Sony Xperia 1 VII vs Xperia 1 III

83 out of 100
Sony Xperia 1 VII
VS
57 out of 100
Sony Xperia 1 III

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.5-inch Sony Xperia 1 VII (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite) that was released on May 13, 2025, against the Sony Xperia 1 III, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and came out 4 years and 2 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Sony Xperia 1 VII
  • 2.4x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2994K versus 1232K)
  • Delivers 166% higher peak brightness (1487 against 560 nits)
  • Shows 53% longer battery life (23:28 vs 15:23 hours)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • The rear camera has a 7.1x optical zoom
  • More recent OS version: Android 15 versus 13
  • The phone is 4 years and 2 months newer
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
  • Ready for eSIM technology
Reasons to consider the Sony Xperia 1 III
  • 62% higher pixel density (643 vs 396 PPI)
  • Slow-motion recording at 240FPS
  • Has 2 SIM card slots

Review

Evaluation of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Xperia 1 III crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 89% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Sony Xperia 1 III to Sony Xperia 1 VII is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, performance, and camera.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type OLED OLED
Size 6.5 inches 6.5 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1644 x 3840 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 21:9
PPI 396 ppi 643 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 1300 nits 385 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 620 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz 120 Hz
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Gorilla Glass Victus
Screen-to-body ratio 86.5% 84.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 100% 99.9%
PWM 240 Hz 476 Hz
Response time 1 ms 7.5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
Xperia 1 VII +166%
1487 nits
560 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 162 mm (6.38 inches) 165 mm (6.5 inches)
Width 74 mm (2.91 inches) 71 mm (2.8 inches)
Thickness 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) 8.2 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 197 g (6.95 oz) 186 g (6.56 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Green, Purple Black, Gray, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button Yes, in-button
Repairability Bad (1.78/5) -
Drop resistance Very good (B) · 181 drops -
Screen-to-body ratio
86.5%
84.2%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Sony Xperia 1 III
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
Max clock 4320 MHz 2840 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 680 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 3 cores at 2.42 GHz: Kryo 680 Gold (Cortex-A78)
- 1 core at 2.84 GHz: Kryo 680 Prime (Cortex-X1)
L3 cache 8 MB 4 MB
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 3 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon 780
GPU
Graphics Adreno 830 Adreno 660
GPU shading units 1536 768
GPU clock 1100 MHz 840 MHz
FLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS ~1290.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Sony Xperia 1 VII and Sony Xperia 1 III
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Xperia 1 VII +102%
3094
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Xperia 1 VII +137%
9293
Compute Score (GPU)
Xperia 1 VII +401%
22537
Compute Score (GPU) 22537 4494
Single-core score 3094 1528
Multi-core score 9293 3917
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Xperia 1 VII +143%
2994112
1232200
CPU 894222 435324
GPU 1129058 228692
Memory 372780 219361
UX 598052 348823
Total score 2994112 1232200
Samples Less than 3 [4 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Xperia 1 VII +344%
2240
Stability 64% 77%
Graphics test 17 FPS 4 FPS
Graphics score 2240 505
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test 40 FPS -
Section 1 46 FPS -
Section 2 39 FPS -
Section 3 33 FPS -
Graphics score 10520 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 70%
Graphics test - 8 FPS
Graphics score - 1485
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
19524
14728
Web score 19154 12641
Video editing 8199 7747
Photo editing 34682 31867
Data manipulation 18223 11659
Writing score 24878 17464
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#115th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Sony Xperia 1 VII
No benchmark results yet
Sony Xperia 1 III
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-02-22 (semga)AnTuTu 111245240
📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine)Geekbench 6 GPU4494
📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine)Geekbench 6 CPU1528 / 3917
📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine)AnTuTu 111232200
📘 2025-09-30 (desomorphine)AnTuTu 111179636

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 5300 MHz 2750 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card MicroSD MicroSD
Memory card max size Up to 2048 GB Up to 1024 GB

Software

Operating system Android 15 Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
OS size 32 GB 16 GB
OS updates 4 years -
Security updates 6 years -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4500 mAh
Max charge power 30 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes Yes
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Fast charging Yes (51% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:27 hr 1:50 hr
Battery cycles 1400 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:18 hr 05:20 hr
Watching video 18:31 hr 08:56 hr
Gaming 06:32 hr 04:04 hr
Standby 90 hr 82 hr
General battery life
23:28 hr
15:23 hr

Main camera

Matrix 48 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8000 x 6000 4000 x 3000
Zoom Optical, 7.1x Optical, 4.4x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 120 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 124°
Lenses 1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth: 0.3 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 48 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.7
Focal length 24 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX888 Sony IMX557
Sensor size 1/1.35" (≈ 0.74 inch) 1/1.7" (≈ 0.59 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.8 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.3 - 3.5 f/2.3
Focal length 170 mm 70 mm
Sensor Sony IMX650 Sony IMX663
Sensor size 1/3.5" (≈ 0.29 inch) 1/2.9" (≈ 0.34 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 48 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 16 mm 16 mm
Sensor Sony IMX906 Sony IMX363
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 60
Preview - 57
Zoom - 104
Samples - Photo samples of Sony Xperia 1 III from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 8 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 3264 x 2448
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.0
Focal length 24 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX663 Samsung S5K4H7
Sensor size 1/2.9" (≈ 0.34 inch) 1/4" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 6.0 5.2
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes No
Hybrid slot Yes Yes
LTE Cat* - 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes Yes
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
89 dB
81.5 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced May 2025 April 2021
Release date June 2025 June 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $1499 $1200
Successor - - Sony Xperia 1 VII
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 30 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Sony Xperia 1 VII is definitely a better buy.

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