The Xperia 10 III is Sony’s mid-range smartphone from 2021 and has excellent competitors from Samsung and Xiaomi, among others. In this Sony Xperia 10 III review you can read whether Sony’s device is a better choice and what the advantages and disadvantages of the phone are.
Sony Xperia 10 III
Recommended retail price € 429,-
To colour Black and white
OS Android 11
Screen 6-inch OLED (2520 x 1080, 60 Hz)
Processor 2 GHz octa-core (Snapdragon 690 5G)
RAM 6GB
Storage 128 GB (expandable)
Battery 4,500 mAh
Camera 12.8 and 8 megapixels (rear), 8 megapixels (front)
Connectivity 5G, 4G (LTE), Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 5, GPS, NFC
Format 15.4 x 6.8 x 0.83 cm
Weight 169 grams
Other IP68 certification
Website www.sony.nl 7.2 Score 72 
- Pros
- Handy design
- Excellent battery life
- Versatile and great cameras
- Cleaned up software
- Negatives
- 60 Hz screen can’t be bright enough
- Slow charger included
- Illogical camera app
- Slower than many competitors
Sony has been offering the Xperia 10 III (pronounced: 10 Mark 3) in the Netherlands since mid-June for a suggested retail price of 429 euros. The smartphone is available in black and white colours. I tested the black version for two weeks and in this Sony Xperia 10 III review you can read my experiences.
Design
In terms of design, the Xperia 10 III is a typical Sony smartphone. Rectangular, with a glass design and slightly thicker bezels above and below the screen. The selfie camera is located in the top edge, so the screen is not interrupted by a hole or notch. The buttons are on the right side, with a fingerprint scanner in the power button. Although the scanner is fast and accurate, I (now) prefer an invisible scanner under the display of a smartphone.
On the back of the Sony Xperia 10 III you will find a simple camera island with three lenses. The device is – just like its predecessors – water and dustproof and has a USB-C port for charging and a 3.5mm connection to connect your earbuds. In this price segment, a waterproof and dustproof housing is not self-evident and so it gives the Xperia 10 III a plus.
The extra elongated and narrower screen (with a ratio of 21:9) takes some getting used to for me every time. Sony distinguishes itself from other smartphone brands and advertises in particular with two advantages: on the Xperia 10 III you watch videos without black edges and you have more vertical screen space, and therefore see more text. That’s right. I think the main focus of the screen ratio is that the smartphone is so long that it is difficult to use the top part of the screen with one hand. In addition, the display is slightly narrower, and your keyboard is therefore slightly more compact.
The housing itself leaves a solid impression and is smaller than the average Android smartphone thanks to the relatively compact 6-inch screen. With 169 grams, the Xperia 10 III is also one of the lighter smartphones of the moment.
A long screen
The 6-inch screen makes the Xperia 10 III one of the most compact Android smartphones of the moment. That fact will certainly appeal to a certain audience. The screen shows bright colors thanks to the OLED panel and a sharp display thanks to the Full HD resolution. The viewing angles are comfortable. Unfortunately, Sony also drops a few stitches. The maximum brightness is lower than usual for this type of smartphone, and you notice that especially outdoors on a sunnier day. Also unfortunate is that the screen uses a refresh rate of 60 Hz, which means that the display refreshes 60 times per second. Many comparably priced smartphones have a 90 or 120 Hz display. A higher refresh rate makes the image smoother and makes the phone appear faster. These advantages do not apply to the Xperia 10 III.
Hardware
The Sony smartphone also scores below average on another point. The used Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G processor running under the hood is a bit older and no longer the most powerful choice in this price range. The result is that many alternative smartphones are noticeably faster and heavy games run more smoothly on high settings. In particular, the Poco X3 Pro, Poco F3 Pro and OnePlus Nord CE 5G are faster. Nevertheless, the Sony Xperia 10 III is fast enough for all popular apps and most games also run fine. The device is helped by an average amount of RAM of 6 GB.
The storage memory is of average size with 128 GB and more than enough for a lot of apps, games and media. The presence of a micro SD card is nice to be able to increase the storage memory if desired. The smartphone supports 5G internet, has an NFC chip for contactless pinning in shops and offers space for a second SIM card if you do not use a micro SD card.
Battery life and charging
The Xperia 10 III has a 4500 mAh battery. Today, that is no longer a special capacity, but because of the smaller screen, the smartphone does achieve very good results. I can use the device for a long day via a 5G signal and the battery is not empty when I go to sleep. If you take it easy and mainly use a WiFi connection, two days of use is certainly possible.
It is striking that Sony puts a 7.5 Watt charging adapter in the box. You (fortunately) hardly see such a limited adapter anymore. Even budget smartphones come with a 10 Watt charger. With the 7.5 Watt adapter, the Xperia 10 III – unsurprisingly – takes a particularly long time to charge. The battery is fully charged again after three hours. Charging for half an hour before you leave the house lifts the battery from 0 to a meager 22 percent. I think Sony’s choice for an excruciatingly slow charging adapter is an unnecessary drawback of this smartphone. A drawback that you have to settle for or can remedy by buying a charging adapter with support for USB PowerDelivery at 30 Watts or higher. However, such an adapter quickly costs thirty euros. Many competing smartphones come standard with a charging adapter around 30 Watts.
Sony defends the choice for the slow charger and associated long charging time as follows: “We believe that keeping smartphone batteries healthy for longer is to the benefit of the customer, as it extends the overall life of the battery and prevents overheating. We continue to closely monitor customer feedback, taking into account the balance between charging speed and long battery life, as well as consumer safety.”
Three useful cameras
A triple camera is placed on the back of the Xperia 10 III, and in my opinion a very useful combination. It concerns a 12-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with two times optical zoom (without loss of quality). Many competing smartphones lack such a telephoto lens and flaunt limited useful cameras for measuring depth, shooting black and white photos or macro photos.
The photo quality of the main and wide-angle cameras during the day is good and in line with the competition. In the dark, the automatic mode is a bit disappointing, but the night mode does very well. Considering the price, I have nothing to complain about these cameras. The zoom camera is less impressive because photos are quickly a bit dark or overexposed, but the quality remains a lot better than digital zooming as it should be on other smartphones.
Below you see three photo series with from left to right the wide-angle camera, normal camera and zoom camera.
Software and Update Policy
The Sony Xperia 10 III runs Android 11 out of the box – the latest version – and will get one, possibly two version updates. That is fairly average, although there are also outliers up (Samsung and Nokia give three years of version updates) and down (Motorola gives a maximum of one). Sony also guarantees two years of security updates, which means that the device is protected against security risks until the summer of 2023. In this area, brands such as OnePlus, Nokia, Samsung and Oppo do better because they promise three years of updates.
Sony’s software shell over Android 11 is minimal and I like that. The changes are mainly aimed at using the elongated screen more effectively and taking advantage of the smartphone’s audio, video and photography capabilities. On the positive side, when setting up the Xperia 10 III, you largely determine whether you want to install recommended commercial apps. Only Facebook and LinkedIn are required to be installed and cannot be removed. Previously, Sony installed a lot more apps automatically and you couldn’t uninstall them – which I thought was a drawback. It’s nice that Sony takes criticism from media and users seriously.
Hopefully the manufacturer also listens to my next point of interest: the illogical camera app. It has – very unusually – no separate buttons to switch between the three camera lenses with one tap. Sony’s camera app only has two icons, which means it takes longer to switch between cameras. This simply feels unnecessary. Also inconvenient is that the button to use the selfie camera is placed at the very top of the screen. If you’re using the Xperia 10 III with one hand – and you usually do when you’re taking a selfie – you probably won’t get to the top bezel. You need your other hand to touch the button. The location of the button would be awkward on any smartphone, but it’s extra inconvenient on the Xperia 10 III because the phone has an elongated screen.
Conclusion: Buy Sony Xperia 10 III?
The Sony Xperia 10 III is not the fastest, does not have the best update policy or the most beautiful screen. It is also a pity that Sony provides an excruciatingly slow charger and the manufacturer can further improve some software matters. On the other hand, the Xperia 10 III stands out positively with its handy, waterproof and dustproof design and excellent battery life. The cameras are fine and versatile and Sony’s tidy software is pleasant to use. All in all, the Sony Xperia 10 III is a good choice for a select audience, but not the best mid-range smartphone at the moment. This is also due to the relatively high suggested retail price of 429 euros.
Interesting alternatives to the Xperia 10 III are in particular the Poco X3 Pro of only 240 euros and the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G (420 euros). Both devices are noticeably faster than the Sony phone, charge a lot faster and have a nicer 120 Hz screen. Samsung also guarantees four years of updates. Another alternative is the 379 euro Nokia X20, which in terms of specifications is reminiscent of the Sony Xperia 10 III but has a three-year warranty and updates. The device does have a much larger screen.
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