Xperia 5 III: Sony’s compact flagship phone is now available for pre-order

If the RM7,199 Sony Xperia Pro-I is out of your budget, Sony Malaysia is now accepting pre-orders for its Xperia 5 III. Announced in April, the Xperia 5 III is their compact flagship smartphone that supports a 120Hz AMOLED display and a camera system that’s co-developed with the engineers behind the Sony Alpha 9 series.

Sony Xperia 5 III Malaysia Pricing and Availability

The Sony Xperia 5 III with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is officially priced at RM4,599 in Malaysia. It only comes in green and you can pre-order from now until 20th December 2021. As part of the pre-order promo, Sony is bundling the Sony WF-XB700 wireless earbuds worth RM549 for free. From the looks of it, the Xperia 5 III stocks are expected to arrive just before Christmas.

The latest Mark III costs RM500 more than the Xperia 5 II and interestingly, Sony Malaysia is still bundling the same freebies as the previous model. For the price, it is still RM1,200 cheaper than the 6.1″ iPhone 13 Pro 256GB. As a comparison, the bigger Xperia 1 III is officially priced at RM5,799 and you can get it for RM5,219 online.

Sony Xperia 5 III Hardware Specs

The Xperia 5 is essentially the compact version of the Xperia 1. Instead of a 6.5″ 4K OLED display, the Xperia 5 gets a smaller 6.1″ Full HD+ 21:9 OLED display that still pushes a 120Hz refresh rate. Under the hood, it still runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chipset with 8GB of RAM. Onboard, it has 256GB of UFS storage which is still expandable via microSD card up to 1TB.

In the camera department, the device features a rather versatile triple-camera setup with ZEISS T* coating to reduce reflections. It has a 12MP (24mm) main camera with a 1/1.7″ sensor, a 12MP (16mm) ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera with a variable lens that can switch between 70mm and 105mm. Both the main and telephoto camera supports optical image stabilisation. For selfies, the device has an 8MP front camera which supports SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode.

Targetting creators, the device supports Cinematophy Pro powered by CineAlta that allows you to capture 4K HDR 120fps slo-mo. You can shoot burst mode photos up to 20fps and it also supports Real-time Eye AF that works for both humans and animals. As you would expect from a flagship Sony Xperia product, it still retains a dedicated camera shutter button.

The Xperia 5 III still comes with a pair of stereo speakers and it still retains a 3.5mm headphone jack for high fidelity sound with reduced distortion. The device also supports Sony’s 360 Reality Audio which works with headphones or with built-in stereo speakers. It still comes with IP68 dust and water resistance.

Powering the device is a 4,500mAh battery, which is the same capacity as its bigger Xperia 1 III. It supports USB-PD fast charging via USB-C, however, it lacks wireless charging which is a surprising omission for a flagship-class device.