Sony Xperia 10iii

I have had Sony phones for decades. I know, there are fancier phones out, more popular phones, ones that can play games all day and take instagram ready selfies with ridiculous cuteness. Not that the Xperia phones can’t do all that, especially the top range ones, but I don’t really think that’s what they are made for.

My last Xperia, the XZ1 compact was a workhorse of a phone, in use all day, heavily used for the internet and messaging etc until after four years it was starting to slow down. Plus my eye sight is not getting any younger so I decided to switch it up and look for a new phone with a bigger screen. Like my brand loyalty to Sony I have been with O2 for ages so a bit of haggling later and I came out with the new Xperia 10iii, Sony’s mid range 5G beastie. Yes, I would have loved the latest Xperia 5 or even the flagship Xperia 1 (imagine shiny dancing unicorns at the thought of this) but at this moment in time the 10iii was more about not breaking the bank.

Of course, come delivery day all the trepidation is there...will I like it? Will it replace the XZ1 in my heart? Can I even get the damn thing to work with my settings? I’m only a partial techi after all, I love tech but don’t pretend to understand the mystical inner workings of android or other operating systems.

So, when it arrived and I eagerly opened the white box, it was the start of a relationship that would either be wonderful or fall short of my expectations. A bit like human relationships I suppose, except the phone is a more constant companion that goes with me everywhere and only occasionally interrupts!

I won’t go into unboxing, we’ve all been there; that moment of peeling off the film and admiring the clean surfaces before they instantly get covered in fingerprints. One tip… have your tempered glass screen protector (or whatever you use) there ready to fit on because that’s the cleanest your phone will ever be! Both sides of the 10iii are Corning Gorilla glass 6 as well, so it should be tough and of course it is rated for water and dust protection. Good news as I dropped my XZ1 a few times, including into puddles, but it always survived.

So, I have lived with the Xperia 10iii for almost a month now. Do I like it? Yes. In fact it has grown a lot on me, depite some reservations at the start. And in spite of a few foibles, which I will tell you about in a minute, I am really enjoying using it.

The phone uses a fingerprint sensor on the side, the same as previous Sony phones. My XZ1 worked fabulously, hardly ever missed a fingerprint and felt very responsive. Things are slightly different with the 10iii. The sensor is even more responsive, which means that if you carry the phone in your pocket as I do, more often than not when you go to turn it on the screen tells you that you have already tried multiple fingerprint scans and are locked out for 30 seconds. Of course, you get around that by simply entering your password, but it is a little frustrating at times. When not in a pocket the sensor works fine, it’s just sensitive enough that any brush of your hand against the sensor counts as a fingerprint attempt. It would have been better if the button required pushing in as well, or was slightly recessed, to stop the confusion.

The 21:9 size is odd at first (coming from the compact XZ1) but I find it fits easily into the hand and I can still work most things one handed. Really intended for viewing widescreen movies, the size does allow for easy scrolling and I have found the extra height very useful when doing things like writing text messages...giving you more room for the keyboard and messaging box. Turned on its side in landscape mode, the extra length allows for stylus writing using google keyboard, and since I often jot down thoughts and odd things that occur to me, I prefer to use handwriting if I can. The 10iii is great for this, with a responsive screen making even my writing legible (mostly).

And yes, films look great when downloaded in high definition, the colour on the OLED HDR screen is bright (and you have various choices regarding white balance in the phone menu) and the picture is crisp and clear, making viewing a film on such a small screen very enjoyable. I know the refresh rate isn’t as high as some phones at 60htz but honestly I haven’t been disappointed at all with film watching on the 10iii.

The Camera: Or should that be cameras, as Sony have included a x2 zoom (real not extrapolated) and a wide angle lens. I have to admit I don’t use them that much, I use a real camera for proper photography, but I do like taking video and posting it online sometimes. So far, all lenses seem to work as they should though. There is a slight variation in colour tones across the three but it’s not that noticeable and really doesn’t affect my picture taking. Video is good, the colour is nice and bright, images are crisp, though I'm not sure it’s as smooth as the XZ1 when panning the camera on a 360 shot. On a sunny day photos are lovely and saturated and the colours are true to nature, not boosted or more ‘snazy’ as some other phones. I like it, though at low light it struggles, the same as the XZ1, and it’s not fast, there is a shutter lag. The ‘selfie’ front camera is ok, the images are a litte soft and it’s best in sunlight again, but it works fine, though I don’t really take many selfies. I think the Xperia 1’s camera is supposed to be a lot better (insert those shiny unicorns dancing here) but that is the flagship so….honestly, the 10iii isn’t bad.

Sony is for audiophiles. Or so they say, but I must admit the sound on the 10iii was not great at first listen. It’s very quiet for one thing, nowhere near as loud as the XZ1 could go. Maybe this is good for your ears but it’s not good for listening to music or a film without headphones of some kind. Plus, without headphones its sounds...well...tinny. I got around this by downloading a volume boosting equaliser app (Sound) from Google Play store and I have to say this has made a huge difference. With the app the sound is not only louder but also more rounded and the same is true while using headphones, although even without the app the sony internal sound was good with headphones, just not as loud as I liked. I am now loving the 10iii for listening to music via my in-ear wired buds while out (thank you Sony for sticking with the 3.5mm jack), or my wireless over ears for indoors. It’s a rich immersive sound and it's easy to forget you are streaming on a phone. I’m happy!

Browsing is made easier with the screen size and the ability to have a split screen is something I am still getting to grips with. It has come in handy a couple of times and is much easier than having to change screens when flitting between two websites. It works well and once I get used to it I will probably use it more. I still forget it's there most of the time. I haven’t found any lag times with browser loading either, the 10iii seems fast when opening web pages and I've not had any issues with it on any of the websites I have visited so far.

I have to admit I’m not much of a gamer when it comes to phones. I did download a couple of games to try out, and found that I had no problem with the graphics or gameplay lag, though I didn’t try a first person shooter style game so I can’t comment on refresh speeds for that sort of high speed game.

The phone runs Android 11 and Sony hasn’t filled the phone with a ton of apps you’re not likely to use either, which is a relief as I hate things I can’t delete! The battery life is another great thing about this phone as the XZ1 did have a tendency to eat power. The 10iii has a 4500mAH battery which easily lasts all day even with fairly heavy use, like streaming music for a couple of hours, then browsing the net while out etc. It is slow to charge though, so you will do best charging it overnight and the phone has a battery saver mode to allow you to optimise charging for longer battery life (basically stopping at 90%). You can override this though if you want to.

I’m sure there are loads of more techi things you could know about the 10iii if you are into that, and there are other reviews out there that go into the ins and outs of Snapdragon 690 chip sets etc. I’m not going to as I don’t really know enough about them to say what's what out there. That isn’t the point of this review though. This is just my take on the 10iii as the average person out and about with a phone in her pocket. After all, your phone becomes an extension of all you do throughout the day, so you need one that ‘clicks’ with you.

Anyway, as a mid range phone I am quite pleased with the 10iii. Yes I would make the fingerprint sensor a little less sensitive, the sound a bit louder. Maybe improve the cameras to be closer to the 1iii but overall I like it. It’s a solidly put together piece of kit for the price. Now I just have to wait for 5G to find my part of the country and we’ll see what the fuss is about!