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[Kerotan]

So I'm upgrading my phone for my birthday and I don't want them spending more then €500/600...

My current Xperia is the XZ1 compact from a good few years ago. Keeping possible black Friday sales in mind can anybody suggest the best upgrade to go for? I'm assuming all new 2021 models will be too expensive and around the €800-1000 range? I can buy off amazon UK so that's an option for black Friday.

 

[p_xavier]

They don't have any cheap phones anymore. Xperia 5 Mark III is your best bet at 800 euros.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

I don’t know about the latest models but from my experience with two Xperias, if you buy mid-budget Xperia you can expect heating issues and a battery that’ll die after 3 years at most. My advice would be always buy high-end, Xperia or not.

 

[IDKFA]

They don't have any cheap phones anymore. Xperia 5 Mark III is your best bet at 800 euros.

Don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK they have the Xperia 10 iii. It's a budget smartphone that comes in at under £350.

 

[Drew1440]

You can still find Xperia 5 II on clearance in some places, otherwise go for the 10 III

 

[p_xavier]

Don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK they have the Xperia 10 iii. It's a budget smartphone that comes in at under £350.

Yeah, not in Norh America so far. (would love to be corrected)

 

[dr_octagon]

I was thinking of picking one up but some of the reviews on overheating and glass shattering put me off.

 

[20cent]

I'm a fan of Xperia phones design and their implementation of Android, but...

I'm not sure about the 10 iii, but I had the 10 ii for more than a year and the performances sucked, camera takes 5 seconds to launch (like most Xperia I had) and takes the same amount of time to capture a photo (useless with kids and in low light condition), basic apps like banking take forever to load... dunno if that's a lack of ram or just a slow processor. Scrolling through reddit or twitter eventually stops loading contents..

Like any Xperia, the battery was great though, with solid hardware construction, not a ding after multiple drops (no case) and they know how to do waterproof products.
I like their screen ratio too, I'm using a Samsung S21 now and I miss this.

Between the Xperia 5 / 10 series, S21 and iPhone, seems like there's not much choice if you like "smaller" phones too.

As previously said maybe the 5 ii is still a good option for your budget?

 

[Kerotan]

They don't have any cheap phones anymore. Xperia 5 Mark III is your best bet at 800 euros.

It's a birthday / Christmas present but if it's necessary I'd be happy to chip in €300-€400 if it means getting the right one.

I see the xperia 1 iii has 12gb ram and costs £1200. Is that likely to get a black Friday sale? Do sony high end phones generally get a BF discount these days?

Would the xperia 1 iii be considered one of the best phones I can get?

Is this model really that much better then say and Xperia 5 ii?

 

[Kerotan]

Is the xperia 1 iii likely to get a decent discount cyber Monday or anytime soon? It's over €1000 but if it was to get a decent price cut I'd buy it.

Am I better off just getting the xperia 5 iii which has a better price already?