Xperia 5 and 10 III complete Sony’s 2021 smartphone lineup

Damien Wilde | Apr 14 2021 - 3:04 am PT

Alongside the Xperia 1 III, Sony also officially launched the Xperia 5 III and Xperia 10 III to complete the Japanese firm’s smartphone lineup for 2021.

While they share the naming, there are some core differences. The Sony Xperia 5 III is more like the Xperia 1 III Lite, with a step down in the display size from 6.5 to 6.1 inches and resolution from 4K to FHD+ — with a 120Hz refresh rate intact. The rest of the “core” specifications are also the same. So that means, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, slightly lower 8GB of RAM, 128/256GB of onboard storage, and 4,500mAh battery — but with no Qi wireless charging.

Everything else is the exact same, with the same camera setup including that 70 to 105mm variable telephoto zoom lens. So a quick rundown: triple 12-megapixel sensor setup with 24mm wide, 16mm ultrawide, and 70-105mm telephoto but drops the Time-of-Flight sensor. The selfie camera is rated at 8 megapixels.

As the affordable Sony smartphone for 2021, the Xperia 10 III takes a few more bumps in the specifications department compared to the Xperia 5 III. The 6-inch FHD+ OLED display is capped at 60Hz, but the touch sampling rate is rated at 120Hz. It packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G-enabled chipset, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of microSD expandable storage up to 1TB. It too comes with a 4,500mAh battery, but can only be topped up at 18W speeds and lacks wireless charging.

Another area where obvious cuts have been made is in the Xperia 10 III camera setup. Unlike the Xperia 5 III, this is an entry-level setup that consists of a 12-megapixel 27mm wide, 8-megapixel 16mm ultrawide, and 8-megapixel 54mm 2x telephoto. The selfie camera is rated at 8 megapixels with a 78-degree FOV. So nothing particularly groundbreaking here.

Both the Xperia 5 III and Xperia 10 III will come with Android 11 pre-loaded, along with all of the added Sony Pro camera tweaks and extras. They also rely on a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner for biometric unlocks.

Much like the flagship Xperia 1 III, the Xperia 5 and 10 III are listed as arriving this “summer” with no details on pricing or regional availability.