do you think about the sony xperia one mark iii do you think the features and compromises are worth the high price throw your thoughts in the commentsthis is the camera bump on the new sony xperia 1 mark iii you see that large circle at the bottom it houses a variable zoom lens with tiny lens elements that move to give you two different optical telephoto links it's kind of like having two cameras in one but does innovative camera hardware along with 5g support in the us and the first ever 4k high refresh rate display make the xperia 1 mark 3 worth its 1300 price let's find out among the exhaustive expanse of smartphones the sony xperia 1 mark iii positions itself as a tool for photographers filmmakers audiophiles and gamers this is sony's third take on a phone targeted at creative types and like a band on its third album its ambitions only succeed some of the time sony lent me a pre-production version to test for about a week i found it equal parts impressive and full of wrinkles greeting you on the front of the xperia one mark iii is a 6.5 inch 4k display it's pretty fantastic indoors and colors look amazing it can be set to 60hz or 220hz which makes animations and gaming look smooth the refresh rates are fixed so if it's set to 120 hertz it's always at that rate which has a significant impact on battery life and as impressive as the 4k resolution is it's hard to appreciate the screen i mean it's not dramatically better than a lower resolution screen with a high refresh rate like the one on the galaxy s21 ultra however using the phone outdoors is where the display's weakness is revealed it's not that bright if it's sunny it's almost impossible to make out clearly what's on the screen like the sony xperia pro you can use the xperia 1 mark iii as an external monitor for a dedicated camera it doesn't offer everything the pro does but it's nice to have when i tested the external display app on the xperia one mark iii it was buggy when it did work it was lovely but after a while it only showed my camera's feed zoomed in with a green overlay on the back are three cameras a main 12 megapixel wide angle camera with a larger sensor for better low light performance a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera and a 12 megapixel telephoto camera with a variable optical zoom lens the variable telephoto lens is no doubt a remarkable achievement it's basically two lenses in one but in terms of benefits you actually noticed the dual telephoto lens remains a question mark for example despite taking up less room it doesn't make the phone any cheaper in fact the xperia one mark iii cost a hundred dollars more than last year's xperia mark ii in terms of versatility it's nice to have the option of two telephoto cameras but other phones like the galaxy s21 ultra achieve something similar with two separate telephoto cameras fortunately the xperia 1 mark 3's zoom lens captures good photos especially in terms of image quality and detail in fact across the board the rear cameras on the xperia are closely matched in terms of image quality and color but the standout feature isn't the variable telephoto lens it's eye autofocus this isn't new to the xperia line of phones in fact it comes from sony's popular line of alpha mirrorless cameras essentially when you open up the photo pro app to take a photo the phone can identify people or animals in the viewfinder and lock focus on their eyes there's even a green square to let you know that it's locked on even if they move or look away eye autofocus follows them you don't even need to tap the screen now for parents trying to grab that nice in-focus photo of their kid or pet parents wanting a non-blurry snap of their fur baby eye autofocus is the answer you've been looking for overall the xperia one mark iii is capable of some wonderful photos take a look at some of my favorite ones that i've taken the xperia 1 mark iii retains the hardware shutter button which is nice also instead of having a default android camera app and two separate pro camera apps the xperia has a photo pro app and a cinema pro app i appreciate sony simplifying things but it's so a little odd how it's done essentially sony took what was the default android camera app and put it inside the photo pro app under a mode called basic and yes that's actually what it's called sony removed a camera app but kind of created a little conundrum it's strange opening the photo pro app in order to record videos and access slow motion mode there just has to be a better way also when you record a video in basic mode there's a long delay between hitting the stop record button and the recording actually stopping i end up thinking my tap didn't register so i tap a second time which results in the first video stopping and a new recording starting oh it's just annoying also when you record a video you can't switch between cameras you're limited to just digital zoom on the camera you started recording with if you're into manual controls or taking a more cinematic approach to capturing videos with your phone the cinema pro app is for you on last year's xperia one mark ii i actually shot an entire short film with the app and like the xperia 5 mark ii the cinema pro app on the xperia 1 mark iii now has the ability to record 4k 120 frames per second video with the main camera save it as a 30 frame per second video file and slow motion footage looks incredible in fact as with previous xperia phones the cinema pro app yields some gorgeous looking videos take a look at some of the ones i recorded the cinema pro app does have some limitations low-light videos are bad and that's because the app is designed to shoot at a maximum iso of 800. also when shooting outdoors on a sunny day it's easy to bottom out the iso which means using a ridiculously low shutter angle to compensate now if you're planning on using the xperia and shooting with the cinema pro app outside i definitely recommend finding a neutral density filter solution now there is a selfie camera and let's talk about it when compared to the rear cameras the selfie camera is just okay it has an 8 megapixel sensor and photos are average when it comes to videos it has this huge crop here take a look i took a selfie photo and then i didn't move my hand and i went to go film a selfie video in the same position right okay look i expect more from any phone aimed at photographers especially one with a 1300 dollar price tag i wish the selfie camera was closer in image quality to the rear cameras and also it'd be nice to use the selfie camera to film yourself in the cinema pro app the xperia one mark iii is the first regular sony phone to get 5g in the us the 2500 xperia pro had 5g support in the us for sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g the xperia one mark 3 supports mid band and low band 5g i tested it on t-mobile's 5g network here in greenville south carolina now the indicator displays a 5g icon but most of the time it's actually just lte and this happens on other 5g phones i tested on t-mobile's 5g network as well data speeds were kind of all over the place but calls sounded clear the xperia has a snapdragon 888 processor and 12 gigabytes of ram which translates to solid performance especially for recording videos and playing games the only time i had an issue was taking photos and filming videos on a 92 degree day outside within half an hour the temperature warning popped up and then there's the battery which is more disappointing than the friends reunion in light use i was able to mostly get through a day but on days where i played games or did a lot of photography i needed to top it off by dinner time in our cnet battery test with continuous video playback and airplane mode it lasted 16 hours and 12 minutes with the screen set at 60 hertz which is an okay time and better than the xperia 1 mark ii when i ran the same test with the screen at 120 hertz it lasted 10 hours in 45 minutes which yeah that's not even remotely good and all of this raises the question is sony trying to do too much and inadvertently mucking up what would otherwise be a magnificent phone the xperia is packed with features that check all of the android flagship phone boxes and then some headphone jack expandable storage and led notification light on the front i mean get out of here right but a nose bleeding high price of thirteen hundred dollars buggy software and a confusing way of organizing some standard photo and video features make it hard to recommend the xperia one mark iii yet i kind of wonder about the xperia 5 mark iii on paper it seems like it could be a more balanced phone and a better well value we'll have to test it and see if you're set on getting an xperia 1 mark iii check out the link in the description pre-orders are live and will ship starting august 19th now sony also has an offer until september 26th where you can get the phone as well as sony wf-1000xm3 wireless noise canceling earbuds and 43 200 call of duty mobile cp points for 1300 which lessens the sting just a bit i guess but now i want to hear from you what do you think about the sony xperia one mark iii do you think the features and compromises are worth the high price throw your thoughts in the comments\n"