Sony Xperia 10 III Lite announced, but not for everyone

Sony is offering a new version of its Xperia 10 III smartphone in its home country of Japan. The company announced the Xperia 10 III Lite today (via GSMArena), which will go on sale at several Japan-based MVNO carriers on August 27.

The big difference between the two phones is that the Xperia 10 III Lite will have 64GB of expandable onboard storage, compared to 128GB of storage for the standard Xperia 10 III. There are also a couple of other smaller differences. The Lite model won’t have FM radio support, and it’s only being sold as a single SIM smartphone, although it will also have an eSIM for adding a second phone line.

Otherwise, the hardware specs for the Lite model are the same as on the Xperia 10 III. Both have a 6-inch display with 6GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 processor, a 4,5000mAh battery, and Android 11 installed. The Lite version also has the same camera hardware. That means it has a 12MP main rear camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, an 8MP telephoto sensor, and an 8MP front-facing camera. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, a side fingerprint scanner, and the phone has IP65/68 water resistance.

The Xperia 10 III Lite will be sold in several colors, including black, white, pink, and blue, the latter two of which will apparently be exclusive to Rakuten Mobile customers. The phone will be priced in Japan for JPY 46,800 (~$425). The standard Xperia 10 III costs JPY 51,480, or  €429 (~$518) if you purchase it in Europe. It looks doubtful that Sony will sell this Lite model in the US, but you never know.