Sony announced the Xperia 5 III way back in April of 2021. It didn't launch for months, and when it did, the US wasn't on the list. That changes today. You can purchase Sony's latest small-ish flagship phone for $999.99, which is a lot for a phone with last year's hardware. Sony is sweetening the deal with some earbuds and a mountain of CoD points.

The Xperia 5 III's spec sheet will look familiar after a year of seeing most of this hardware, but Sony isn't cutting any corners here.

The Xperia 5 III looks like all of Sony's recent Android phones. It's very tall thanks to the 21:9 screen, and there are small bezels at the top and bottom. So, there's no notch or punch-hole, which will please some phone buyers. It also offers a headphone jack and IP68 water resistance. It's very old-fashioned in some ways, including the software. The Xperia 5 III will ship in the US with Android 11. Android 12 started rolling out to the international version just recently, so we can only hope it won't be too long a wait for this version. Sony would prefer to focus on the cameras. Like the larger Xperia 1 III, this phone has a telephoto camera with adjustable focal length. That means you can snap photos at 70mm or 105mm (the primary camera is 24mm).

A thousand bucks for a phone from mid-2021 is going to be a tough sell in the US, but there are some nice bonuses. If you buy the Xperia 5 III, you'll get a free set of WF-1000XM3 earbuds. Fittingly, these are the last-gen model, but they're still excellent earbuds that retail for around $200. You'll also get 43,200 Call of Duty Mobile points, which are worth $540 if you play the game. If not, they're worth nothing.

You can pick up the Xperia 5 III right now for $1,000 in black or green. The green is exclusive to Sony's online store, but the black will be available at other retailers.

Buy Sony Xperia 5 III

Sony Electronics B&H Photo