SONY XPERIA PRO-I
length аnd whіtе bаlаnсе – just like a stand-alone camera. The Cinema Pro app lets you set 4K or 2K resolution, frame rates of 23.98, 25, 29.97, 59.94 and 119.88, then choose focal length and ‘look’, which can emulate a Sony Venice. There’s a ‘screen grab’ function, plus HLG and HDR. Video Pro offers a quicker and more simple video app, with H.264 and H.265 options – and shutter angle settings. A fully auto mode lets you simply point and shoot. The Photo Pro app does emulate a Sony Alpha camera, complete with advanced AF. Shoot JPEG, Raw or both – and choose aspect ratio, plus the usual PASM settings of a stills camera. The phone even has a dedicated shutter button with a half-press to start AF and AE, then a full press to take the shot. If you want a basic, smartphone-like camera, then the app has a mode exactly for that. When you check out the results, you’d expect something spectacular from such a large sensor and real glass lenses, instead of the plastic internal lenses on rival phones. And they’re good, with a very film-like, organic look. But certainly not as punchy and Instagram-ready as iPhone images, with bokeh that isn’t significantly improved. That’s because the phone might use a ‘one-inch sensor’, but the image circle of its lenses doesn’t
cover it all. So it’s actually cropped much smaller, to around 1/2.9-inch size. That’s still among the biggest of any smartphone, but way smaller than a real 1.0-type sensor that should measure a full inch across the diagonal. This gives the camera good low-light performance, and helps a little with bokeh. But that’s what the iPhone also does well, thanks to advanced algorithms and electronic wizardry. The Sony is more pure, with larger glass lenses and a bigger sensor, for a look that’s more akin to a ‘real’ camera. Detail-orientated It does have the latest smartphone tech, like incredible stabilisation – and the 4K/120p footage that simulates a Sony Venice is pretty special, too. Definitely a phone for the purists. The image on the 6.5in 4K HDR OLED screen is a 21:9 CinemaWide ratio view, with BT.2020 HDR colour space, DCI-P3 100% colour gamut and a calibrated D65 white point. It’s a 10-bit OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone has a 5G cellular connection for easy streaming to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Twitch and Periscope. Some services accept the feed direct from their own app, but others need to go via a recognised Android app like Streamlabs.
THE VERDICT The new Sony Xperia Pro-I has the biggest sensor in any smartphone, but doesn’t use it all, due to lens limitations and the demand to keep the phone as thin as possible. Having said that, it’s still packed with helpful features and some very good apps that professional filmmakers and photographers will love. Imaging results are excellent, with a more organic look than the computational images of rival phones. And with USB-C and the Sony monitor app, it can work well as a separate screen for Alpha cameras. Whether that is quite enough to make you spend £1599/$1798 on the phone is down to you.
Backwards compatible with 4G LTE, 3G and 2G data, it has a pair of SIM card slots, so two different SIMs may be accessed at any one time. Or, put a microSD card into one of the slots and use it as additional memory. You can buy cards of up to 1TB, while the phone itself has 512GB capacity of storage. The phone also comes pre-installed with the Sony Imagine Edge mobile app, so it can use your Sony camera’s Wi-Fi in order to connect. The battery lasts for several days – and, usefully, there’s a real headphone socket. The Xperia has IP68 dust and water resistance, Gorilla Glass front and back, and is 8.9mm thick – a tad bigger than an iPhone 13 Pro Max. Since that Apple device costs £1249/$1299 with similar 512GB memory, the Sony doesn’t seem like that much of a bargain.
VENICE-LIKE If you always wanted to shoot with the high-end Sony cinema cam, you can emulate it with the Xperia Cinema Pro app
“The Photo Pro app gives the look and feel of a Sony Alpha camera, complete with advanced AF. Shoot JPEG, Rawor both– and choose the usual PASMsettings”
More information
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