Sony Xperia 1 III will feature a periscope zoom camera, according to latest leak

UPDATE: Sony might be getting ready for a launch event planned for April 14, according to the same leaker. Expected devices - Xperia 1 III, Xperia 10 III, and Xperia 5 III.

Unsurprisingly, the Xperia 1 III will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 888 chipset and will feature a 12/256GB memory configuration, although there will be a premium 16/512GB version too. The display will be a 6.5-inch OLED panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio, typical for Xperia phones of late.

According to the leak, it’s a 4K HDR panel that supports 10bit color and can go up to 120Hz refresh rates, similar to the Xperia 5 II. The peak brightness, cited in the leak, is 1,300 nits, on par with modern OLED smartphone displays.

There’s some news around the camera system of the Xperia 1 III as well. It seems that for the first time Sony has decided to go along the periscope route. According to ZACKBUCKS, the Xperia 1 III will sport a classic periscope lens with lossless zoom, made in-house by Sony’s Cyber-shot division (although something might’ve been lost in translation - Cyber-shot point-and-shoot cameras don’t feature any periscope lens technology).

The main camera of the phone is listed as a 64MP wide-angle, and it will be accompanied by a 12MP ultra-wide-angle snapper. The phone will be powered by a large 5,000mAh battery, supporting 65W fast charging as well.

The latter is a bit dubious, as the Xperia 5 II can only charge at 21W max. Either Sony has taken a page from Chinese smartphone charging manuals (think Xiaomi and Oppo), or the leak is plain wrong about this part.

Lastly, there’s a price mentioned in the leak, and it’s 8999 Chinese yuan. This converts to $1,369 - a 10% increase compared to the price of the Xperia 1 II. Sony is notoriously bad at smartphone launches, and even worse at getting the devices to the users fast enough, which is a huge part of the issue. The Xperia 1 III should be officially announced in June but sales could be pushed to August-September. Stay tuned for more information on the subject.

Sony Xperia 1 III rumored specifications:

• CPU: Snapdragon 888
• Display: 6.5 inch, 4K HDR OLED (10 bit, maximum brightness 1300 nit ), 120Hz refresh rate
• Memory and storage capacity: 12GB + 256GB (Chinese version 16GB + 512GB)
• Camera: 64MP wide-angle + 12MP ultra-wide-angle + Cyber-shot classic periscope lens with optical lossless zoom
• Battery capacity: 5000mAh
• Charging: 65W fast charging

UPDATE: ZACKBUCKS shared another interesting info on Weibo. It seems that Sony has proved us wrong this time and is gearing up for a big announcement event later this month. According to the leaked info, the announcement will happen on April 14, and will feature three Sony devices - the Xperia 1 III, Xperia 10 III, and Xperia 5 III.