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00:00All right, let's do this.
00:02Hey guys, Anton the Tech Chap, and this is the new Sony Xperia 1 Mark III.
00:08Now I love reviewing these Sony phones.
00:10I think they're some of the most innovative and actually interesting phones to talk about,
00:15but every year I get told off because apparently I'm just not using it properly.
00:20These past Xperia reviews have been some of my most disliked videos, which is a real shame
00:25because my job is to share my experience of a product and then hopefully help you make
00:31a buying decision.
00:32But Xperia after Xperia, when I criticize it, when I say the camera's not quite up to snuff,
00:37I just sort of get told off that I'm not using it properly, I need to be using pro mode and
00:42tinker with all the settings all the time to get the most out of it, and I'm just being
00:45a bit...
00:46Well, I think there's only one word to describe it, and it's at the top right there.
00:51If it'll focus.
00:52I'm just being a bit basic, and it's an enthusiast phone, a professional's phone, and in some
00:57ways I would describe this as maybe like the thinking man's Galaxy S21 Ultra, but just
01:03because this is considered a more advanced user's phone doesn't automatically make it
01:07the best, or more importantly, good value.
01:11Because the first thing you should know about the Mark III is that it costs £1,200.
01:16That's the same as the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
01:19Sony is still pitching this as a proper, but clenchingly expensive flagship phone.
01:23And to be fair, there's pretty good reason for that price.
01:26We have all the latest and greatest specs, including 12GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 888,
01:31but the highlights really are this stunning 4K 21 by 9 OLED screen that's now 120Hz.
01:38No one else has anything like this.
01:42There's also this triple, well actually quad camera setup with a brand spanking new variable
01:47telephoto lens, so the glass physically moves inside to give you both a 70 and a 105mm focal
01:53length, which is seriously impressive engineering, and again, no one else is doing this.
01:58And I could absolutely see this becoming a new kind of standard for phone cameras instead
02:02of just packing in more and more lenses.
02:05We also get the latest Gorilla Glass Victus to protect the screen, as well as this gorgeous
02:09frosted glass soft touch finish on the back.
02:12The power button continues to double as a very reliable fingerprint reader, although
02:16bizarrely there's still no face unlock option here, but there's a plethora of other extras
02:21that are all too rare on flagship phones these days, like microSD card support, a headphone
02:26jack, a physical camera shutter button, an LED notification light, custom buttons, great
02:32sounding stereo speakers that are actually 50% louder than before, along with best in
02:37class haptics, and there's not a notch or hole punch in sight.
02:42So there's genuinely a lot to love about the Mark 3, and it kind of goes to show that
02:46when other brands say, oh well we can't find room for a microSD or headphone jack, well
02:52Sony's done it, why can't you?
02:54But for me, the cherry on top is the lovely software, which feels like stock Android 11
02:59with a thin, sunny UI on top that adds about a billion features, which you can either leave
03:03alone or really dive into and tinker with.
03:06And this taller screen is great for apps that use feeds or if you're reading online, because
03:11you can basically have more on the screen at once, and if you double tap the edge here
03:15you bring up SideSense for some quick app shortcuts.
03:19You've also got multi-window for split screening, which is actually somewhat usable on a screen
03:23like this, especially in landscape mode.
03:26So minimal bloatware, lots of handy extras, it's just great to use, and actually I haven't
03:31experienced that slow auto-rotate that Marques talked about in his review, it seems pretty
03:36normal on my phone.
03:38You will however struggle to find the regular Android camera app, because it's actually
03:42been subsumed entirely by Sony's Photo Pro app, as you can see here, which by default
03:48takes you into basic mode, but you can switch to more advanced modes if you want more fine
03:53control.
03:55So for some people this will be the absolute dream phone, I mean 4K ultrawide, fantastic
04:00speakers, so it's great for watching movies on, more camera options than you could shake
04:05a stick at, and it's all in this beautiful, thin and light, extra long slab of glass.
04:11And for me I actually love this form factor, I think the little bit narrower but taller
04:15design, while obviously you're going to have to do some finger gymnastics to reach the
04:18top, although there is a one-handed mode, I think this is quite a bit more comfortable
04:22than a massive S21 Ultra.
04:25So it's a genuinely lovely phone, but I wouldn't buy one, and that's for a couple of reasons.
04:31Firstly, the battery life is very average, the 4500mAh cell is a decent size, given the
04:38form factor of the phone, but it's the cost of having a 4K 120Hz screen, and so I'm only
04:43getting about 5 and a half hours of screen on time with this, and I'm down to about 10%
04:48by 11pm at night.
04:51Although we do now have faster 30W charging, plus wireless and reverse wireless charging,
04:56so what really bothers me about this is how in every other regard it's kind of like the
05:01advanced user's phone, they assume you know what you're doing, that's why there's so much
05:06fine control over the camera and the display.
05:09So why is it that we can't change the resolution?
05:11It is stuck at 4K, which means it's always lovely and crisp and sharp, but it has such
05:17an impact on your battery life, and for me, when I'm out and about and maybe I don't have
05:21access to a charger, I would love the ability to drop this down to 1080p, which is still
05:26pretty reasonable on a 6 and a half inch phone, but you don't have that, and also with
05:30the refresh rate, obviously you can choose between 60 and 120, but it's not dynamic,
05:35there's no auto mode, there's no 90Hz option, it's just kind of strange how in every other
05:40aspect you can really have that fine control, but not when it comes to that 4K resolution.
05:46Which honestly, I just don't think you need on a phone, obviously it is quite satisfying
05:50to jump into the YouTube app and then select 4K and know that you're watching a 4K video
05:55back natively, but unless you're really bringing it up close to your eyes, you're not going
06:00to notice that much difference, and the cynical side of me just thinks that it's partly marketing
06:05because of course the Sony Bravia TV side of things, they just want everything 4K.
06:11And so as gorgeously sharp as this screen is, I just don't think that 4K res is really
06:16worth the impact on battery life, at least in my opinion.
06:20Also the screen just doesn't get bright enough.
06:23Next to something like the S21 Ultra or the Oppo Find X3 Pro, the sub 700 nit peak HDR
06:29brightness just doesn't pop and it's a little bit harder to use in daylight.
06:34And then there's the camera, and this is where maybe I should tread a little bit more lightly.
06:39Because Sony's pedigree is best in class, I use the fantastic A7S III as my video camera,
06:45I know how good the alpha range and Sony's optics are.
06:50I also know how innovative this variable telephoto lens is, and I also very much appreciate
06:55that Sony's processing is geared toward offering the most natural and most realistic photos.
07:02And we're getting top notch autofocus and 20fps burst mode options, plus I love the
07:06fact that a half press of the shutter button focuses with a full press taking the shot,
07:11it's really satisfying.
07:13And most of the time the camera shines, well at least in good light.
07:20But of course photography is a beautifully subjective art form, and while I don't personally
07:25love Samsung's overly vivid and sharpened photos, I do appreciate the wider dynamic
07:30range we get, so the detail in the darker and brighter areas of a shot.
07:40Sony's zoom also maxes out at a respectable 4.4x, but it can't compete with the 3x and
07:4710x optical lenses on the S21 Ultra.
07:50To its credit, the shutter speed on this is insanely quick so it can keep up with fast
07:54moving subjects.
07:56And in terms of selfies, well even the most hardcore Xperia photography enthusiast I'm
08:00sure occasionally takes a selfie or two, but side by side, points to Gryffindor, I mean
08:05Samsung.
08:07But it's in low light where the Xperia really does start to struggle.
08:11Sony says they don't need a dedicated night mode because it looks too fake on most phones,
08:16but it just can't keep up.
08:23Now I appreciate that a big selling point of this is that you do have that fine control
08:28over the camera settings, and you do, but that doesn't necessarily always mean you're
08:32going to get a better shot.
08:33And actually one of the things that I thought was really interesting, mentioned by Mr. Mobile
08:37and David Kogan in his review, is that obviously we have a fixed aperture with these phone
08:43cameras.
08:44Only the Galaxy S9 had that variable aperture which was pretty cool but then went away.
08:49So really there's only so much you can do with the ISO and shutter speed.
08:56Video quality is solid, although it's a bit of a shame there's no 8K option, and also
09:00selfie video tops out at 1080p, but that's not really a big deal.
09:05Overall it looks good, but it's nothing really to write home about.
09:13So there's an awful lot of flexibility with the camera, and I'm very impressed with the
09:17engineering of that telephoto lens, but where it counts, the end result, I just don't think
09:22it's good enough.
09:23Although again, that is just my opinion.
09:27I was listening to MKBHD's podcast a couple days ago, and my good friend David Imel was
09:32on it talking about the Sony Mach 3, and he described it in so many words as the quintessential
09:39Android subreddit user's phone, which I thought was pretty funny because I know I'm going
09:43to get some comments for this, but there does seem to be an air of superiority perhaps in
09:47the Xperia fanbase, and maybe that's fair enough because this is more of an enthusiast
09:52advanced user's phone, but as I said at the beginning of the video, that doesn't automatically
09:57make it the best phone, and if I was going to go out and spend like £1,100, over a grand
10:01on a phone, personally I would probably go with the S21 Ultra.
10:06But then again, maybe I'm just a bit basic.
10:09But anyway, I hope this video was useful, and I do welcome your feedback and your criticism.
10:15Let me know what you make of this in the comments below.
10:17Do you agree with me?
10:18Do you think I couldn't be more wrong?
10:20And if you haven't raged quit out of this video then, why not give me a cheeky sub and
10:23a thumbs up, and I will see you next time right here on the Tech Jab.
10:27Thanks for watching.