The Sony Xperia 5 III is of course excellent, as that means there is less weight to be carried or battery used while lugging a phone this large around town or between cities in your pocket or, worse, in a cargo pants pocket. Weighing 157 g and measuring 8.2 mm thin, this is one of those 2021 flagships you won't need cargo pants to carry around, and every millimetre is tight. The frosted Gorilla Glass 6 back rolls into a satin aluminum rail that is pleasantly cool and reassuringly grippy; even after two weeks of sweaty commutes in Manila and chilly Berlin evenings, the phone showed no signs of reading or accumulating micro-scratches. Flip it over and the Zeiss-badged triple-lens strip lies flax, leaving the phone with a poker face that murmurs ‘tool' rather than ‘toy'.

Fire up the 6.1-inch 120 Hz OLED and Sony's conservative calibration is apparent. Colors are true, not Instagram-vibrant, and the 21:9 ratio turns Twitter timelines into infinite film strips. Brightness maxes out just a touch shy of 1,000 nits, sufficient for noon glare, and 240 Hz touch sampling keeps Genshin Impact combos snappy. What you will certainly notice this time is the dynamic refresh: the panel drops to 60 Hz the moment you stop flicking around, then jumps back up as soon as you flick, resulting in battery life gains without the stutter of early LTPO panels.

Where the Xperia 5 III really sings is in the camera department. The 12 MP trio — 16 mm ultra-wide, 24 mm “main,” and 70-105 mm (variable periscope) — all shares the same color science throughout, so switching focal lengths is similar to your experience swapping primes on most any mirrorless body. Daylight shots It renders pores on a street portrait, the periscope provides creamy bokeh without any digital trickery at 105mm. Night mode is modest; shadows keep their detail instead of turning to neon. Press the actual shutter button and Photo Pro boots in less than a second, stopping short of real-time eye-AF that can follow a running dog as easily as a bride's mascara with 20fps of burst photography from the same sensor.

Even so, as an old say goes that ever coin has two sides, so do the Sony Xperia 5 III, it's still not perfect. The side-mounted fingerprint reader is responsive but low enough that my thumb cramps when the phone is sitting on a desk. The speakers are loud but tinny; cupping the bottom grille is a must if you're Netflix and chilling in bed. And even though Sony's now pledging two OS updates, its timeline doesn't quite match Samsung's four-year pledge.

All in all, and this would-be Mixtape of a design language makes using the Xperia 5 III feel like a deliberate riposte to the glass-slab arms race. It’s not a screamer, but just a delightful combination of pocketable size, pro-grade photographic tools and marathon stamina. In a spec-sheet arms race, the last phone standing still feels like a bit of a revolution. And this phone is absolutely worth your buy.