Sony Launches Xperia Pro-I With The Biggest Smartphone Camera in The World

Out of the blue, Sony has released an updated model for the Xperia 1 III. The new Xperia Pro-I brings a brand new camera to the table, but other than that, it is the same phone as the Xperia 1 III.

It’s primarily made for content creators, YouTubers, or anyone that wants a professional-grade camera but with the utility of a smartphone.

It’s also a little different from the Xperia 1 III in terms of build quality as it features an all-metal build as opposed to a glass back and a metal frame.

All About The Cameras

The Xperia Pro I has one of the biggest smartphone cameras in the world. This is because it is a massive 1-inch sensor taken straight off the company’s very popular RX100 VII compact camera. Despite its size, it supports phase detection autofocus and is “optimized for a smartphone”. This means that the phone is able to use a big portion of the sensor, but not all of it.

It can produce 12MP photos using a 2.4µm pixel pitch, which is 20% larger than the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s pixels, but almost the same size as the Galaxy S21 Ultra after pixel binning. It is only bested by Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s 2.8µm binned pixels.

This camera is loaded with a list of features such as Real-time autofocus for humans and animals for both videos and images, OIS, phase-detection AF across 90% of the frame, and 4K videos with 5x slow motion. There are also two physical camera control buttons, one of which is a two-stage shutter key and the other gives you an enthusiast pro-level control over video making with controls like white balance, exposure, and focus.

In addition, it comes with Sony’s pro camera apps for recording videos and taking photos with much more fine-tuning and control.

The Zeiss branded main camera is paired with two other 12MP lenses, one ultrawide unit, and a 2x telephoto snapper. A bit disappointing that Sony did not use the same variable zoom camera from the Xperia 1 III and 5 III.

Other Features and Price

The rest of the specifications are the same as the Xperia 1 III. This includes a 6.5-inch 120Hz 4K OLED display, a Snapdragon 888 SoC with 12GB RAM/512GB memory, and a 4,500 mAh battery with 30W fast charging.

As always, Sony has also put a ludicrous price tag on it. The phone is priced at €1,799, which is even more than foldable phones these days. However, do not that this is less expensive than the previous Xperia Pro phone which cost a whopping $2,500.

Sony Xperia Pro-I Specifications

• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680)
• GPU: Adreno 660
• OS: Android 11
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G
• Display:
  • 6.5″ AMOLED with 1644 x 3840 pixels resolution; 120Hz refresh rate, HDR-BT 2020, 10-bit colors
• Memory:
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Internal: 256GB, 512GB, UFS 3.1
  • Card slot: yes
• Camera:
  • Rear (Triple): 12 MP, f/2.0-4.0, 24mm (wide), 1.0-type, 2.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.4, 50mm (telephoto), 1/2.9″, PDAF, 2x optical zoom, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.2, 124˚, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, Dual Pixel PDAF
    0.3 MP, TOF 3D, (depth)
  • Front: 8MP
• Colors: Frosted Black, Frosted Gray, Frosted Purple
• Fingerprint sensor: Side-mounted
• Battery: 4,500 mAh, 30W fast charging
• Price: €1,799