The Xperia 1 III is still a good buy half a year later

We first reviewed the Sony Xperia 1 III back in July 2021, calling it Sony’s best smartphone to date. It wasn’t perfect though, due to the high price tag and missing features compared to contemporary flagships. But it still made for a great purchase for Sony fans thanks to the multimedia focus, unique camera experience, and 4K 120Hz screen.

We posted our six-month-later review over the weekend and asked readers whether the phone was still buying after all this time. Here’s how you voted in that poll.

Do you think the Xperia 1 III is still a good buy six months later?

Results

We posted our six-month later review and accompanying poll on Saturday, March 12, gathering over 1,300 votes in the process. It turns out that a massive 83% of respondents say the Xperia 1 III is still a good buy six months down the line.

One reader comment pointed out all the upsides to Sony’s 2021 flagship, such as a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, that variable telephoto lens, a headphone port, no punch-hole cutout or notch, and the pro camera apps. Between these factors and our own favorite features, we can understand why the vast majority of polled readers think it’s still a good buy.

Just over 16% of polled readers said the Xperia 1 III wasn’t a good buy six months down the line though. Two readers left comments detailing their issues with the handset, with one reader saying they’ve already put their phone up for sale and that everything aside from the design was “lackluster or average.” Another reader noted issues with overheating when transferring files, as well as poor quality low-light video and battery drain with the Cinema Pro app.

Comments

• Bx8: Sony’s high end phones (Xperia 1 and 5 III) still have some nice and unique features on the hardware side : a real fingerprint reader on the side, not hidden behind the screen (which often become very slow when we add a glass protection on top), a variable optical telephoto lens, a screen without the useless notches or other camera holes, a headphone jack… and on the software side they keep some little but useful features like all the battery management features (several eco modes, a charge lock if we don’t want to charge up to 100%…), some storage options, the really good pro apps for the camera…
• Derek Manning: Interestingly the article dodges the cinema pro mode, which had the notoriety of producing the phone’s greatest duality. On one hand the cinema pro app produces results nothing short of amazing. When it’s at its best, the cinema pro app produces video that is unrivaled in the mobile phone shooting world. Night videos are appalling and require adequate artificial lighting. There also seems to be a problem with the phones chipset when it comes to data transfers. I have found repeatedly that the phone can overheat when transferring large files via Wi-Fi or cellular networks.
• Howie: I, love the Sony phone
• Victor Rumiancev: I put my one on sale already. Basically the only thing I love about this phone is design and look. Everything else – lackluster or average. Not worth even $900 right from the start, to be honest.