Sony realized that it could only be successful in the smartphone world if it made a dedicated phone that would solve the plight of a very narrow demographic. And this is exactly how we can distinguish the new Sony Xperia Pro. Phone for video professionals. Well, those who don't record their video products with a phone.
But first to the absolute basics. Xperia Pro, Sony's first smartphone with 5 Mr and you can buy it for $2,499.99. We are writing about dollars because the price for the European market is not known, nor is it known if it will be available on this market. Sony has aimed this smartphone at professional users, those who are involved in videography and need an HDMI input on their phone, which turns the phone into an external camera monitor, and at the same time, with the 5G connection, it can quickly upload live footage and thus in a way mobile broadcasting.
With the exception of an external HDMI input and 5G support, the Xperia Pro's hardware is very similar to last year's Xperia 1 II. This means that it is powered by the processor Snapdragon 865 with a 4000 mAh battery, and on the back there is an identical camera system with 12 million pixels, a telephoto lens and an ultra-wide lens. The Xperia Pro also includes a tall – read. a rather large 6.5-inch OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which Sony defines as 4K, but actually has a sub-4K resolution of 3840 x 1644.
At $1,200, the Xperia 1 II was an extremely expensive smartphone, and the Xperia Pro is more than double the price. Sony, of course, argues everything together with the PRO label and features that are necessary for live broadcasts. It has 5G connectivity and HDMI input.
Let's start with the HDMI input, which is located on the bottom of the phone, where the USB-C port is. Sony says it can accept up to 4K 60fps HDR video transmission and should work with any camera that has an HDMI output.
In practice, this means that you can Xperia Pro for example, you connect it to the HDMI output of the camera and with its larger screen you get a clearer view of everything that is being recorded or photographed. For easier framing, you can enlarge the image displayed on the screen or cover the screen with grid lines.
Connectivity is particularly interesting 5G Xperia Pro, which allows it to act as a live streaming connection for your camera in addition to being an external monitor. The Xperia Pro can record footage from the HDMI input directly to YouTube and supports StreamLabs and StreamYard for streaming to other platforms such as Twitch and Facebook Live. So a great tool for vloggers.
The phone supports sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, and Sony claims it has built-in a unique four-way mmWave antenna network that dramatically increases reception and thus data flow. There's also a built-in network mapper that you can assign to a hotkey to help you find the best position for signal reception. Hopefully Sony's software and hardware are enough to mitigate the mmWave and limited coverage issues.
Sony emphasizes that this is a device for professional users, and its $2,499.99 price point makes that more obvious than ever.
