Sony’s Xperia Pro, aimed at the creator, arrives in the US with a price of $ 2,499

Sony’s Xperia Pro, aimed at the creator, arrives in the US with a price of $ 2,499

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The Xperia Pro, Sony’s first 5G smartphone in the United States, launches today for $ 2,499.99. Sony is targeting the device to professional users, which it expects to use its HDMI input to turn the phone into an external camera monitor and its 5G connectivity to upload or stream live quickly. Sony says it currently has no plans to launch the Xperia Pro in Europe.

Outside of its HDMI input and US 5G support, the Xperia Pro hardware is very similar to last year’s Xperia 1 II (which was provided with 5G support in Europe, but was limited to 4G LTE in the USA). This means that it is powered by a Snapdragon 865 processor with a 4,000 mAh battery and, at the rear, there are the same 12 megapixel wide, telephoto and ultra-wide cameras. The Xperia Pro also includes a 6.5-inch high OLED screen with a 21: 9 aspect ratio, which Sony once again describes as 4K, but actually has a 3840 x 1644 sub-4K resolution.

Although shaped like a smartphone, the Xperia Pro is geared towards professionals.
Image: Sony

Its HDMI input is next to its USB-C port.
Image: Sony

At $ 1,200, the Xperia 1 II was already an expensive smartphone, and the Xperia Pro is more than double its price. But Sony argues that its 5G support and HDMI input can be incredibly useful for professional users.

Let’s start with the HDMI input, located on the bottom of the phone, where the Xperia 1 II’s USB-C port is. (The Xperia Pro’s USB-C port is still on the bottom of the device, but is shifted to the left.) Sony says it is capable of streaming HDR video up to 4K 60fps and should work with any camera that has an HDMI output.

In practice, this means that you can connect the Xperia Pro to the HDMI output of a camera, for example, and use its larger screen to get a clearer view of what is being filmed or photographed. You can press to enlarge the image displayed on the screen or overlay grid lines to help with framing.

This functionality is especially interesting with the 5G connectivity of the Xperia Pro, which allows it to act as a live streaming link for your camera, in addition to being an external monitor. Xperia Pro can stream images from its HDMI input directly to YouTube and supports StreamLabs and StreamYard for streaming to other platforms like Twitch and Facebook Live.

The phone supports Sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, and Sony claims that it has a unique set of four-way mmWave antennas to maximize reception. There is also an integrated network viewer application that can be assigned to your shortcut key to help you find the best position to get a signal. Hopefully, Sony’s software and hardware are sufficient to mitigate the problems of mmWave with limited coverage.

Since it started teasing the Xperia Pro early last year, Sony has emphasized that it is a device for professional users, and its $ 2,499.99 price tag makes it more obvious than ever. When I asked Sony why it didn’t launch a 5G consumer-oriented device in the United States, it told me that it is hoping that the technology will be implemented more broadly by operators. Until then, Sony says it is focusing on professional users that it believes can get more use of it.

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