Sony Xperia Pro-I review

02 December 2021


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$1000 buy a real camera, the rest $800 buy your phone a lot of amazing phones at this price like galaxy s21, mi 11 pro, iPhone 13, Vivo x70 pro etc

    Every digital camera is processing images.
    All the processing it requires to produce a single frame—from their mirrorless systems to mobiles. Most sensors that exist today are made by them.
    In fact, Sony's top of the line mirrorless—the Alpha 1—is dubbed as "the future of computational photography."

    Their interchangeable lens lineup has more advanced image processing and it is significantly different depending on which Sony lens you use it with. A lot of compensation was performed after you press the shutter.

    If you look at X3 GT's photos and compare them with iPhone 13 Pro Max and Sony Pro-I, the details of the foliage are simply natural and not over-sharpened as opposed to Pro-I with too much noise and iPhone's over-sharpening. Look it up, especially the snail sculpture.

    I am supporting computational photography (in mobile applications, a lot of useful applications are employed by NASA and in many fields) so that I could spend less time in post-processing.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • xHY
      • 03 Dec 2021

      The camera is actually not too bad. I like how it shows a DSLR-like natural colour and detail. But at that price, I'd think very seriously of buying a secondhand APS-C or Full Frame DSLR or Mirrorless camera coupled with my favourite prime or zoom lens and buy the non-Pro Xperia smartphone.

        Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021What you on about, it's closest too stock Android. No... more"No throttling or overheating

        Sony is the only manufacturers using

        Double copper chambers cooling which cost Sony £80 , pure premium prestige crafmanship like no other."

        Yet another marketing claim by Sony that gets debunked in the real world just like their batterycare got debunked.

        Here's what Gsmarena had to say...

        What the Xperia Pro-I can't brag about is sustained performance. That 3DMark result is only in the first run, and by the 6th one, the score drops to 3,900 with a further dip at the 12th loop to around 3,400 points for a stability rating of 60%. The CPU stability is a little bit better, with a 68% result in the CPU Throttling test.

        You will never see these problems on Chinese flagships. If they claim proper vapor chamber cooling, they usually deliver. This is why these Chinese devices have thrown companies like Sony out of the market because they simply deliver on their promises.

        When Asus or Xiaomi or other bag about their cooling, they actually deliver unlike Sony putting 80£ worth of garbage and pricing it above 1500$

          • J
          • John
          • xHY
          • 03 Dec 2021

          Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021TL;DR: Computational photography = always good, post-proces... moreThat is a worthy explanation you have there, Mr. Anon. Thanks for that.

            "Well, how about the Mi 11 Ultra then? Just add a selfie stick, and you're there. It's got superior cameras than the Xperia all around"

            "The display's maximum brightness isn't as high as on the best in business, the 4K resolution is good for bragging rights but hard to really appreciate."

            Love Gsmarena... putting Sony and their fans in their place.

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              • Anonymous
              • wrn
              • 03 Dec 2021

              i've been using sony smartphone ever since the xperia sp, and then move on until the xperia xz, sadly i have no more resources to bought their latest device but i can tell you one thing that sony smartphone is a one you gotta try by yourself.

                Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021Wrong, Nokia 808/1020 are the first phones to use serious c... more18-bit image processing pipeline is getting wasted on mobile phone sensors, especially when most of them only have 10 bit ADC accuracy and even stacked RAW files only contain 14 bits of information depth at most (as per Apple's ProRAW, Google's HDR+ RAW and Vivo's SuperRAW).

                  Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021Although I don't particulary see the purpose of GSMAre... moreThe donkey actually shouldn't have rough textures on its fur - if you take a look at S21's 64MP shot (which is essentially the benchmark for this "good light" studio comparison tool) at 12MP scaling mode, you can see that its surface is actually pretty smooth.
                  https://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=4&idPhone2=11174&idPhone3=10737&idCamera1=300744

                  The edges of the frame aren't a great indicator for judging the camera's processing style anyway, since the lens tends to have some distortion/softness towards the corners and sharpness tends to be inconsistent there. In fact, the toy cutleries right below the donkey show that Mi 11 Ultra is defining edges better while also revealing more stains on them and maintaining a lower noise level than Xperia Pro-I. Pro-I shows more sharpening halo along edges across the entire frame, too, so you really are just cherry-picking the result to your favour.

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                    • Lucas N82
                    • 8j%
                    • 03 Dec 2021

                    Very very nice UI & software for camera/video use. Almost (99,7%) perfect.

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                      • Anonymous
                      • pQr
                      • 03 Dec 2021

                      Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021Wrong, Nokia 808/1020 are the first phones to use serious c... more"PureView technology involves taking a very high resolution image (from a full RGB array with good pixel individual size, none of these Quad/Nona bayer ones of today would work) and clever downsampling (i.e. reducing resolution) it to reduce overall noise"
                      That's the same effect as looking at a photo from a higher distance. You just can't see all the details anymore, so at the same time you can't see all the noise anymore, even though it still exists.
                      And actually, every phone on the market downsamples an image in real-time when you open it because smartphone-displays don't have 12 million pixels. Noise reduction is basically doing the same thing: The effective resolution is decreased in order to make the image look less noisy.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • hyt
                        • 03 Dec 2021

                        Anonymous, 02 Dec 2021Hell overpriced ..much more than apple latest oled phones. ... moreYes. Xperia brand has less value compared to iphone/galaxy even xiaomi.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • hyt
                          • 03 Dec 2021

                          [deleted post]What do u want? U want gsma to worship xperia?

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                            • Anonymous
                            • LHe
                            • 02 Dec 2021

                            Although I don't particulary see the purpose of GSMArena photo comparison test tool as many factores can impact the final photo which is not always reproproducable when shooting in hand. Anyway if you look at the comparison between PRO-I, iPhone 13 Pro and Mi 11 Ultra and navigate to donkey you will see what each phone does to the photo in post processing.

                            https://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=4&idPhone1=11089&idPhone2=11174&idPhone3=10737

                            Mi 11 Ultra is very aggressive in processing. It sharpens high frequency portions such as green patch on a donkey but then it kills any texture in the actual donkey. It smoothes it out to look like neutral gray board. Plaid also suffers from noise removal and it looses knitting texture. Unfortunately phones are not that smart just yet to recognize what they are actually doing. While they boost one part of the image they completely get wrong the other part and ruin it. In Mi 11 Ultra case it would have been better if it didn't process the gray donkey and plaid pillow at all.

                              • J
                              • Jimbob
                              • gAa
                              • 02 Dec 2021

                              They could have made a smaller thicker device that actually has nice cameras

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                                • Video guy
                                • 0xU
                                • 02 Dec 2021

                                TheLastOracle, 02 Dec 2021Hopefully the 18-bit video and huge HDR capabilities of the... moreDont expect anything.
                                Manufacturers should put better sensors, running throug isp and advanced AI is like using a vaseline to clean a lens. That 18bit support is BS, because sensors for mobiles do not cross 14bit - and none would need it. Just for marketing numbers there is a vessel of theoretical capability.

                                  • V
                                  • Video guy
                                  • 0xU
                                  • 02 Dec 2021

                                  Reds, 02 Dec 2021Hi GSM arena, I think the video quality is not really good.... moreYou watched edited videos - there were put processing up to it. Ones do mask it better, other dont. Depends a lot even how its uploaded to youtube.
                                  Gsmarena posted original samples.
                                  I bet that phone can spit much better quality then using 3rd party video rec apps or even taking raw dng's with new motion experimental app. But still, its not fully utilised 1"type sensor, so dont hype it up, until more people/tests will come out of anvanced, not biased users.
                                  Also somebody mentioned nicely, that there is a question, which (front and) or many of its optical elements are from optical glass and whats left of optical plastic.

                                    [deleted post]I still can't understand how some people call these photos bad

                                      Best video phone, however ithe bezels are ugly lol

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • 3xk
                                        • 02 Dec 2021

                                        SpiritWolf, 02 Dec 2021Your photos are pretty horrible (if You really want GOOD mo... moreWrong, Nokia 808/1020 are the first phones to use serious computational photography. But, their post-processing is incredibly restrained that's why they're so admirable even after a decade. Remember, computational photography ≠ post-processing.

                                        PureView technology involves taking a very high resolution image (from a full RGB array with good pixel individual size, none of these Quad/Nona bayer ones of today would work) and clever downsampling (i.e. reducing resolution) it to reduce overall noise. It's considered computational because it involves capturing a large amount of data to produce a better image. Aside from noise reduction, a large, high resolution proper RGB sensor allows for great colour reproduction and acceptable but continuous "lossless" zooming upto 2.5x. Note that these latter advantages can't truly be had with today's multi-bayer sensor due to actual colour resolution being 12mp/16mp and not 48mp/50mp/64mp/108mp etc.

                                        In contrast, today's computational photography, such as HDR+ of Google, gathers the data in form of capturing and stacking multiple shots (in a very short time thanks to fast CPUs). Compared to PureView, it has several advantages due to multi-frame nature:
                                        - Higher dynamic range
                                        - Reduced blur/shake
                                        - Possibly better noise reduction
                                        - Effectiveness of computational photography can be increased my increasing number of images stacked. Whereas, PureView's effectiveness is limited by sensor size/resolution.

                                        There are several modded GCam ports where you can control post-processing parameters, all while keeping HDR+ on. Results are incredible.

                                        On a side note, I seriously think that, manufacturers can look up to PureView solve the zoom gap problem (i.e. resorting to digital zooming until next telephoto sensor engages) by using high-resolution RGB sensor instead of Quad/Nona bayer ones.

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