Xperia 1 III now a Verizon-only phone

  • 1 April 2022
  • 3 replies
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Don’t buy the Xperia 1 III even through it’s often advertised as a non-carrier US model.

 

My Xperia 1 III is now losing compatibility with T-Mobile.  It shows 5G or LTE but has no connectivity.  Sony support says the phone works only with Verizon and won’t discuss further.  As far as I can tell without root access, it’s trying to use SA 5G bands and aggregations that Sony has disabled in the Qualcomm firmware.  Turning on 5G in downtown Sunnyvale California kills connectivity.  It works only intermittently when forced to LTE.


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That sucks.  After doing a long search for phones still with a SD slot, my choice was either for a Samsung Note 20 Ultra, which costs pretty close to my primary choice, the Xperia 1 III.  That sucks.  My phone is 5 years old and now I guess I’ll keep using it until it dies.  Hopefully a good tmobile compatible phone with an SD slot comes along. I really wanted the latest Snapdragon CPU and the latest Adreno GPU as well.  I mean, it doesn’t look like either Sony or Tmobile is able or willing to fix this, otherwise wouldn’t they have done it already? 

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able to or willing to fix what? if another carrier paid out to have a certain device private labeled to just them there isnt anything any other carrier can do about that.. not the first time a carrier has done something like this..it just doesnt happen often.

Able to willing to fix the wifi calling not working, and potentially fixing the 5G problems I’ve heard some Xperia 1 III users are having on Tmobile.  It just is a sucky experience when you’ve done a bunch of research and finally feel like you find a phone that is a good fit for you, only for it to not work. 

I guess I’ll just keep using my old phone until it dies and I am forced to upgrade.  At 5 years old its showing its age but I think I’m out of choices for a premium phone with a SD card slot. 

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