Sony Xperia 1 VIII vs Xperia 1 III
86
out of 100
VS
57
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.5-inch Sony Xperia 1 VIII (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on May 13, 2026, against the Sony Xperia 1 III, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and came out 5 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Sony Xperia 1 VIII
- 3.1x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3842K versus 1232K)
- Delivers 152% higher peak brightness (1419 against 563 nits)
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 13
- The phone is 5 years and 2 months newer
- Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
Reasons to consider the Sony Xperia 1 III
- 62% higher pixel density (643 vs 396 PPI)
- The rear camera has a 4.4x optical zoom
- Slow-motion recording at 240FPS
- Has 2 SIM card slots
Review
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.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| 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 | 1500 nits | 385 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 2200 nits | 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 |
| RGB color space | 97.5% | 99.9% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 476 Hz |
| Response time | 1 ms | 7.5 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Peak brightness test (auto)
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 | 8.3 mm (0.33 inches) | 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) |
| Weight | 200 g (7.05 oz) | 186 g (6.56 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Black, Silver, Gold, Red | Black, Gray, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-button | Yes, in-button |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 |
| Max clock | 4610 MHz | 2840 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 6) | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance - 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime |
- 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 |
| Graphics | Adreno 840 | Adreno 660 |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 768 |
| GPU clock | 1300 MHz | 840 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~3993.6 GFLOPS | ~1290.2 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 28578 | 4494 |
| Single-core score | 3522 | 1528 |
| Multi-core score | 9923 | 3917 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 1085245 | 435324 |
| GPU | 1325452 | 228692 |
| Memory | 568742 | 219361 |
| UX | 863443 | 348823 |
| Total score | 3842882 | 1232200 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [4 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | - | 77% |
| Graphics test | - | 4 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 505 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | - | 70% |
| Graphics test | - | 8 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 1485 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | - | 12641 |
| Video editing | - | 7747 |
| Photo editing | - | 31867 |
| Data manipulation | - | 11659 |
| Writing score | - | 17464 |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#46th place)
Recent User Tests
Sony Xperia 1 VIII
No benchmark results yet
Sony Xperia 1 III
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-10-07 (Nam) | AnTuTu 12 | 1163847 |
| 📘 2026-02-22 (semga) | AnTuTu 11 | 1245240 |
| 📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 4494 |
| 📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1528 / 3917 |
| 📘 2025-10-10 (desomorphine) | AnTuTu 11 | 1232200 |
Memory
| RAM size | 12 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 5300 MHz | 2750 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| 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 16 (Can be upgraded to Android 17) | Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) |
| OS size | 45 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 |
| Bypass charging | Yes | - |
| Fast charging | Yes (50% in 30 min) | Yes (50% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:25 hr | 1:50 hr |
| Web browsing | - | 05:20 hr |
| Watching video | - | 08:56 hr |
| Gaming | - | 04:04 hr |
| Standby | - | 82 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 48 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8000 x 6000 | 4000 x 3000 |
| Zoom | Optical, 2.9x | 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 | - | 124° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 48 MP 2) Telephoto: 48 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 |
| 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 |
| Image resolution | 48 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.8 | f/2.3 |
| Focal length | 70 mm | 70 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX 906 | Sony IMX663 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/2.9" (≈ 0.34 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1 micron |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 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 |
| Number of SIM* | 1 | 2 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | No |
| Hybrid slot | No | 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
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | May 2026 | April 2021 |
| Release date | June 2026 | June 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1499 | $1200 |
| Successor | - | - Sony Xperia 1 VIII |
| 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 VIII is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: < 1