Sony Xperia Pro-I official with 1.0-inch camera sensor, variable f/2.0-4.0

Sony has revealed its most ambitious camera smartphone as yet in the form of the Xperia Pro-I.

It will begin selling in December, in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics with a hefty price tag of EUR 1,799.

It has the same core specs as the Xperia 1 III, including a 6.5-inch 4K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a Snapdragon 888 SoC with 12GB of RAM.

You get 512GB of storage, which can be expanded with a microSD card, as well as a 4,500mAh battery. The Xperia Pro-I also comes with a case, 30W charger, and USB-C cord in the box.

Xperia Pro-I camera specifications

The 1.0-inch primary imager on this phone is based on Sony’s successful RX100 VII camera, although it has been ‘adapted for a smartphone.’

That implies the Xperia Pro-I uses a major portion of that sensor to create 12MP photos with a 2.4m pixel pitch, which is around 20 percent bigger than the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s pixels and about the same size as the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s primary camera’s pixels after binning. Despite not employing the entire 1.0-inch sensor area, the Xperia Pro-I still has a large sensor that is only surpassed by the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s 2.8 million binned pixels.

A Zeiss-coated, stabilised 24mm lens sits in front of the Exmor RS sensor, with a variable aperture that ranges from f/2.0 for the shallowest depth of focus to f/4.0 for the sharpest image.

It also has Sony’s professional-grade Real-time Eye autofocus for both humans and animals, and it works in both stills and video. With 315 phase-detect AF points covering 90% of the frame, the Xperia Pro-I can lock on to a subject. The video and photo processing here is handled by the Bionz X image signal processor, which is also included in the Xperia 1 III and 5 III.

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Sony has included two physical camera controls here. A two-stage shutter key with a textured surface and dampening is included. The other is a circular shortcut button that has the Videography Pro app assigned to it. The programme allows users to manipulate settings like as white balance, exposure, and focus at a professional level. While Cinematography Pro has colour options inspired by Sony’s VENICE cinema camera, as well as the ability to shoot in cinema 21:9.

The Xperia Pro-I can take 4K video at up to 120 frames per second for 5x slow motion, in addition to its video capabilities. Vloggers will like the Vlog Display (optional), a 3.5-inch 1280x720px monitor that attaches to the Xperia Pro-back I’s and lets you film yourself with the new 1.0-inch camera sensor.

Another set of 12MP cameras are found on the Xperia Pro-I: a 16mm f/2.2 ultrawide lens and a 50mm f/2.4 2x telephoto lens. However, Sony was unable to include the 70mm-105mm variable-zoom periscope from the Xperia 1 III and Xperia 5 III in the Xperia Pro-I, which is a bummer.