Sony has unveiled its most powerful phone ever. The Xperia Pro-I comes with a massive 1-inch camera sensor that’s plucked straight from Sony’s RX100 VII compact camera. The device will be for sale in the Netherlands for 1,799 euros.
Sony Xperia Pro-I
Sony likes surprises. The Japanese brand has its most powerful camera phone yet launched: the Xperia Pro-I. This monster of a smartphone has a 1-inch camera sensor and it comes out in a select number of European countries, including the Netherlands, for 1,799 euros. The ‘I’ in the name stands for ‘imaging’, or taking pictures.
First of all, let’s dive into the camera. The Xperia Pro-1’s 1-inch sensor comes from Sony’s very popular RX100 VII compact camera. It shoots 12 MP photos, but the larger sensor size compared to most smartphone cameras allows room for larger pixels. They have an enormous pixel size of 2.4 µm and are therefore able to absorb a lot of extra light. At 2.4 µm, the pixels are about the same size as the combined pixels of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra camera due to pixel binning, but less light is lost.
ZEISS lens and variable aperture
Exmor RS, that is the name of the sensor that is used and in front of it is a 24 mm ZEISS lens. Sony has equipped its camera with a variable aperture that switches between F/2.0 and f/4.0. According to Sony, the Xperia Pro-I camera can take images with a large dynamic range, or the difference between light and dark elements in a photo. The color contrasts are also said to be rich and he can reportedly take good images with the bokeh effect, which is a blurred background.
Sony uses image processing technology from its Alpha camera division and states that its Xperia Pro-I therefore also produces detailed images at night in combination with the large camera sensor. There’s also real-time eye-detection autofocus that can focus a subject in 315 stages with points occupying 90 percent of the frame.
Still, the Xperia Pro-I’s camera can also be a disappointment, at least if you’re a fan of the periscope sensor and a large optical zoom range. There was no room for a periscope camera as with the Xperia 1 III, so Sony uses a 12 MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. There’s also a 12MP wide-angle camera and a Time of Flight (ToF) camera.
Filming and vlog monitor
There are two physical buttons for the camera on the body of the Xperia Pro-I: a shutter button that takes pictures in two stages and a second physical button. You can choose a purpose for this yourself, but by default it opens the special ‘Videography’ Pro app. The Xperia Pro-I can film in 4K HDR and with a maximum of 120 fps. With that quality, he can also make slow-motion images. Images are then 5 times delayed.
For the real vloggers, Sony has come up with an accessory: the vlog monitor. It is a 3.5 inch screen that you attach to the back of the Xperia Pro-I, just below the camera. The screen serves as a viewfinder so you can see yourself and has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. You can also connect an external microphone via the 3.5 mm audio jack.
Other specifications
But of course there is more to this phone than the camera part. The smartphone has a 6.5-inch OLED screen with a resolution of up to 4K – for specific applications – and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Under the hood is also the Snapdragon 888 along with 12GB of RAM and a solid 512GB of storage. You can also expand that storage via microSD. The Xperia Pro-I also works with a 4,500 mAh battery that you can charge with the included 30W fast charger.
Prices and availability
The Sony Xperia Pro-I will come to the Netherlands in December and will cost 1799 euros. The device is also released with its vlog monitor that costs 199 euros. To confirm that screen, the special back cover is also required for which you pay 89.99 euros.
In addition to being a smartphone brand, Sony is a manufacturer of excellent cameras. The company is even one of the pioneers in the field of system cameras. Until now, the brand could not yet tower above the competition with its smartphone cameras, but that could be different with the Xperia Pro-I. What do you think? Are you looking forward to the Xperia Pro-I? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.
– Thanks for information from Androidworld.