Sony Xperia 5 III review: This small package brings good things

Speaker 1: This is the Sony Xperia five mark three, it's a utilitarian phone with amenities best appreciated by photographers, filmmakers, audio files, and creative types. This phone was announced at April, 2021 that's nine months ago. And for all intensive purposes, it's a smaller, less expensive version of the Xperia one mark three. And that being said, if you wanna know my thoughts on all the big [00:00:30] features, take a look at my in depth review video for the Sony Xperia one, mark three, for this video, I wanna highlight five things I like about the phone. Three things I don't like about the phone sticking with the mark three theme. Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it and start with number one. The size. This is such a small phone. Now the iPhone 13 mini is smaller and the screen on this is probably closer to like the iPhone 13 or 13 pro. And I know that's a lot of apple mentions for a [00:01:00] video about Sony, but I can't think of an Android phone. That's this small, maybe the galaxy Z flip or the Motorola razor, but those phones are only small when you fold them in half small phone, I ask good espresso. Number two colors in photos from this phone are outstanding. They look natural. Now. I think of a lot of that comes from the fact that Sony's leveraging hardware expertise from its alpha line of mirrorless cameras. The results are photos that look organic [00:01:30] and they're not trying to be clinically perfect. Like something I might get out of a Google pixel, six pro or an iPhone 13 pro number three, as I walk past all these murals, I can't help. Speaker 1: But think about how much thought and how much intention the artist put into their artwork. They have control over everything from the subject and the colors to how big or small it is. And that's something I really like about the Xperia five mark three. I have control over every [00:02:00] aspect of taking a photo or shooting a video. I can control the shutter speed, the ISO the way it meters the exposure. Now I know there's other Android phones that offer similar controls and there's other apps that offer similar features, but everything is integrated so well on this phone. It feels more like I'm using a camera than a phone. In fact, it has a shutter button that I can push halfway down to get focused in all the way down to take a photo. Speaker 1: [00:02:30] Number four, this phone runs Android 12 and it looks so good on this understated body material UI on the Stony experi of five, mark three looks fantastic. And I've only been running a couple weeks. I haven't noticed any may your bugs or problems, but I mean, just look at those buttons. Hmm. So good. Number five. There is a technical miracle happening inside this thin phone. Most phones that have a dual telephoto camera set up, have two separate telephoto [00:03:00] camera modules. This only has one and the way Sony gets away with it is inside here. Horizontal is its telephoto lens. And there are little parts that move a lens element between a 70 millimeter equivalent and 105 millimeter equivalent, both using the same camera module. And yeah. Are there phones that have a longer zoom range than this? Absolutely. But when I'm taking photos at 2.9 or 4.4 X optical zoom, they look incredible. Speaker 1: [00:03:30] All right. So you've heard the things I like about this phone. Let's talk about three things that well could be better. And the first is gonna be the fed that this phone does not have the video pro app. And what do I mean by that? So when the Xperia pro I came out this past fall, it had a new app called video pro video pro offers advanced settings to shoot video that are not as complicated as cinema pro, but not as basic as well, the photo pro and basic mode. So if I wanna record video on [00:04:00] the Xperia five mark three, I can only use basic mode in the photo pro app or cinema pro, not fun. The second gripe I have with this phone comes when things start getting dark. And that's when these cameras start to hit the walls and low light performance, uh, there's not even something like a night mode. Yes. Sony does do some process thing to improve dark exposed like photos, but nowhere on the scope of the iPhone or the Google pixel phones, Speaker 1: [00:04:30] You know, I really do adore this phone, but it's the price point that holds me back from recommending it. I think if you are looking for a phone for a thousand dollars, I would have you look at something like the iPhone 13 pro or a discounted galaxy S 21 ultra or heck save a hundred dollars and get the Google pixel six pro. Now, if you're a photographer or videographer and you can handle the mixed low light results, maybe this is where it's considering. Now, if you're a Sony alpha mirrorless camera owner, and [00:05:00] you want to have a shooting experience between your camera and your phone, this is definitely worth considering, especially if you could find it at a discounted price. So that's all I got. If you wanna learn more about the Sony, Experia five mark, three, check out the link in the description, but now I want to hear from you. What do you think of this phone? Do you think it holds up against something like the Xperia one, mark three, would you get this over a Google pixel, six pro or a galaxy S 21 ultra [00:05:30] throw your thoughts in the comments.