Sony unveils the compact and more affordable Xperia 10 III Lite

The Sony Xperia 10 III (from US$405 on Amazon) is one of the more compact smartphones on the market, which is why the device seems to have a small but passionate following. In Japan, Sony has now announced the more affordable Xperia 10 III Lite with a starting price of 46,800 Japanese Yen (US$426), which is a discount of around 10% compared to the MSRP of the regular Xperia 10 III.

Sony has made only a few changes to justify the smaller price tag of the Xperia 10 III Lite. The internal storage for example was reduced from 128GB to 64GB, but expanding that storage is simple and cheap since the device still features a microSD card slot. FM radio support was also removed, a feature that the majority of buyers who stream their music probably would not have used, especially because the feature was not active in many regions to begin with. The other technical specifications of the cheaper alternative are virtually identical to the more expensive model.

Unchanged are the 6GB of RAM and the 6.0-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1080p, as well as the 5G-capable Snapdragon 690 chipset. Furthermore, the Lite version is still water and dust resistant according to the IP68 standard, and 30W fast charging is still supported. The battery size of 4,500mAh is also identical to the Xperia 10 III, as is the triple camera setup. The Xperia 10 III Lite will be released on August 27 in Japan, but it is unclear whether Sony will bring its latest smartphone to additional markets.