Hands-on: The Sony Xperia Pro-I takes phone cameras to a new level
Speaker 1: This is the Sony Xperia pro I, it's not the first phone to have a one inch camera sensor, but it's the first one to have a one inch camera sensor from the Sony RX. 100 mark seven in a phone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you're obsessed with cameras on phones, this past month has been outstanding. First apple launched the iPhone 13 and 13 pro. [00:00:30] Then Google launched the pixel six and six pro, and now Sony announced the Xperia pro I and the, I stands for imaging. According to Sony, makes sense. Sony sent me a pre-production sample of the experi pro I, and for this video, this is not a full review. This is more like a first impressions, but we will do a full review. Once we get the final production unit. Also being that this is pre-production, there are a couple [00:01:00] of things I cannot show you in this video, but there are a lot more things that I can.
Speaker 1: All right. So let me set this all up for you. For years. Many of us had hoped for had dreamed of a phone that had an amazing camera system built around a large image sensor. Now, a few years ago, red kind of got her hopes up with a hydrogen one phone, but that turned out to be nothing more than a mid-tier Android cameras [00:01:30] that shot 3d photos and videos. For some reason. Now don't get me wrong. Apple, Google, Samsung, all have done an amazing job of combining computational photography to get the most out of the tiny image sensors and a phone. But what if the iPhone 13 pro, as opposed to having a 0.6 inch sensor had a one inch sensor instead, and that's where the Xperia pro eye comes in. This is essentially a Sony Xperia one mark three body [00:02:00] with the Sony RX 100 mark, seven camera sensor inside.
Speaker 1: Yes, I know what's amazing. Here is that Sony was able to put a one inch camera sensor into a phone that's not much thicker than the iPhone 13. Promax now the benefits of having such a big sensor is you're gonna have a wider dynamic range and you're gonna have improved low light performance things that a smaller sensor are not great at. When you look at the back of [00:02:30] the Xperia pro eye, it's pretty easy to tell which camera has that one inch sensor, but Sony didn't stop there. In fact, the main camera on this phone still has the 24 millimeter equivalent lens as the Xperia one, mark three, but Sony added something special dual aperture. Now this is a feature we saw on the Samson galaxy S nine, where it allows you to switch between one aperture and another. And on the exterior pro I, you can switch between F two and F four, which is [00:03:00] fantastic. You have that larger image sensor. So when I go to F two, I can let in a lot of light for medium and low light situations. But if I step down to F four, all of a sudden, I get a little bit more depth of field and a little improvement in sharpness, which is nice.
Speaker 1: Now you might remember on the Sony experi one, mark three, that it had a dual telephoto lens that could switch between 70 millimeters and 105 [00:03:30] millimeters Sony took that camera out of the phone and then put in a 50 millimeter prime camera on this phone. Unfortunately, um, it doesn't work because this is a pre-production unit and it's been disabled. So there is that, but I like a 50 millimeter focal length. Who, who, who doesn't right. You know what? Let's cut to a jazzy montage of photos and videos. I shot with the 16 millimeter and 24 millimeter cameras on the experience pro [00:04:00] I.
Speaker 1: [00:04:30] Now, as you've been watching this video, you may have noticed a few other changes to the hardware that differentiated from the experi one, mark three, and the first obvious one is the camera bump is no longer in the corner it's centered. It's symmetrical. This is like west Anderson vibes going on here. Love it. Also, it has this kind of cool Victorian keyhole shape, which I dig and best of all, it wobbles a lot less. [00:05:00] The, a wobble. Exactly. If I put you on really hard on the corners I can get, I can get a wobble. Just don't do that. Why would you do that? The sides of the phone have a horizontal ribbing that runs around the entire phone. There's still the no SD card tool needed to open the SD card slash micro SD expansion slot. And there's a dedicated, headphone Jack on the top and get this on the bottom left.
Speaker 1: There's a little eyelet, so you can hook a [00:05:30] wrist strap. How cool is that? Why don't phones do this anymore? Anybody? No, I think it's cool. The buttons are better. There's still a dedicated shutter button on the bottom, right. But it's been re and it's a bit more squishy, which I like. So you could really tell the digital between a half press and a full press. Also. What's nice. Is we still have the 4k 120 Hertz screen from the Sony experi one, mark three. It also runs on the same processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon triple eight, 5g processor. [00:06:00] Ow. In terms of software, it runs Android 11, but has all of Sony's custom apps, including all those wonderful camera apps. In fact, the cinema pro app on this phone gets a new edition. It can record 4k video at 120 frames per second, but save it as a file that is 4k and 120 frames per second.
Speaker 1: Another big addition is the ability to use, I auto focus in video mode, which is very welcome. So you might remember I auto focus [00:06:30] on the previous Experia and that helps lock in on the eyes of people and pets to keep them in focus for photos. Well, they're taking that same technology and applying it to video. Sadly, I can't show it to you on this phone, but just imagine auto focus locking on your eye while video is being recorded. Like the one mark three, the Xperia pro eye has the photo pro app and the cinema pro app, but Sony, while they wanted to make something for people who wanted a better video option, um, something that was more [00:07:00] advanced than basic video recording, but not as complicated as cinema pro recording. And that's where they came up with this new app called video pro. And it's aimed really at vloggers and journalists at the top of the app is an auto button that lets the phone, make all the choices about shutter speed, ISO and white balance, but we can turn it off.
Speaker 1: You can now tap on the shutter speed indicator to bring up a window to change it. Same with the ISO, as well as automatic exposure, compensation and white balance. You can also switch [00:07:30] between manual focus and auto focus. And there's a zoom slider that lets you zoom in and out while recording video. And just as the pro photo app has a way a to record video. The video pro app has a way to grab a photo while you're filming. There's even more customizations like the ability to program hardware buttons on the phone to trigger a shortcut. But I wanna talk about this mini setting, Bluetooth remote control, which works with a $99 Sony, B C T SGR one shooting grip. The reason that's important is Sony's [00:08:00] going to release a new $199 vlogging monitor kit. It comes with a phone Mount, a magnetic tiny monitor that attaches to that Mount and then a cable that goes from the tiny monitor into the phone. And this allows you to film yourself with the main rear camera and that one in sensor. I don't have the V logging monitor kit nor did Sony give me a photo of it. So instead I made a reenactment of it using this not Sony phone Mount. So what I would do [00:08:30] is Mount the phone with the back cameras pointing at me, then I'd attach the tiny magnetic monitor, played in this reenactment by a posted note. And then last I'd attach a tiny included cable played by a string of paperclips. It's a pretty elegant solution.
Speaker 1: The Xperia pro eye seems like a significant step forward in terms of getting a large camera sensor into the body of a phone. The Sony's not the only company that's put a one in sensor in a phone, [00:09:00] but the sensor that Sony put in this phone has been through seven generations of improvements and upgrades, and is surrounded by the Finese of Sonny's photographic tools. The Sony exterior pro I is gonna cost $1,800 in the us, which when you think about it, think about this. The sensor comes from a camera, the Sony RX, 100 mark seven, that costs $1,300. And that camera, it doesn't make phone calls in terms of the exterior pro that came out earlier this year, [00:09:30] Sony plan to continue selling it. And there's some things that differentiate that phone. And this phone, the SP pro has a micro HTM I port and supports sub six and millimeter wave 5g here in the us, the pro I has a us C port and supports low and mid band 5g.
Speaker 1: You can order the Xperia pro I starting October 28th. And once pre-orders are live, will add a link of the description, the phone ships on December 10th. So you have more than enough [00:10:00] time to order your phone and then wistfully think about how amazing it will be when it will arrive. And that's all I've got. But now I wanna hear from you guys, what do you think about the Sony Xperia pro? I do you think it's significant having a one in Sony sensor in a phone and also, what do you think of the price? Throw your thoughts in the comments.
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