The Xperia 5 III boots Android 11, and as is customary for Sonys, the user interface has a very stock feel. Underneath that, there are a fair bit of in-house touches that add extra functionality.
Starting with some of the basics, there's an Always-on display feature (AOD) with a limited set of customization options. The lockscreen is basic too, with a clock (that you can customize), a shortcut to the camera and another one for Google Assistant (a bit redundant when there's a hardware key for that already).
Lockscreen • Always on display
The homescreen, too, is as standard as they come. The Google feed is the leftmost pane, but you can disable it if it's not your thing. The quick toggles/notification area is Google's stock too. With this version of Android, you get Notification history and the Bubbles shortcuts as part of the Conversations features - both available on the Xperia, unlike some more heavily customized UIs.
Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Quick toggles • Notification settings
This brings us to one of the Sony exclusives, already available on the previous generation, the Multi-window switch. Split-screen multi-window implementation is one of the bits Google changes most often, but the current one has stuck for a couple of years, and it's a really clunky one, so Sony intervened.
You access the Multi-window switch from the task switcher or from the dedicated shortcut icon on the homescreen, and you get sort of like two stacked task switcher rolodexes with your currently opened apps to pick one for the top half and one for the bottom half of the screen. The rightmost pane in each half lets you launch another app, not just pick from the already running ones.
The phone remembers three previously used pairs so you can access them directly, though we couldn't find a way to save custom app pair presets. It's worth mentioning that the window split can be done in almost any arbitrary ratio, not just 50/50.
Task switcher • Multi-window switcher
Side sense is another of the in-house Sony features. A bar shortcut on either side of the phone opens up a menu of shortcuts to apps and features, most of them user-configurable. The 21:9 multi-window pairs can be customized here, but they don't go into the three pair shortcuts in the regular task switcher. A new addition to the menu is a widget to control the Sony headphones app - handy if you have those.
There's a fairly standard set of gestures for call handling, as well as a one-handed mode and smart backlight control. It's in this menu that you'll find the navigation options with the two basic types available - gestures or a navbar.
Missing on the midrange Xperia 10 III, but available on the 1 III, Sony's Game Enhancer is part of the 5 III's software package as well. It's a comprehensive utility for dealing with games, and comprises of two interfaces - a game hub/launcher, and an overlay you pull out from the side while in a game.
Performance profiles (or Game Mode) can be set on a per-game basis, and it's in here that you get to set the screen refresh rate and lock it at 120Hz regardless of whether the game supports it (though, obviously, it would make sense on the games that do). Additional sliders let you select Touch response speed and touch tracking accuracy.
H.S. power control is the setting that deals with power management, and it won't charge the battery but will only essentially provide just enough power to meet your current power consumption to avoid unnecessary heat generation - H.S. stands for Heat Suppression.
The Focus settings is an array of toggles that let you disable pesky notifications, turn off adaptive brightness, disable the camera button and the side sense functionality - or limit distractions in other words.
There are also screenshot and video capture features.
The Xperia 5 III, just like the 1 III, is equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chipset. That means top-tier performance under both CPU and GPU intense tasks, as well as 5G connectivity from the SD888's built-in modem. Unlike the 1 III and its 12GB of RAM, the 5 III comes with 8GB - while more has to be better, enough can be enough. Two storage versions are available - 128GB and 256GB and we have the base version for review.
The Xperia 5 III posted more or less expected results throughout the benchmarks we ran. In GeekBench, it ranked around the middle of the pack of SD888 devices we have in the database, though the differences between these are small enough to be irrelevant.
Higher is better
Higher is better
There was more of a gap in Antutu 9, where the Xperia 5 III scored lower than what its hardware is capable of and lower than the already unremarkable score of the Xperia 1 III. The Zenfone 8 puts out better numbers here, but then the Galaxy S21 5G (in Exynos trim) is even lower than the Xperia.
Higher is better
In graphics benchmarks, the Xperia is about on par with the Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), and a bit behind the Zenfone 8, mostly in onscreen tests. For what it's worth, the 5 III often inches ahead of the 1 III - a frame per second here, a frame per second there. It's not a gap worth talking about, but it's enough to prove the 5 is no worse than 1.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
As we observed on the 1 III, the Xperia 5 III has a tendency to throttle the CPU speeds under load and does so quickly and significantly. Passively cooled modern high-end smartphones typically throttle a lot, so the Xperia isn't alone in this, but we'd say it's a worse offender than most. For comparison, the Zenfone 8's stability score in the 3D Mark Wild Life stress test is 85%, while the Xperia's is 55% - not great.
CPU throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test
Posting the good benchmark numbers expected from its hardware, the Xperia 5 III also behaves predictably when it comes to heat management and struggles to put out its otherwise top-tier performance for very long. Others can beat it by a little in this benchmark or that one, but if you're looking for sustained performance, the Xperia loses by a lot.
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