Sony will release its Xperia PRO-I smartphone in early December for a suggested retail price of 1799 euros. The device has the same 1″ camera sensor as the Sony RX100 VII compact camera, but does not use the entire sensor surface.
According to Sony, the sensor in the Xperia PRO-I comes from the RX100 VII camera, but it has been adapted for use in smartphones. This is also apparent from the adjusted resolution, Sony speaks of a 12-megapixel sensor in the smartphone with pixels of 2.4 microns, while the compact camera has a 20-megapixel sensor.
DPreview notes that the 24mm lens in the device cannot illuminate the entire surface of the sensor. About 60 percent of the sensor is used when taking photos, which corresponds to a sensor size of 1/1.33″ and that is comparable to the sensor size of the Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The lens is adjustable to apertures of f/2.0 and f/4.0 and is therefore less bright than lenses from other high-end smartphones, which often use an aperture around f/1.6.
The device has a Bionz X image processor, just like in recent Sony cameras. The smartphone can film in 4k resolution with 120fps; it is the first smartphone that can do that. This is partly possible due to the use of the stacked sensor with integrated DRAM. This allows the sensor to be read quickly.
You can shoot at a maximum of twenty frames per second and there is support for recordings in 12-bit raw format. The device has a physical shutter button and an interface based on Sony’s Alpha cameras. The phone also has a 50mm telephoto and 16mm ultra wide-angle camera, both with 12-megapixel sensors. For this Sony uses small camera sensors of 1/2.9″ and 1/2.5″.
120Hz display with ‘4k resolution’
Sony equips the Xperia PRO-I with a 6.5″ OLED screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz and an aspect ratio of 21:9. The manufacturer speaks of a 4k resolution, which is 3840×1644 pixels. The phone has dimensions of 166×72 .8.9mm and weighs 211 grams.
Sony also sells an external screen that can be attached to the back. That accessory is meant for vloggers; they can use the primary cameras, while they see themselves in the picture when making recordings. This Vlog monitor costs 199 euros.
Snapdragon 888, 12GB ram and 3.5mm jack
The Sony Xperia PRO-I is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-soc, a 5G modem and is equipped with 12GB of RAM. The storage memory consists of 512GB and can be expanded with microSD cards up to 1TB. The device also has a USB-C port with a transfer rate of 10Gbit/s. Sony includes a USB-C to HDMI cable to use the phone as an external display for cameras, for example. The device also has a 3.5mm jack.
Cheaper than predecessor
With a suggested retail price of 1799 euros, the Xperia PRO-I is one of the most expensive smartphones on the market, but the Android device is cheaper than its predecessor. The Xperia Pro was released earlier this year for a suggested retail price of 2,499 euros. That device was also aimed at photo and film makers, partly because of the possibility to use the device as an external monitor for cameras.