Sony announces Xperia 1 Professional Edition for photographers
Sony is coming with a Professional version of the Xperia 1 smartphone. The phone shows a lot of resemblance to the current Xperia 1, but has, among other things, a calibrated screen. The phone will soon be released in Japan for 1181.75 euros.
Sony focuses the Xperia 1 Professional Edition mainly on photographers, which is apparent from the functions that the manufacturer has added to the device. Like the regular Xperia 1, the Professional edition includes a 6.5″ 4K OLED screen with a 21:9 screen ratio and HDR support. The screen also still supports the bt2020 color gamut, but different from the Xperia 1 is the screen in this new device calibrated for D65.
Sony also adds the Imaging Edge Mobile app to the device. This application allows users to wirelessly download photos to their phone from a Sony camera. The manufacturer provides this app on the Professional Edition with a ‘Transfer & Tagging’ extension, which allows users to add tags and voice memos to photos. The new Sony smartphone also offers support for Ethernet adapters via USB-C, but Sony does not supply such an adapter with the phone.
The Xperia 1 Professional Edition home screen can be rotated
There are also some small features added to the phone. For example, the Xperia 1 Professional’s home screen can be rotated, making it easy for users to start filming horizontally from the home screen. It is also plausible that this function will come to the regular Xperia 1 via a software update.
Furthermore, the phone is almost identical to its predecessor. For example, the phone still contains a Snapdragon 855 and 6GB of ram. It seems that the new Professional Edition only comes with 128GB, where the normal Xperia 1 was also available with 64GB. The battery also remains unchanged with 3300mAh, as does the use of a USB gen 3.1 connection of the c-type.
The Xperia 1 Professional Edition will be released in Japan on October 25 for 130,000 Yen. Converted this comes down to 1181.75 euros. This makes the device considerably more expensive than its predecessor, which is in the Pricewatch at the time of writing for prices between 686 and 1016 euros. It is still unknown whether the device will also come to the European market. At release, the device had a suggested retail price of 949 euros, but this has fallen sharply in recent months.