Do you remember the Sony Xperia 1 II? Yeah, the phone with a confusing name. Sony unveiled it back in February 2020, where they also said that its compatriot Xperia Pro will join soon. Sadly, Sony remained mum afterward.
Today, the company has finally revealed the Xperia Pro in the US, and the decision seems pretty weird. Mainly because the phone carries a price tag of a whopping $2500, which is around NPR 300,000 in Nepal. Yes, you saw it right, a freakish price that could actually get you three Galaxy S21 devices.
Another letdown here is that Sony has opted to include last year’s Snapdragon 865 processor instead of the newly launched Snapdragon 888 chip. Don’t get me wrong, the Snapdragon 865 is still a well-rounded powerful chipset, and rightly so, but with a price as high as that, you deserve to get the latest and greatest. The Xperia Pro misses out on a lot of great features that the new chipset brings, like the ability to capture from three cameras at the same time, quicker focus, faster burst shots, and much improved 4K HDR video recording.
The phone doesn’t go totally downhill, it still has 12GB RAM and 512GB of onboard storage, which is an upgrade from Xperia 1 II’s 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. However, put that aside and you get near-identical specs — a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED panel (which is still not bad), a triple 12MP rear camera setup, 8MP front camera, and surprisingly still 4,000mAh battery. It doesn’t have any wireless charging support, which is present in last year’s Xperia 1 II.
From what it looks like, Sony doesn’t want normal consumers to purchase this phone. It’s for the professionals who happen to miss a better, bigger, and more accurate viewfinder for images and videos. And for that, the phone has HDMI input support through a type-D connection. The phone is able to live-stream videos directly from your connected camera or camcorder, offering a much more streamlined and professional setup for live web broadcasts.
The phone can also act as an image sharing device, allowing you to transfer your photos and videos between the Alpha 7S III camera and the Xperia Pro phone.
The Xperia Pro also supports 5G connectivity; both sub-6GHz and mmWave standards. The latter is “fine-tuned” for Verizon networks in the USA.
Sony is staying true to its root here as the phone still has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dedicated camera shutter or shortcut button, stereo speakers, and IP68 water and dust resistance. However, another disappointing factor here is that the phone still ships with Android 10, given that Android 11 is already out for over five months.
The Sony Xperia Pro is currently available for purchase via Sony’s official website and B&H Photo Video in the USA.
