Sony Xperia 1 III - What we want to see from Sony’s next flagship - Android

The Sony Xperia 1 II isn’t the cheapest flagship phone on the market, coming in at a considerable $1,200. Nevertheless, it’s tough to argue that you aren’t getting a well-rounded premium experience for the most part.

Between the powerful chipset, ultra high-resolution screen, water resistance, wireless charging, and pro-focused camera software, there’s certainly a lot to like about the early 2020 flagship.

There’s definitely room for improvement though, so here’s what we’d like to see from the Sony Xperia 1 III or whatever the new Sony phone for 2021 is called.

A streamlined camera experience

The Sony Xperia 1 II delivered three camera-related apps, with your standard camera app, a Photo Pro app, and a Cinema Pro app. Right from the get-go, we’d like to see the brand combine the Photo and Cinema Pro apps into one Pro app for the sake of simplicity.

It’s understandable that Sony would want to go for two separate camera apps, with one being for casual use and the other being for a pro-level experience. What isn’t understandable however are a few other bizarre decisions, such as restricting HDR to the Pro app. The main camera app also doesn’t automatically switch between lenses as you zoom in and out, forcing you to manually switch instead. You’d expect the main camera app to offer both of these options.

Related: The Sony Xperia 1 II camera is a case study for nonsensical software design

This isn’t the first time we see oddball camera app decisions from the firm, as it previously opted to make 4K a separate mode in years gone by instead of a video quality option. Hopefully, the Xperia 1 III marks the beginning of more sensible camera app design.

More photography smarts

Sony does offer multi-frame processing features on the Xperia 1 II, such as HDR and a night mode. But there’s definitely room for more smart photography features that reduce the need to hop into an editing suite.

See also: The best Sony cameras to spend your money on

For one, we’d love to see the brand deliver something similar to the Pixel’s Dual Exposure Controls. This way, you can adjust shadow levels before taking that shot. We’d also like to see functionality to help newcomers get to grips with advanced camera settings (e.g. ISO, exposure, etc). For example, LG offered the Graphy app on its last few high-end phones, which showed off a variety of great photos and associated camera settings. Best of all, this app lets you quickly apply those settings to your camera app so you can try to get similar results.

We’d also add improved selfie quality to our Xperia 1 III wishlist, as selfie snaps were rather disappointing on the Xperia 1 II.

Please keep the headphone port

The Xperia 1 II marks one of the few occasions where a smartphone manufacturer has revived the 3.5mm headphone port for its flagship phones after previously killing it. We definitely applaud the company for this, even if its reasoning was a bit weird.

More reading: The best smartphones with a headphone jack 

So we’re definitely adding the 3.5mm port to our Xperia 1 III wishlist, and the presence of the port on the Xperia 5 II gives us some hope that Sony will keep it this time. Our own Rob Triggs also wants to see Sony do away with extra headphone apps and build support directly into the platform.

A high refresh rate

The early 2020 Xperia flagship foll