Sony Announces Xperia 1 and 5 Mark III Phones w/Periscope Telephoto Lenses &

[VidThreeNorth]

[19:05 Corrections:
My original title stated that the Xperia 1 and 5 iii had "real zoom" lenses. In fact, although they are capable of being used that way, they are NOT operating as true zoom lenses. They are being interpolated, though they actually support the end points of the zoom. Read the DPreview article to see why. The article also describes Sony's advanced noise reduction.]

Cell phones have been encroaching on "Real Camera" territory for years now, and frankly, I still do not plan on replacing my cameras (neither still nor video) with cell phones. I might use them to augment my cameras. I have done that in the past. My first "4K video" supporting camera was actually my Sony Z3c, which I tested, and found that it works, and then did not use it again (for video at least). But I had it ready to use if I felt I needed to make a 4K video before I bought a real camera that would cover that need. I have thought about using this same strategy to cover me for "8K video", but so far I have rejected the idea because I still do not see a "use case" for "8K video" within the next year. So no rush. But recently, I looked at the Sony Xperia Pro and realized that I was far out of touch with the cell phone industry, and what Sony was up to in that space. I will say that Sony seems to have made a leap, perhaps to the front of video support for that product space. I am not confident that I know that much about the field to say that for certain, but for now, it seems that way. Anyway DPReview seems to feel that way too, and I think they know more about it than most people, so:

[The Xperia 1 and 5 and 10 Mark III phones are are scheduled for this summer. Prices were not announced.]

"Sony’s Xperia 1 and 5 Mark III introduce variable optical zoom (but that’s not what we’re excited about)",
Published Apr 14, 2021, "Rishi Sanyal"
"Sony’s Xperia 1 and 5 Mark III introduce variable optical zoom (but that’s not what we’re excited about)"

 

[VidThreeNorth]

A few random thoughts about this stuff:

I do not like modern phones because they are too tall. Ironically, I think Sony was the company that started using screens taller than 9:16 (DCI-ish) which has continued this situation. I have not seen phones smaller than 6" lately. The largest phone size I would actually want is a bit larger than the old Samsung Galaxy S (actually the HTC Holiday, but I think more people would know the S1 size).

I do not mind relatively thick phones in order to achieve larger batteries. I never wanted "thin" phones. Added thickness is not as breakable. I have seen broken phone screens -- yes, from people just sitting on their phones.

I do not like any type of OLED screen. After 2 years of use I could just start to see "screen burn" on my Samsung Galaxy S. While that is not horrible, I expect to use my next phone for 4 - 5 years. In fact, it might last longer. My current phones are mostly older than that, though I had to buy a phone in an emergency earlier this year which is less than 3 years old. LCD probably is not as energy efficient, but at least they seem to last longer.

I don't need a great camera because I regularly carry real cameras. The top line phone cameras are a waste of money to me.

Of the three announced Sony phones, I would probably consider the Xperia 10, but maybe not even that depending on the price.

I expect that the next phone I buy will probably be a 5G.

[2021-0416 23:08 Correction: I had a Samsung Galaxy S, not the S1, which came out later.]

 

[Jeff15]

To me, a phone is a phone you can call or text someone, that's all my phone needs to do........

 

[VidThreeNorth]

My phone use has changed over the years. For a long time I used text editors on phones to write when I was away from office or home. I would take notes and then expand them later. Lately I am not doing that. But I do use SMS (text messaging) now, which is something I started, I think four years ago.

I have not generally used a phone for photography (as I noted above), but a few times I did use them for video work. This is not a matter of choice. At some concerts we were allowed to use phones for videos or stills, and I made videos. Ironically, at the time I used cheap phones with weak video, but at least I got something. The one time I had a good phone, I was too far away for the built in camera to do a good job. I got little tiny people on the stage, but the sound was ok.

I cannot prove it, but I am sure that the phone companies "play dirty" when it comes to changing technology. After a couple of years of using CDMA after my service supported early Gen 3 (the hybrid CDMA/TDMA) I found I was having "difficulty" making phone calls and had to give up using CDMA. It happened again, I think when early Gen 4 was replacing Gen 3. I don't think these was any technical reason for this. I believe that they simply programmed in deliberate service quality reduction.

I am expecting this to happen again after 5G has been around for a year or two. So I am starting to look around for a reasonable 5G phone now. I will probably buy something in this Fall or next Spring. We'll see. . . .

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Since we are photography people, I found this comparison to a current Apple phone. It is only stills, but it is a start. I can see some small differences, but I guess it depends on how fussy you are. I'd still generally end up using a real camera.

"Sony Xperia 1 III vs iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Test",
Posted Apr 14, 2021 by "AllAboutCamera", [length 2:57]
""

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Sadly, bad news for Sony users:

"Notice of service termination"

When it comes down to it, Sony's support for their Xperia cellphones mainly occurs during design and manufacturing. After that, ongoing support (beyond any warranty) was in the form of the "Sony News Suite" app, which was a news bulletin/report gathering program. It has been nice, but does duplicate the efforts of some others. I use Google's news app, "CBC" (Canadian Broadcasting Corp), "Reuters" and I think something else I can't think of offhand. Android brings all the news posts from all these apps together in a single presentation accessed by swiping downward from the top of the display at the main screen.

I have received a notice from Sony dated Aug 18, 2023, saying that support for their "News Suite" app will cease on Oct 1, 2023. It is not entirely clear to me whether this applies to all Sony Xperia phones. Oct 1, 2023 appears to be the date of termination of my warranty. I think that this termination of service might simply be to the products of that particular model year (including Xperia 1 iii and Xperia 5 iii). However, since I have no further information at this time, it might be best to assume this termination applies to all Xperia phones, including later models. If you are considering buying a later version, then you might want to ask around about this. The flip side is that really, I don't think I have even mentioned "News Suite" before, so it might not concern anyone.

And besides that, I do not think this "service termination" will affect the news I receive from Google and my other services. So it might all be "negligible". I guess I'll find out after Oct 1. . . .