The (distant) US release date of the 5G Sony Xperia 1 III and 5 III may have been revealed
Sony's mobile business might have become (mildly) profitable recently after years and years of efforts focused almost entirely towards that goal, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like the Japanese tech giant has learned much from its past errors.
Not as far as the US smartphone market is concerned, at least, since the company's latest (and presumably greatest) flagship Android handsets seem destined to repeat quite possibly the gravest strategic mistake made by their forerunners.
The Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III are expected to be released when?!?
Formally unveiled mere weeks after the 5G-enabled OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, for instance, Sony's Snapdragon 888-powered Xperia 1 III (pronounced One Mark Three) and Xperia 5 III (pronounced Five Mark Three) could begin shipping stateside at around the same time as Samsung's Galaxy S21 FE, Z Fold 3, and Z Flip 3.
No, the three next-gen Galaxy devices haven't even been rigorously leaked yet, let alone officially announced, but for reasons that continue to evade us, that's simply how Sony rolls in the US sometimes.
Make that most of the time, as the Xperia 1 II started shipping at the end of July last year from B&H Photo Video following a February 2020 announcement, while the OG Xperia 1 made its US debut in July 2019 after being unveiled several months earlier.
But even though the pattern is pretty clear, it's certainly disappointing to hear the earliest Sony Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III adopters stateside may need to wait until August 31 for their orders to be fulfilled.
That's at least according to B&H, and while pre-orders are technically still not open, you can currently sign up to be notified when that happens.
Before panicking too much, you should know these "expected availability" dates don't always stick, so there's still a chance you might be able to receive your hot new high-end Sony phone a few weeks earlier than August 31. But that's probably the best you can hope for, at least if history is any indication.
How much will the Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III cost?
Unfortunately, that's an even trickier question to answer (precisely and definitively) than the US release date matter, but based on the two new handsets' official price tags elsewhere, we can certainly make some predictions.
For one thing, we're fairly sure the Xperia 1 III will not be cheaper than its $1,200 predecessor, and we actually fear the upgraded powerhouse could even end up costing around $1,300 stateside. That would be another big error on Sony's part, as Samsung's popular Galaxy S21 Ultra, for example, starts at "only" $1,200.
On the bright side, the Xperia 1 III comes with a whopping 256 gigs of base storage, as well as microSD support, a headphone jack, and even a blazing fast 30W charger in the box as standard. Additionally, unlike the Xperia 1 II, this 6.5-inch bad boy is expected to support 5G speeds on at least some US networks.
The same goes for the 6.1-inch Sony Xperia 5 III, which however starts at 128GB internal storage space and 8GB RAM (compared to the 12 gigs of the good stuff found inside the Xperia 1 III). As such, the (somewhat) compact 5G flagship may well stay under the $1,000 mark considering it also sports much lower screen resolution and one less rear-facing camera than its big brother.
Finally, if there's one good thing that could come out of the awfully distant US release of the Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III, that's a potentially mouth-watering pre-order gift.
Although this is little more than a wild guess (at the moment), Sony could choose to bundle its newest ultra-high-end smartphones in the US with the soon-to-be-unveiled WF-1000XM4 earbuds rather than the previous-gen WF-1000XM3 model.
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