Gamers Gadgets: Sony announces Xperia PRO in US for $2,499

Sony has finally launched the Xperia PRO for the US market. This follows news last week that the firmware was released highlighting its imminent launch. One big missing point since the phone was announced last February was the price point, and it’s not going to be cheap. Sony has priced the handset at $2,499, which firmly pitches the phone outside the consumer market towards the professional photographer/videographer market.

The phone is already available to pre-order in the US from Amazon.com, and appears to be in stock at B&H Photo. Sony says the phone will not be heading to the Europe market.

Sony is trying to justify the cost through specific features that might appeal to these professional content makers. First of all, the Xperia PRO is Sony’s first 5G phone in the US market, which will support 5G mmWave, as well as Sub-6GHz. While the Xperia 1 II supported 5G in Europe, Asia and other markets – 5G was missing for US owners.

The Xperia PRO also features mini HDMI so that the phone can be connected to a camera/camcorder. Any footage recorded from the bigger camera can then be livestreamed or uploaded to a broadcast station via the Xperia PRO’s 5G modem. Pictures or video can also be transferred via USB-C to automatically uploaded to a FTP server.

Other features that might appeal to professionals include a pre-installed External Monitor app to connect the Xperia PRO to a Sony Alpha camera and use the 4K 6.5-inch 4K OLED display to control a wide range of settings.

There is also the 360-degree antenna design, which should maximise the mobile signal no matter how you hold the phone. The phone also has a dedicated shortcut key to launch specified apps quickly. This includes a Network Visualizer app to check signal strength in detail, data speeds and the directionality of your 5G connection.

The rest of the spec-sheet is the same as the Xperia 1 II Including a 6.5-inch 21:9 CinemaWide 4K HDR OLED display, a 12MP triple-lens camera array on the rear, 8MP selfie camera, and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G chipset and 8GB RAM.

Other similar specs include the return of the 3.5mm headphone jack, front stereo speakers, 4000mAh battery, IP65/68 dust and water resistance and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front.