The Sony Xperia Pro 5G is finally up for pre-order in the US at a much higher price than expected
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Sony has a long history of releasing unconventional high-end smartphones with excessive price tags attached to their often confusing names and trend-defying designs, but even by those standards, the hot new Xperia Pro 5G is a bit... much.
We obviously have no idea exactly what took Sony so long to bring this supercharged version of 2020's Xperia 1 II to US stores, but following an unceremonious appearance at B&H Photo Video last month alongside a generic "coming soon" message, the 6.5-inch handset is finally up for pre-order stateside.
For starters, the Snapdragon 865 mobile powerhouse is not entirely new, as signalled by, well, that somewhat outdated Qualcomm flagship chipset. Today's mainstream Android heavyweights come packing Snapdragon 888 processing speed, which reminds us the Xperia Pro has been a thing (sort of) for almost a year now.
The Xperia Pro 5G costs... how much?!?
Unfortunately, if you were troubled by those age-old rumors calling for a $200 to $300 premium over the already extravagant $1,200 list price of the aforementioned non-Pro device, you might want to sit down before hearing how much this bad boy actually costs. Did you take your heart medication today? Good, because the seemingly B&H-exclusive unlocked Sony Xperia Pro will set you back an absolutely ridiculous $2,498.
That's right, you can buy two whole Xperia 1 II units at the price of one Xperia Pro 5G, not to mention four Motorola One 5G UW devices, for instance, and still have enough money left for an additional OnePlus Nord N10 5G. While that's clearly not a fair comparison, it's also extremely difficult to justify spending that small fortune... if you're not part of the handset's teeny-tiny target audience.
Who is the Xperia Pro 5G for?
Sony and B&H are pretty much solely going after "professional mobile content creators" by equipping the Xperia Pro with a micro-HDMI port. That will certainly help set the ultra-high-end phone apart from essentially all other flagship mobile devices on the market today, allowing said content creators to connect the Android handset directly to their standalone digital cameras.
That way, the Xperia Pro 5G basically becomes a (highly portable) 4K HDR monitor helping you edit, transfer, upload, and even live stream your stuff at "blistering" speeds. Said speeds are made possible by the phone's 5G mmWave support, although you'll obviously need to be a Verizon customer actually covered by the carrier's terribly spotty Ultra Wideband network to take advantage of this state-of-the-art cellular technology.
Naturally, both low and mid-band 5G networks are also supported, which means you can enjoy the highest available download and upload speeds on T-Mobile and AT&T in addition to Verizon. Keep in mind that the Xperia 1 II is a 4G LTE-only device stateside, although that's arguably still not enough to warrant those 2,500 bucks.
The situation remains largely unchanged when taking into consideration an internal storage upgrade from 256 to 512 gigs, as well as the presence of 12 gigs of RAM, three 12MP shooters on the back of the Sony Xperia Pro, and a 4,000mAh battery under its hood.
The extra-tall OLED screen is also an undeniable joy to behold, with a top-notch resolution of 3840 x 1644 pixels and no actual notch or hole punch, but the question remains - who in their right mind would ever be willing to cough up $2,498 for a smartphone billed primarily as a... camera accessory? Oh, and did we mention Sony and B&H are still not ready to commit to a firm US shipping date?
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