Comprehensive review of Sony Xperia PRO-I: Xperia’s most hard-core imaging flagship to date

Sony released Sony Xperia1 III at the beginning of the year, which made me think that this should be Sony Xperia’s annual flagship in 2021, and I rushed to its first release in China without hesitation. However, I didn’t expect that at the end of the year, Sony’s new mirrorless phone XperiaPRO-I would make a surprise debut.

It has to be said that from the system cooperation with Meizu Flyme not long ago to the launch of XperiaPRO-I, which is more imaging-focused, it shows that Sony really wants to make a breakthrough in the smartphone market. Some innovations and changes to attract more consumers. So what kind of surprise will this Sony XperiaPRO-I, which has the same one-inch outsole as the black card, give us? Let’s take a look.

Appearance: The Japanese design has a bit of toughness

For me, who has been using Sony Xperia1 III for a while, the design language of XperiaPRO-I's appearance is actually the same as that of Sony Xperia1 III. The Sony Xperia1 III is very similar.

It still has a square body with a matte feel and a 4K120Hz screen with a slender ratio of 21:9, which can be regarded as the DNA of Sony mobile phone design.

Of course, in terms of changes, this time Sony XperiaPRO-I adopts a vertical grain processing method on the frame. Firstly, it improves the friction when holding. Secondly, this texture is also visually pleasing. Stronger and more professional. The frosted glass and metal middle frame make this phone look high-quality in your hand.

Black card RX0 appearance GIF picture

Of course, readers who are familiar with Sony products must be familiar with this design. This design first appeared on Sony’s first generation black card RX0 , the same matte vertical lines of metal are used to improve the durability of the camera body and the grip feel, which is exactly the same as the design language of Sony XperiaPRO-I.

The custom buttons and shutter button have also been redesigned this time. The custom button adopts a circular design, and the size of the shutter button can be said to be several times larger than that of Sony Xperia1 III. Circle, the visible benefit of course is that the shutter button will be easier to press when taking pictures. Of course, the extremely advanced 3.5mm headphone jack is still retained, which is touching.

In terms of color matching, Sony XperiaPRO-I only has one matte black color that represents a professional feel, which is quite good-looking. Of course, the overall texture of the machine is also more professional. So speaking of professionalism, let us talk about the biggest highlight of Sony XperiaPRO-I this time, imaging.

Imaging system: The one-inch image raptor hidden under the mobile phone

OK, a large-size 1-inch sensor developed and debugged for XperiaPRO-I based on the sensor of the Black Card 7. I believe this is undoubtedly a juice-like impact for users who are interested in mobile photography. Unexpectedly, the sensor on the Black Card 7 was actually transplanted to Sony's mobile phone. This is also the biggest difference between XperiaPRO-I and Xperia1 III.

Compared with the 1.8μm pixel pitch of traditional sensors, the advantages of XperiaPRO-I’s 1-inch sensor can be reflected in the hardware. The 2.4μm pixel pitch ensures the high sensitivity of the sensor. This restores more detailed textures. The larger photosensitive element also allows photos to have a purer picture, especially when shooting night scenes, with richer details, and less noise in dark areas, resulting in a more natural optical blur effect. And more importantly, the main camera of XperiaPRO-I supports two variable apertures, F2.0 and F4.0, and still has the blessing of Zeiss optics.

For users who like to shoot portraits and landscapes with their mobile phones, these two apertures undoubtedly give them more room to play. And thanks to the blessing of 12 bitRAW, XperiaPRO-I’s photos have higher post-production space. The remaining two cameras are a 12-megapixel 16mm ultra-wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel 50mm telephoto lens.

So having said all that, what about the actual photo samples of this XperiaPRO-I? Of course, we also found a Sony Black Card 3, which also has a 1-inch sensor, to see what the sample photos they took were like.

Xperia PRO-I daytime main photo sample

F2.0

F 4.0

F2.0

F 4.0

F2.0

F 4.0

Super wide-angle sample

Macro sample

Black Card 3 Daytime Samples

Although one is a mobile phone and the other is a camera, because both have 1-inch outsole, I still compared their samples. In my opinion, the samples taken by the two cameras are very beautiful, the colors are restored realistically, and the blur effect is also very natural. The blessing of the 1-inch image sensor is indeed extraordinary.

After so many years, the photos taken by Sony’s mobile phones are really the style that a camera should have. Don’t make too many modifications, and try to present the scene as authentically as possible. So we can also see that the picture colors of XperiaPRO-I and Black Card 3 are relatively realistic, and thanks to the fact that the main camera of XperiaPRO-I has two variable apertures of F2.0 and F4.0, we have seen sample pictures When shooting close objects in medium, it is easy to take photos with a shallow depth of field, and the out-of-focus blur is beautiful and natural. But if you are shooting landscapes, I would personally recommend shooting with F4.0 aperture, which will retain more picture details.

This time around, XperiaPRO-I is focusing on night photography. One of the advantages of a larger sensor is in night scenes. A larger sensor can make night scenes purer and less noisy. . And the aperture of F2.0 can also increase the amount of light entering the screen. So now that the hardware is in place, what about the actual night scene performance?

Xperia PRO-I night scene main camera sample sample

-I's night scene sample is really very clean, with almost no noise. From the sample photos, we can see that even in scenes with complex light sources, the XperiaPRO-I's night scene can still display correct colors without color cast, and is relatively close to what is actually seen. The interpretation on the sky is a purer black, and even if you zoom in, it is harder to see the noise. This is really powerful, and the advantage of the large aperture of the outsole is fully realized.

Camera performance: Xperia is always awesome

When talking about the photography of Sony mobile phones, especially flagship phones, camera performance is always a point that cannot be bypassed. Especially in terms of follow-focus continuous shooting, it is basically the strongest ceiling in the industry, bar none. This excellent focusing performance system derived from Sony's α9 has already been used on the Xperia1 III.

Photography Master’s high-speed continuous shooting GIF image

Photography Master’s eye-controlled focus GIF image

It has 315 autofocus points, basically covering the entire viewfinder from focus to It started to achieve abnormal performance. Basically, as long as the XperiaPRO-I is in focus, the focus will be firmly locked. It also has human eye support and animal eye tracking support, which is a great tool for daily users who like to capture animals and children. I also used XperiaPRO-I to test focus tracking and continuous shooting.

Photography Master Interface GIF

It can be seen that even if I focus on a bus or a battery car that is moving at high speed, XperiaPRO-I can still accurately focus on the subject. On the subject, this focusing system can be very reliable. With the main camera's continuous shooting speed of up to 20 frames per second, it is completely possible to take pictures first and then select pictures. Although this is a bit of a waste of memory, it guarantees that you won’t miss the precious moments you want to keep.

Video shooting: In addition to the film master, is there another video master this time?

If I was surprised when I opened XperiaPRO-I this time, it was that there was an unfamiliar video master on the interface. This is also a new built-in program launched in response to the growing demand for users to use mobile phones to shoot vlogs.

After using it, I feel that the interface is more intuitive and the operation logic is more user-friendly than Movie Master.

Video Master operation interface GIF image

Although it is for more novice users, Video Master is still very rich in functions. You can choose to complete the operation without adjusting any parameters. Automatically, you can also choose to adjust the shutter aperture, ISO white balance as you like to achieve the picture effect you want.

In terms of focus tracking, Video Master also supports eye focusing and real-time focus tracking within the video for the first time, which greatly improves the ease of use of Video Master.

In addition, there are levers for manual focus and focus adjustment. The same Video Master also supports video recording at up to 4KHDR120fps, which is fully capable of satisfying ordinary users and even vloggers.

Sony official website Vlog kit demonstration picture

At the press conference, Sony also released a vlog kit specially designed for XperiaPRO-I, with a more convenient Vlog display and clearer Radio, let XperiaPRO-I's Vlog capabilities be brought into full play. I believe it is another useful tool for video recording life.

Video Master Sample GIF Picture

Three Master Apps, Trinity

At this point, XperiaPRO-I’s imaging function already has three Master Apps, Photography Master, Movie Master, and the newly added Video Master can fully cover the different needs of photography enthusiasts.

System: The iron tree is blooming and localization is beginning to be valued

Before the release of Xperia PRO-I, I believe that the biggest news about Xperia mobile phones is the cooperation between Sony and Meizu Flyme system. Even a fan like me was shocked.

Xperia PRO-I is pre-installed with Flyme OS applications

But for now, we see that the built-in apps in Xperia PRO-I are only pre-installed with the FlymeOS app store, weather, There are 4 apps for email and information.

Flyme OS App Store

Flyme OS Weather App

Of course, this is also because of the just-launched cooperation between Sony and FlymeOS. I believe that the two will have more cooperation in the future. A blend of depth and multifacetedness. We can also see Sony’s determination to localize and its emphasis on domestic user groups. In the future, you can even boldly imagine that domestic Xperia phones will run FlymeOS perfectly. But before that, let this bullet fly for a while.

Summary: A more hard-core and down-to-earth Xperia

Unknowingly, we have come to the summary part again. Writing about Sony’s flagship mobile phone has never been an easy task. , because there are too many highlights, but due to the balance of space, I can only select a few points that I think are the most important to elaborate on.

In my opinion, a more professional body design, more attractive screen specifications, richer video recording options, and a more local system are the selling points of this mobile phone, but this XperiaPRO- The core highlight of I is that it uses a 1-inch image sensor on the basis of ensuring that the body is thin and light enough, so that the main camera's photo quality performance is closer to that of card cameras such as black cards, and further improves the hardware specifications. has further raised the upper limit of smartphones. We can even look forward to the next two years or even one year later. Each flagship's main camera may actually use a 1-inch sensor, and Xperia PRO-I is undoubtedly the first to do so.

We also look forward to Sony continuing to achieve technological breakthroughs, launching works that are astounding to the industry, and making the concept of "mirror-less mobile phones" truly belong to Sony's name.