Sony Xperia Pro review By CNET

This is the new Sony Xperia pro, and it is absolutely one of the most compelling phones, I've seen in a long time. Let's take a look over the past few years. Phones like the Xperia one mark ii and the Xperia 5 mark ii, moved Sony phones away from the mainstream and confidently toward photo and video enthusiasts. The new Sony Xperia pro is the most extreme example of this move. To date, the 2500 phone isn't meant to compete with the likes of the iPhone 12 Pro max or the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra. What makes it unique is how a HDMI input transforms the Xperia pro into several other devices for photographers videographers and live broadcasters.

It's a phone, a camera monitor a speedy photo file, transfer device and a 5g broadcast live-streaming machine. I got my hands on a pre-production Xperia pro, which is essentially a Xperia one, mark ii repackaged into a new, slightly bigger body complete with a micro, HDMI port. It looks unabashedly plain and utilitarian, which is fantastic. Luckily, Sony kept the squared off side, so you can still stand it up on its own. It has a dedicated shutter button, a side mounted power button, slash fingerprint reader and a hardware shortcut key.

It has the same easy to open dual sim card tray that can also be used with a micro SD card for expanded storage. Furthermore, it has the same cameras and seems capable of taking the same excellent photos and videos as the Xperia 1 mark ii. This also means it has the same snapdragon 865 chips and still runs android 10. , though it did get a boost in ram and now has 12 gigabytes. So, since 90 of this phone is the same as the Xperia one mark ii, I encourage you to take a look at my review, video of that phone for an in-depth analysis of all of those features.

So you might be wondering if it's the same as the Xperia 1 mark ii, why does it cost 2500? Well, that's where things get very interesting and very niche. You see the Xperia pros 6.5 inch, 4k display 5g connectivity, the first for a Sony phone in the US and HDMI input turned this into a handful of professional tools for photographers video, shooters and content creators, and even if you're one of those people, this still might not be exactly for you. The Xperia pro can be used as a 4k field monitor for a dedicated external camera. It works with any camera that has a HDMI output. You simply connect the phone and the camera turn the camera on open up the aptly named external, monitor app on the Xperia pro, depending on your camera settings and output.

You'll see a preview of what you're filming on the phone to give you an idea of why you might prefer the Xperia pro over a cheaper camera, monitor here's the affordable, 4k camera monitor I use, and you can see attached to. It is a giant battery that powers it which maybe lasts 45 minutes or less. Depending on how bright the screen is. The Xperia pro has a 4 000 William hour battery, which lasts for hours, and if I need to charge it while on the camera, I could plug it in with an USB, cable and a portable charger or a portable battery. Instead of controlling the monitor with these goofy early 2000s generic computer display buttons, I can interact with the Xperia pro like a phone to zoom the image in or out.

I simply pinch. The app also has tools for screen, lock, brightness control, grid lines, frame lines and a 180 degree image flip. Now, smartly Sony hasn't made any of this functionality proprietary. I tried the pro out with both a Sony, a7s iii camera and a Panasonic s1h mirrorless camera, and the app worked great for both some nitpicks here now, since the image of the video feed is well, it doesn't take up the whole screen. I wish I could offset it to the left or right side of the display and then have the other half of the display for easily accessing controls and menus, and since most mirrorless cameras nowadays have their own app for remote control.

It would be nice to see a version of the external monitor app that lets you access menu settings and the ability to stop and start a recording, and maybe that's the kind of function that would be limited to Sony cameras since Sony makes the app look, it doesn't exist, but it would be welcome, but the fun doesn't stop there. You see the phone can accept really any HDMI input, so I plugged it into my computer using a HDMI cable and put the phone inside a mini teleprompter stand. So if I'm in a Zoom meeting, I can use the video feed from my camera into the computer, and then I can use the other person's zoom feed through the Xperia pro, and it shows up on my teleprompter, and now I don't have that weird back and forth eye contact thing going on, and this is great for a zoom video or any video chat, that's being recorded. I get the nice image quality out of a dedicated camera without constantly looking away from it. When I'm listening to the other person as a field monitor the Xperia pro does a pretty good job.

However, outdoors I did have trouble seeing the screen sometimes because it doesn't get very bright in sunlight. I would definitely need to add some sort of shade around it. If I was going to use it. I should also mention that the external monitor apps seemed buggy to me, but again this was a pre-production unit that I was testing. Hopefully it's something addressed in the final version and yeah it just shouldn't be buggy for 2500.

Now I do wish there was a way to record a video signal coming in from HDMI, like other high-end monitors. Can that kind of functionality would really appeal to me in the kind of work I do then, using a combination of 5g and the micro HDMI port. You can actually live stream, 4k video content from a dedicated external camera. What's great is you can do this directly to social media platforms like YouTube and twitch, and that means I can use a Sony, a7 a7s3 camera and a really nice lens to capture video, live and use the Xperia pro to upload the video signal over 5g, preferably millimeter wave. I should note that this pre-production Xperia protested.

Only supported 5g millimeter wave, but I didn't have millimeter wave 5g anywhere near where I was filming to take advantage of the speeds. The final version of the Xperia pro will support both sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g. So that means you can basically use it anywhere. You can also use the built-in cameras on the phone to stream live but come on when you have access to such a fantastic, dedicated camera like a Sony, a7s iii. Why would you want to use the phone cameras to do that? Remember when I said that this phone was aimed at a niche audience? Well, this particular feature definitely is now an interesting proof of concept that Sony shared with me was on full display along the sidelines of NFL games in the form of a camera rigged, nicknamed the Megalodon.

It's made up of a Sony alpha, mirrorless camera, a gimbals, a monitor and a cellular modem, which was in the camera operator's backpack, and that cellular modem allowed the camera person to share his signal to the broadcast truck wirelessly. So that means a camera operator isn't tethered to a giant physical cable, and it's not hard to imagine a Xperia pro being used in lieu of a cellular, modem and or the monitor, to find the best 5g support. There's a built-in network, visualizer app that can help you pinpoint the best way to position your phone for a live broadcast. So one of the reasons behind the practical, looking body of the Xperia pro is that it houses four different 5g antennas. So those antennas along with that app allows you to get the optimal signal for a live broadcast, since, where I was filming only had subbed 65d support and the phone doesn't support that the network visualizer app only showed me 4g LTE availability, which literally surrounds me and last, just as the Xperia 5 mark ii brought support for USB tethering to the a7 s3 for speedy photo file, transfers to a ftp server file transfer protocol, the Xperia pro inherits the same ability, but with the addition of 5g, you could have even faster speeds, in theory, so to wrap things up aside from proving all of its capabilities.

The 2500 price will definitely cause sticker shock for many people, but if you add up its functionality, phone 4k monitor 5g, cellular modem. The price becomes a lot easier swallow, but the question remains: is the Xperia pro for you? So I want to hear from you guys. What do you think of the Sony Xperia pro? Are you someone who lives and breathes photography and video capture? Are you into doing live broadcast over 5g? Throw your thoughts in the comments.

Source : CNET