midranger bumps after the competition

Although Sony is not the most popular smartphone brand, the company generally makes great smartphones. We have subjected Sony’s midranger, the Xperia 10 III, to an extensive test to find out whether this device can keep up with the competition.

Sony Xperia 10 III review

Sony is not known for releasing cheap smartphones. On the contrary, for a smartphone from Sony you often pay the top price. In most cases, the high price is justifiable. In this review we explain whether the high price is also justifiable for the Xperia 10 III.

Sales package

The Xperia 10 III comes in a rectangular box. The content is a bit sparse. For example, we do not find a cover in the box. Also, no sim needle is included. The sim tray can be opened without a sim needle. What is included are the telephone, a charger with USB cable and the necessary paperwork.

Design and interface

Like other devices from the Xperia line, the Xperia 10 III is immediately recognizable by its design. The device has a slim appearance with a fairly thick edge at the top and bottom. The selfie camera and a notification light are incorporated in the top edge, and the speaker is placed at the bottom. Between the edges is the 6-inch Full-HD screen. This screen does not have a higher refresh rate. You have to make do with the standard refresh rate of 60Hz.

Due to the slim design, the Xperia 10 III is pleasant to hold, although it is difficult to operate the top of the screen with one hand. In addition, the device weighs only 169 grams.

Sony has placed the sim tray on the left. As indicated earlier, it can be opened without a needle. At the bottom of the drawer is a small recess where you can open the drawer with your fingernail. The right side is space for the volume keys, the on and off button and a special button to start the Google assistant. Unfortunately, this button cannot be reprogrammed. The 3.5 millimeters with which you can connect your wired headset is placed at the top. At the bottom, Sony has placed the USB-C port.

The back of the device is made of glass. This gives the device a luxurious look. In the top left corner of the back we find the camera module and the flash. Sony has placed three lenses in the module.

Interface

The interface of Sony devices is, with a few adjustments from Sony, equal to the pure Android version of Google itself. Swiping down on the home screen opens your notifications, swiping up opens the app drawer and swiping from left to right opens the Google feed.

Communication: calling, chatting and surfing the internet

We don’t do it as often as we used to, but of course we still call from time to time. And this goes well with the Xperia 10 III. You make calls with the standard Google app, just like sending messages and typing them. For internet browsing, Sony has included Google Chrome.

We have no complaints about communication, calling works fine, the quality of the sound is also fine. The device also supports dual SIM functionality, although this comes at the cost of space to place an SD card.

In terms of connectivity, the Xperia 10 III is also fine. The device offers support for 5G, WiFi 2.4 and 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS (A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO) and NFC.

Multimedia: music and film

We can be brief about the quality of the screen; this one is great, as we’ve come to expect from Sony. The Full-HD screen is therefore easy to read on a sunny day and can be dimmed sufficiently in the evenings, so that you are not dazzled. As a result, the Xperia 10 III offers a great experience when it comes to watching movies.

The Xperia 10 III is also well suited for listening to music. You have the option to listen to music both wired and wirelessly. A small downside is the lack of an FM radio.

Camera: photo and video

The camera module with the three lenses is placed on the back of the Xperia 10 III. The lenses are placed one below the other with the flash above the module. The main camera shoots photos of up to 12MP, in addition there is a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens, both of which shoot photos of 8MP.

The camera app from Sony is well-arranged and therefore pleasant to use. The settings are easy to find and next to the shutter button is an option that allows you to quickly switch modes. During our testing period, we noticed that it takes a while before a photo is actually taken after you click the shutter button. At times this was so bad that I tended to click again, thinking the phone hadn’t registered my click.

And then of course we have to talk about the quality that the Xperia 10 III shoots. If you don’t select a point for the camera to focus on without setting anything, the photos will turn out a bit dark. When you focus on a dark area, the photos are noticeably better. In that case, colors are better displayed with many details visible in the photo. This also applies to the wide-angle lens. In general, this lens also takes good pictures.

You also have the option to zoom in. Up to 10 times no less. You really shouldn’t want this, when you zoom in 10 times the quality of the photos becomes very poor. Zooming in up to 5 times still produces reasonable photos. The camera also has an option to take night photos. The photo quality of this is clearly less than the competitors for its price. We should note that every now and then a photo is not sharp.

Below you will find a photo that we took with the Sony Xperia 10 III. If you want to see more photos, you can visit the digital photo album.

Video camera

You have a lot to choose from when you want to shoot a movie in terms of quality. You have the option to shoot movies in: VGA, HD, 1080×1080 (1:1), Full-HD (16:9 with optional 60 frames per second), Full-HD 21:9, 4K (16:9 ) and 4K (21:9). So you only have the option to adjust the frames per second when you film in Full HD. You also have the option to select a mode when filming. Zooming in and switching between lenses, it’s all possible while filming. The quality of the videos is okay, every now and then the image shakes a bit. Colors and details are well displayed.

Other options

Sony has given the Xperia 10 III a number of extra features that we discuss in this part of the Sony Xperia 10 III review.

Fingerprint Scanner

The fingerprint scanner has been incorporated by Sony in the on and off button and is therefore on the right side of the device, just like with all recent devices from the manufacturer. The fingerprint scanner responds very quickly to a touch, after which the device is immediately unlocked. Due to the slim design of the device, it is also quite easy to unlock when you hold the device with your left hand and want to unlock the device with, for example, your middle finger.

Side sensor

A nice function that Sony provides is the so-called side sensor. This sensor is placed on the side of the screen. You can determine the position, length and transparency yourself. By clicking twice on the side sensor, a menu opens with a number of apps and functions. This menu opens over your current screen and can therefore be opened in any window.

Performance: battery, speed and memory

Sony has equipped the Xperia 10 III with the Snapdragon 690. This is a great processor that performs daily tasks quickly. We found no hiccups during testing. The device comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The storage memory can be expanded with an SD card.

Endurance

The Xperia 10 III has a battery of 4500 mAh. This is quite normal these days, but since the screen of the device does not have a high refresh rate and, in addition to 5G, it also has no other energy-consuming functions, the battery lasts a long time. Of course, the battery life is significantly shortened when you use 5G a lot. A screen-on-time of around 5 hours with heavy use and 5G is quite normal. If you mainly use WiFi, a screen-on-time of more than 6 hours is possible. With light to moderate use, the battery will last for two days. The Xperia 10 III supports fast charging up to 30 Watts.

Rating

In itself, the Xperia 10 III is a great phone that meets all the requirements that we expect from a midranger. However, if we look at the price of above 400 euros, you can expect something more. The competition such as OnePlus with the Nord CE offers more smartphone for less money. Xiaomi also offers smartphones that deliver more value for money. What speaks in favor of the Xperia 10 III is that the device is dust and waterproof. We can conclude that the Xperia 10 III is an excellent all-round device in the midrange segment, but we would have liked the device to have been a bit cheaper.

You can buy the Sony Xperia 10 III at Coolblue, MediaMarkt, Belsimpel, Mobiel and Bol.com