Sony Xperia Pro-I: Truly “Leave It To The Pros”

Sony stopped making lower-tier products a while ago. This includes their phones, which are flagship level. A recent addition to Sony phones is Sony Xperia Pro-I.

Sony Xperia series is not new, but their upgrades have been note-worthy in a while.

This new Sony Xperia Pro-I released on 26th of October 2021. However, it didn’t hit markets of some countries until 2nd December 2021. The major feature of this phone is the cameras.

Many reviewers call this phone something to “leave to the pros.” What makes this phone infamous? Let’s take a look:

Basic and Premium: Together

Leaving the cameras aside, here is the list of specs. Some are premium and some basic.

The screen is 6.5inches long with 3,840×1,644 pixels. The refresh rate is 120Hz with OLED display. It has 21:9 aspect ratio.

Sony Xperia Pro-I comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, to store more clips and pictures. It consists of Snapdragon 888 chipset, which is the latest of Qualcomm chipsets. (Until Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 released, of course.)

It has water and dust resistance rating of IP68. The metal side consists of a “waffle-like” texture for better grip.

These are all great, but Sony Xperia Pro-I consists of Android 11. The battery is 4,500mAh and it comes with a 30W charger. It’s provided in a single colour: Frosted Black. The stereo speakers are average. It has a headphone jack.

But, if this were to be sold in India, the phone costs around INR 156,990. It is a very expensive phone.

Star of the Show: Cameras

Many basic specs of the phone range from minimum (for 2021 anyway) to premium. However, the main act of the show is the rear end cameras. The ‘I’ in the name, Sony claims, stands for “Imaging.”

The cameras are placed in the upper central position. They run symmetrical from top to just above the middle of the phone.

Front end camera is only 8MP. It performs average, with regards to everything: exposure, sharpness, and details. To overcome the lacking performance, Sony separately sells vlog equipment for this phone where a person can take selfies from the rear end cameras.

The primary camera is supposed to be 20MP, but it works only up to 12MP. However, the performance of the camera overall is still great. Primary camera has 1inch type sensor and autofocus. There is an option to change the aperture manually for this camera.

Ultrawide and Telephoto cameras are 12MP as well. The telephoto comes with 2.1x zoom property.

All three cameras capture great details. The sharpness of the images are good. The sharpness is softer with the primary and telephoto cameras, but it’s not too obvious. Colours captured in all three are close to the real thing. The exposure and focus aspects of it is good as well.

Sony Xperia Pro-I uses several in-app options to make their cameras better. The camera app comes with a regular mode and a pro mode. There is no night more in this phone.

However, even without light mode, the 3 cameras work well. In low light, the phone equips image stacking, which compromises a bit on the shadows but nothing else.

There is a separate video app for taking videos. Here, there is option of colour-correcting and editing the exposure levels of a video right away. It can capture in 4k at 120fps as well. The videos have good stabilization.

All videos have good exposure, but ultrawide is the one with best details. However, videos at night will not be a great idea in Sony Xperia Pro-I.

Verdict

The Sony Xperia Pro-I is truly equipped enough for the “pros” to love it. With the price and heavy-focus on cameras, it’s better off being a vlog phone.