When the Sony Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III were launched, we weren't given prices for these new Sony phones, but a new leak possibly fills in that blank. We hope it's wrong, though, because these are some astronomical prices.
As spotted by a Reddit user, US-based store Focus has listed both the new flagship Sony phones - the Xperia 1 III is listed for $1,298 (which converts to about £920, AU$1,680), and the Xperia 5 III has a $998 price attached (that equals around £710, AU$1,290).
- These are the best camera phones
- Check out our Xperia 10 II review
- Prime Day 2021 is coming up
Take these prices with a pinch of salt, as it's possible they're just placeholder prices, and you can't order the phones for this much just yet. That said, the costs are a bit too specific for placeholders, and have only been added recently, so these could be the actual prices.
For context, the Xperia 1 II cost $1,199 / £1,099 (around AU$1,840) and the Xperia 5 II went for $949 / £799 (around AU$1,350) so if the listed prices are correct we're looking at slight increases for both.
That's surprising since one of our main issues with both of those phones was the high price, and the Mark-3 series doesn't present a huge number of upgrades.
The price is(n't) right
It's no secret that Sony Mobile is 'going through some stuff' - according to Statista, it sold 2.9 million smartphones in 2020. That's a lot of devices - I certainly didn't sell that many last year - but it's a huge decrease from the 14.6 million in 2016.
Sony puts out about four phones per year (for global markets, at least), and in 2020 the Xperia 5 II and 1 II were two of them - this year the Mark-3 versions will fill those boots. If both its top devices are as incredibly pricey as these numbers show, it's no wonder Sony is struggling to get people to buy its devices.
With the budget market in particular getting incredibly competitive, and companies trying to constantly offer impressive specs at low prices, Sony's going to struggle if it continues to offer its top specs at top prices.
