The Sony Xperia Pro-I is primarily a camera, with a phone as a secondary function.

Sony is poised to compete for smartphone camera dominance with a new camera-first 5G phone, the Xperia Pro-I. Sony wants to be in the mix with the Xperia Pro-I, less than 12 hours after the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro reviews began to circulate online, and all the camera fans trying to establish if the Pixel 6 Pro or the iPhone 13 Pro Max has the greatest smartphone camera.

The “I” in the Xperia Pro-I stands for imaging, a nod to Sony’s popular Alpha mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and professional video cameras rather than point-and-shoot camera model names like the Sony RX100 VII (Mark 7). At least, that’s what Sony executives who briefed media before of the event told us. The camera technology on this gadget is clearly the star of the show, thus it’s perfectly reasonable to think of the Xperia Pro-I as a camera that also happens to be a phone..

utofocus) that drives the RX100 VII, the point-and-shoot camera of choice for vloggers and tourists. According to Sony, its big 1-inch camera sensor has “excellent low light performance, high dynamic range, and gorgeous bokeh.” However, DPReview points out that while this 1-inch sensor has a total resolution of 20 megapixels, the Xperia Pro-I only uses a portion of it, resulting in a 12-megapixel image on this device.

Sony isn’t the first to include a 1-inch sensor in a phone, which is unusual. Sharp’s Aquos R6 and Panasonic’s CM1 both had one when they were launched earlier this year.

The Sony Xperia Pro-I sports three 12-megapixel cameras on the back (a primary, ultrawide, and telephoto) and one 8-megapixel camera on the front. While these cameras appear to be low-resolution, the Sony official was quick to emphasize that they had fewer but larger (2.4m) pixels, which catch more information, have a wider dynamic range, and have a deeper depth of field. The corporation appears to be convinced that it does not need to chase larger megapixel counts like its competitors.

The rear cameras on the Xperia Pro-I are equipped with three Zeiss glass lenses. Its main 24mm lens includes a dual aperture (f2.0/f4.4) that allows you to swiftly modify the depth of field to generate “genuine bokeh,” as opposed to the artificial software-created bokeh look that other phones make.

The Xperia Pro-I features the same BIONZ X image processor as Sony’s A9 professional mirrorless camera for sports, allowing it to take burst pictures at up to 20fps, similar to Sony’s latest smartphones such as the Xperia 1 III. This is a remarkable smartphone camera that can autofocus quickly and track human and animal eyes in real time in both stills and films. In terms of videos, Sony claims that the Xperia Pro-I is the world’s first smartphone capable of recording 4K videos at 120fps and preserving all 120 frames.

On the phone side of the Xperia Pro-I, it has a 6.5-inch 21:9 3840×1644 OLED display, with 120Hz refresh rate, at a relatively skinny 21:9 aspect ratio. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor, and unlocked models should work on most 4G networks in the world, as well as sub-6GHz 5G. There’s 12GB RAM, 512GB of internal storage, a microSDXC card slot, and a 4,500mAh battery which can be fast-charged at 30W. Despite its premium and modern specs, the Xperia Pro-I still has a 3.5mm audio jack for creators who need to plug in a mic, and a strap hole to slide in a wrist strap for security.

The Xperia Pro-I will be available in December 2021 for a hefty $1,800 (£1,599). That’s the same as Samsung’s flagship foldable, the Z Fold 3, and $200 more than Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max 1TB variant, which costs $1,599. It’s also more expensive than Sony’s $1,300 RX 100 VII and the same price as Sony’s $1,800 full-frame A7C. However, Sony’s goal with the Xperia Pro-I is to deliver a device that can do everything, combining the quality of a dedicated point-and-shoot camera with the thin (0.35-inch) 5G phone.