Sony Xperia 1 III: Early hands-on videos point to better cameras all-round, but drawbacks still exist
It seems that Sony is close to opening pre-orders for the Xperia 1 III, its latest flagship smartphone. In the meantime, Ben Sin and TechNick have gotten their hands on the device, which is already available in China. The Chinese and global models are almost identical, save for the lack of Google Mobile Services (GMS) on the former. Hence, the two versions are comparable in most senses.
According to the pair, Sony has improved the quality of the primary rear-facing camera in the Xperia 1 III compared to its predecessor's. Ben Sin goes as far as remarking that the Xperia 1 III competes with the Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max, examples of which you can see in his video below. Ben Sin and TechNick are less impressed by Sony's choice of ultra-wide-angle and periscope cameras, though. Neither are bad by any means, but they are worse than the equivalent sensors used by Apple and Samsung.
In short, the Photo Pro app remains the way to unlock the Xperia 1 III's potential, but the default app takes better photos than it does on the Xperia 1 II. However, TechNick asserts that the Xperia 1 III is not as consistent when pointing and shooting as its competitors are. Ultimately, the Xperia 1 III sounds like an excellent camera smartphone in the right hands.