Sony’s next flagship – the Xperia I III – leaked out in all its design glory a few weeks ago, revealing a familiar design and a huge camera upgrade. Well, it looks like the upcoming Sony offering will be another Android ‘ultra’ flagship that will rival the likes of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The fresh leak comes from Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, and lays out some of the upcoming phone’s key specifications.
A 4K HDR OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate..? God help the poor battery!
Starting with the screen, the Xperia 1 III will reportedly pack an HDR-ready OLED display with 4K resolution. And just like a majority of Android flagships out there, the pixel-dense panel will offer a 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth experience. As per the leaked renders, Sony is going after a seamless design without any notch or hole-punch cutout, just like its predecessor. The screen will offer a peak brightness of 1,300 nits and will likely retain the super tall 21:9 ‘cinematic’ aspect ratio.
Image: Steve H / Voice
Coming to the innards, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 SoC will keep things running inside the Xperia 1 III. Sony will reportedly offer the phone in two memory configurations – 12GB + 256GB and 16GB + 512GB. And to keep the lights on, there will be a sufficiently large 5,000mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging, matching the OnePlus 9 Pro. However, the leak doesn’t mention if there will be support for wireless charging on the table.
Snapdragon 888 SoC, 16GB RAM, 65W fast charging, and a 60x zoom periscope camera
The camera department is where the major upgrades are happening. Instead of the triple 12MP camera setup of its predecessor, the Xperia 1 III will allegedly come armed with a 64MP primary camera, assisted by a 12MP sensor for wide-angle photography. Sony is also packing a 12MP telephoto camera on the phone that relies on a folded lens/periscope system to deliver lossless zoom. While the optical zoom output remains a mystery, there is mention of 60x zoom – most likely the digital zoom output.
Given the aforementioned specs, the Sony Xperia I III will likely cost around a thousand bucks, or even more. Let’s just hope Sony doesn’t take a year to put this phone up for sale!