Sony Xperia Pro-I arrives with dual aperture & a 1-inch sensor

Sony says "The 'I' stands for Imaging"

Release Date
October 26, 2021
Price
$1799

Earlier this year, in April, Sony launched the Xperia 1 III smartphone, which brought a variable optical zoom camera so you were able to switch the focal length between 70-105mm, or in other words, 2.9X to 4.4X optical zoom. Now, Sony has launched yet another high-end premium phone with the main focus on photography. This phone is named the Sony Xperia Pro-I. Now, this is not the first phone from Sony with “Pro” in its name. In fact, last year, the company announced the Xperia Pro smartphone, which Sony claimed was a phone for professionals. The Xperia Pro-I has the camera as its main highlight, and hence the “I” in its name stands for “Imaging.”

Sony Xperia Pro-I

So, what’s so special about that camera setup? Well, the Xperia Pro-I features a huge 1-inch sensor for the main camera. Sony says that this camera sensor is based on the RX100 VII’s sensor, but it has been tuned to be used in this phone. This camera sensor takes 12MP photos and has an impressive 2.4-micron pixel pitch. Just for comparison, the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is one of the best camera phones available in the market right now, has the main camera sensor with a pixel pitch of 1.9µm. And we are not talking about pixel binning here but rather the individual pixel size!

Sony Xperia Pro-I

As you can see, there is also the ZEISS branding on the camera module, and this is because the main camera also gets the ZEISS Tessar optics. This helps in reducing the reflections, getting more contrast and sharpness in the images, and less peripheral image distortion. And that’s not it! This main camera gets a lens with a variable aperture. Samsung included the same tech in its Galaxy S9 series but later ditched it. The lens on the Xperia Pro-I’s primary camera has a variable aperture of f/2.0/4.0.

Talking about the other cameras on the back, there is a 12MP telephoto camera with 2X Optical Zoom & a 12MP ultrawide with a 124-degrees field of view. There is also the 3D iTOF sensor that instantly gives information about the distance of the subject from the camera sensor. This helps in accurate autofocus. All three cameras on the back have Phase Detection AutoFocus. The Image processing is handled by the Bionz X ISP.

Speaking of the other camera features, there is Real-Time Eye AutoFocus, Real-Time tracking, Anti-Distortion shutter, multi-frame noise reduction, OIS (only for primary & telephoto), 12bit RAW, 4K HDR 120fps video recording (via the main 1-inch camera sensor),  and more. And finally, in typical Sony style, you also get a dedicated shutter button. There is an 8MP selfie camera.

Sony Xperia Pro-I

Speaking of the other specs, Sony Xperia Pro-I has a 21:9 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch-sampling rate. The performance is handled by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SOC & there is 12GB RAM along with 512GB storage. You also get the option to add a microSD card of up to 1TB to further expand the storage. There is a 4,500mAh battery under the hood with USB Power Delivery fast charging support. There is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, and the phone doesn’t miss out on the 3.5mm headphone jack. Some audio features include Hi-Resolution Audio, High-Resolution Audio Wireless (LDAC), Dolby Atmos, Stereo recording, Stereo speakers, etc.

The phone is also IP68 dust and water-resistant. There is Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and Gorilla Glass 6 on the back. Finally, Android 11 runs out of the box.

So, what about the price? The Sony Xperia Pro-I is priced at $1,799! It is definitely a very expensive phone, but still, Sony has priced it lower than the Xperia Pro of last year ($2500!). The phone can be pre-ordered from the 28th of October and will start shipping in December.