We've seen a lot of pro phones over the years, flagships like the Google pixel six pros the iPhone 13 pro the Shamini 11 pro, but even budget phones, Remy note 10 pro-Pako X three pro real me eight pros. If I had to guess, I would say 50% of smartphones on the market have a pro version, but not a single one of them is a pro. Is this right here?
This is the Sony experience pro I being for imaging because they want this to be the best camera ever on a smartphone. It has printed no plastic in packaging, which is usually just a politically correct way of saying new charger. But if we open the box, well, that was tighter than expected. We do have one here. It's a 30 watt, reasonably powerful adapter, and there's a USB-C cable followed by the phone. Okay.
I'll steal the question from your head. It's only been a few years since normal smartphones hit the $1,000 mark. What on earth could this thing possibly do? That would justify 1800. Well, as it turns out, I'm kind of surprised by how much, and just to give you an idea, every single shot in this video, that's not from this main camera will be taken on this phone. Specifically, there are five things that this pro-ID does that put it in a different category, even arguably above the ultra phones of this world. Number five is the design. And I'll admit I started with rather mixed opinions about the rather have chosen looking camera system, the slight rattle when you tap the bottom and the sheer lack of color on this thing, but the more I've used it, the more impressed I become, how it also distinctly functions over form.
You've got a matte finish on the back low-maintenance and these rigid rails going all the way around the sides. I wouldn't say they're particularly pretty, but they do make the phone tremendously grippable and probably as an unintentional consequence, they also allow it to stand up on three of its four sides. This might look like a similar shape to the latest I-phones, which I mean, straight upset had a poor in Handfield, but in reality, the combination of this being a much narrower phone with the slate tapering in of the flat sides, makes it feel quite Birdlace for a phone that's packing in market-leading hardware, but then it goes much further. It's got a dedicated shutter button that you can press to access the camera. And then within it, half-press to focus and full press to snap, just like on an actual Sony alpha camera, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which is, to be honest, pretty average in terms of speed.
But the positioning has meant that I haven't thought about needing to unlock this phone. It's very convenient, a completely separate programmable shortcut key to open whatever app your heart desires in micro SD card slots. They get this, you can take help with just your fingers for SD card swapping on the go. And this is one of the first phones I've used with a built-in hole to attach a lanyard. Oh yeah. And to top the whole thing off, it also has not just an IP 68 rating, but also an IP 65 rating, which means certified water and dust resistance. Yes. But also resistance against low-pressure jets of water. Do you see what I'm saying? Right. Crazy expensive phone. Yes. But also for an actual pro, this is shockingly well-tailored to their needs. So number four than on what makes the pro is how it handles media consumption.
See, here's the thing with Sony. This company is doing well in the audio market. They're doing well in the TV market. They're doing well in the camera market. A fun fact, every camera that I normally use, these are Sony, but their phones, which for the most part have been built by a separate division called Sony mobile. They just haven't stuck. They've lacked, differentiating features. They've had confusing names. They were never bad, but it's just that for most of their history, they've been missing an identity, some curved, inwards others, curved, outwards, someone current at all. It didn't feel like there was a broader strategy. However, they've now changed tact. Pretty recently. Sony has brought their mobile division in they've integrated it into the wider Sony corporation to implement their strengths in these other markets, audio, TV cameras, into their entire lineup of smartphones.
And so even though this phone is nicknamed the camera, the focus is broader than that. It's for example, the audio is tuned by Sony pictures, entertainment with dynamic vibrations that automatically add physical impact to anything you watched or listened to. We have a headphone Jack, the supports, not just headphones, but also external microphones. Any video you watch will be run through Sony's X one engine, which is used to upscale content on their Bravia TVs. Oh yeah. And the actual screen itself is kind of nuts. A 4k HDR, one 20 Hertz display just to make that very clear 4k, which means that while phones like the latest iPhone have about 450 pixels per inch, this has 643 it's pin-sharp to be bulletproof extent. It doesn't matter how close you're holding this thing. You won't see pixels. Plus it's implemented in a way that's not irritating.
Now the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I'm still in the opinion that 4k is in most cases, too many pixels for a 6.5-inch screen. But thankfully it looks like Sony isn't blind to that is that you have both a normal viewing experience and create a mood that whacks up that resolution and uses professional colors and it can be made. So that this only turns on in the apps for which you can tell the only thing, which is still a little controversial is this super tall cinematic aspect ratio it's made like these two movies, which are traditionally shot wide will fill the screen. But when it does leave more room to be blown away, it also leaves more room to be when you find a movie that fills it, and you've got all these technologies working in the background to fuel this authentic, immersive experience.
There's nothing else like it. And to be fair in almost all of the scrolling apps that we use, it's not wasting space, but equally, because these are such extreme proportions for the more amateur content, which is not made with that in mind, there is no happy middle ground. Also, all these Sony Interbrand tie-ins, don't necessarily make it the best. Like even though we have dual front-facing speakers with Dolby, Atmos, and Sony tuning, the iPhone speakers just sound fuller. But for the most part, yeah. I mean, this is a strong, unique media experience, quite nicely uplifted by the support of up to eight terabytes of external storage on top of the 512 gigs, you already have baked in by default. And if you are enjoying this video, then a subset of the channel would be
Flabbergasting. No, but seriously hitting 10 million subscribers was like the 20, 21 goals. And we're like, we're so close. We're literally on the cusp of it. So, I mean, if you do watch my videos regularly, I would appreciate it. Okay. Number three is the pro I's approach to photography at first glance, the camera specs don't look too enchanting. Sony has gone down the Apple route of sticking with a set of three 12 megapixel cameras. However, it's not the resolution that makes this special it's that this phone camera is using a one-inch sensor. You won't find a bigger one on the entire planet. They prefer to quality 1.0 type sensor because it's not using the entirety of that one-inch surface area, but that's pretty standard. And for perspective, the iPhone 13 Promax uses the more 0.6 inches one. And one inch is the same size as the sensor found on.
Sony's rather high-end RX, 100 V seven camera from a couple of years ago. But in theory, this should be even better because of all the image computation that smartphones do on top of that. Also, remember that Sony hasn't just put a sensor in this phone. They're the ones who make these sensors, the safe to say. I was pretty excited to try this. And you know what? I think they've pulled through it bearing in mind that this is still pre-production software. This phone takes very pleasant photos. You get the distinct impression that it's not using a thicker layer of processing than most other companies. And that's not always positive. If it's dark and gloomy outside, your shots are gonna look dark and gloomy. If you're in a poorly lit room, your photos will feel poorly lit. This is not a Google pixel. This is not going to turn night.
And today this doesn't have the AI to make sure faces are never blurred. This can't magically erase photo bombers from the background of your shots. And if we're going off Sony's past phones, you're probably not going to get the best portrait mode either. However, something is liberating about having that control yourself, especially combined with this huge image sensor, you really, the feeling that you're taking pure images and that the sky's the limit that the ceiling is incredibly high for what you could potentially take when used, right? This is a joy. And even though this new amount of options combined with a pretty clunky UI is borderline anxiety-inducing next to most phones. There are a few things that do make it easier. Like how, for starters, we've got 315 autofocus points or zones in which the phone is constantly monitoring to make sure that what you want to be in the vagus is in focus.
Plus I focus and object tracking focus, or how all-optical elements here use iced tea star anti-reflective coating, which when combined with the fact that the main lens is built from high transmittance glass, instead of the plastic that most phones use means that you just have to worry less about strange lens flares from bright light sources or how this phone has it's own dedicated image processor called bionic X, which although it doesn't mess with the natural colors, you can tell it massively chips away at graininess and enhances clarity. The final key differentiator, I guess, from any other current flagship is dual aperture. , or in other words, you have the option here to physically reduce the amount of light that the camera lets in, which will give you less background blur if you want it. I mean, it is just another option. So you can't complain about it.
But given that one of the phone's biggest selling points is how much light it can our process, thanks to its big sensor. That more background blow is usually associated with more cinematic quality. And that more light is universally better for image quality. The ability to restrict that light is nothing more than a niche feature for fringe scenarios. But do you know what impressed me more than photography? It's how this thing takes video. And to be honest, I wasn't expecting to say that it feels like we've just fallen into a market where the iPhone is illegal head in video quality, and all Androids are playing catch-up. This issue usually becomes because you can't apply all that processing that you use on photos 30 times per second for a video. However, because Sony doesn't seem to rely as heavily on that processing its video looks quite consistent with his photos.
I mean, I don't need to show you more video samples. We've been shooting on it this entire time, but there are a few things that I will point out, we have all the same autofocus and tracking features that we had in photos also. Now in video B is that you might know that most phones now have just become able to take 4k video at 60 frames per second. Right? Well, this can take 4k video at 120 frames per second, which means two things you can either watch it back at full speed for ridiculously fluid footage, or that's also in a frame to be able to slow the video down four times and still have a smooth output. Let me put this another way you can take slow-mo in 4k resolution. So for perspective, this is the Sony Xperia pro I vs the iPhone 13 pro, which as far as I'm aware, has the second nicest looking see Sony's added in a third microphone.
It sits right next to this main camera here to improve speech pickup. And I'm not going to lie. It sounds really good, although not exactly a unique feature because apple and Samsung bleeders also have something pretty similar and D is not one, not two, but three separate camera applications. So one is photo pro, which can take both photos and videos. One is video pro, which is focused on being able to record just professional video, but a video that's ready for immediate shooting and uploading. So the YouTube is, and then cinema pro, which gives you even more options, more color profiles, more aspect ratios. And this shoots 10-bit footage made for post-processing for people who will want to upload into a proper editing program and do everything from scratch, how you would on a cinema camera. Now to the honest one, it is of course, impressive that Sony created three separate applications just to capture footage.
I'm not convinced that the fact that they felt like they needed to is necessarily a good thing. Isn't it a bit like you go to a restaurant, you order a meal and then the three separate parts of a meal are served on different plates. I can't quite understand why all these features couldn't have just been bundled into one camera app with three different modes. So you could easily flip between them. And on that note, there were two things that I'm not a fan of the first is that while it is refreshing, but Sony's footage looks pure and almost untouched based on this early look, it does seem to also mean that you lose the luxury of that slightly processed looking, but still nice high dynamic range that you might get on, say the iPhone, but also this high-end main camera is, is quite weighed.
And I think it would have benefited from having more magnification. You probably notice on a lot of the shots we've taken with it, how things just look a bit distorted that's because we've had to go right up close to them, and also lenses with more magnification just naturally have more background blur, but all this takes us to number one. The thing that takes this video beyond any phone I've ever used is the vlog monitor, and it's one of the most supremely, extra accessories that I've ever seen launched with a smartphone. They check this out, you Mount the phone into the Bluetooth handle. There's a magnetic area where the monitor slides in you connect the monitor to the phone via USB-C and bam. You now have a secondary display to be able to use the front camera to flow now, to get obvious out of the way, this is like a $200 accessory, which when added to the price of the phone makes it a $2,000 package.
So it's not fair to compare its results to phones that are half the price, but the results are phenomenal. Like this is footage where both the video and the audio is being captured on the phone. You got to admit, there's like a, there's a certain cinematic quality. That's pretty unmatched right now worth mentioning though, is that without this gadget, the actual front camera footage, it's not the best. So that brings me on to the big question. I am pretty much the target consumer for the experienced pro I, I love cameras. I use Sony gear, making content is my job. This is a very advanced phone for a very advanced price. Does it seem worth it? I do need to stress here that this is not a review. The phone I've got here is not final. And I haven't been able to test the zoom camera because it isn't working yet.
This is just an opinion based on what I've seen so far, but yeah, you're paying for a pro experience and I can confirm you are getting a pro experience for someone who knows what they're doing. This is a fun, versatile, joyfully unencumbered experience, which can produce results so far not seen on a smartphone that said, is it in itself a bit of a contradiction because when most of the people that this is being targeted towards already have, and would Raleigh use an even better camera and because for everyone else, average consumers, it is too much. If I think of all the people in my life who aren't camera enthusiasts, I think they'd all end up with better results from a Google pixel sip, which is far less pro, but smarter, easier to use, and just as fast of a phone. Oh yeah. And it's like, exactly one-third of the price.
I think Sony is very aware of this though. And if you were to ask me why, like why is only putting so much effort into a phone that they know is only going to sell in the thousands? I think the answer is marketing. I think there's a certain kudos to owning technically the best phone money buy. Even if it's not a good value phone in itself, Sony doesn't have a strong foothold in the smartphone market right now. And so I reckon their entire objective with this is to just sit as a showpiece and to leverage the power of their other programs like Bravia TVs, like alpha cameras, which enthusiasts already approve of to make a pinnacle smartphone. That's good enough to drive conversation and conversation from pros, with the hope that pros are going to be the ones with influence. So the word of mouth that they generate could potentially trickle down into just positive associations for so many firms in general.
And I just want to cap this off by saying this Xperia pro well, I wouldn't recommend buying it for most people. I know it does make me excited about Sony's future. This seemed like pretty much the only brand that is trying to make a phone for enthusiasts who also have the resources to be able to follow through and deliver on that. And if Sony can stay ahead on the hardware curve like this, while finding a way to distill the essence of Sony corporation and all its various technologies into a more streamlined and visually simple interface, I think they have all the ingredients of headphones. Okay. Here's something to think about for a second, your location, your operating system, every hardware detail of the device you're on right now, as well as all your past browsing history. These are things that you'd want to keep to yourself, right?