With a formal out of the smartphone market, analysts and observers may have begun to wonder whether Sony or HTC, or both, will immediately follow. As if proving that it hadn’t dropped for a count, Sony launched the Xperia High-end 1 III two months ago. That’s how long it also brings the company to actually start receiving pre-based bookings for one of the most expensive “normal” smartphones this year, without the company’s date when it actually will be sent.
Sony’s phone is always more expensive than his colleagues, but they are almost stuck at their prices. Of course, there are some pushback from consumers turning to a cheaper model, but Sony has so far lived in the middle. Xperia 1 III was no different and slightly exceeded some of the earliest handsets this year but for a good reason.
This phone introduces two technologies that are not found on other smartphones, at least not yet. The spotlight is, of course, that telefoto 12MP camera with the first variable telefoto optical lens of the market, giving it an effective optical zoom of 2.9x to 4.4x. Two other 12MP cameras also borrowed technology for the Sony Alpha series from mirrorless cameras, such as eye AF which was widely called.
Xperia 1 III is also the only smartphone with an OLED 4K 120Hz screen, but Sony has always been an outlier when it comes to a cellular screen resolution. With Snapdragon 888, 12GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, advanced audio hardware, and the ability to connect to Sony cameras, is really no wonder it’s expensive.
Sony Xperia 1 III will start the pre-order period in the US on July 1 comes on a steep $ 1,299 price label, which is slightly higher than the equivalent Ultra 5G Galaxy S21. That said, Sony hasn’t indicated when the phone will actually send or when more affordable XPERIA 5 III middlephones will arrive.