SpecEagle review · Sony

Xperia Pro-I review: The 1" sensor that Sony's own RX100 used — in a Snapdragon 888 phone.

Item: Xperia Pro-I
Rating: 78
Author: SpecEagle Editorial

SpecEagle Editorial·Oct 2021·$1,799 (launch)

Overall

78/100

Class rank

#1 of 1

Tier

Legacy Flagship

Buy?

At the right price

The verdict, up front

The 1-inch sensor phone before Xiaomi.

Xperia Pro-I shipped the same 1.0" Exmor RS sensor used in the Sony RX100 VII compact — two years before Xiaomi 13 Ultra made the format mainstream. It also brought real variable-aperture hardware and 4K 120 fps video to a phone. A camera-enthusiast cult phone, now discontinued.

01Display

96/100

96/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

Type4K HDR OLED, 120 Hz

Size6.5 inches, 21:9 aspect

Resolution3,840 × 1,644 px

ColourBT.2020 + creator-mode reference profile

02Camera

92/100

92/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

Main12 MP, 1.0" Exmor RS (same sensor as Sony RX100 VII), f/2.0-4.0 variable aperture

Ultrawide12 MP, f/2.2

Telephoto12 MP, 2.1× optical, f/2.4

3D iToFSensor for instant AF

Selfie8 MP

03Performance

80/100

80/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

ChipsetQualcomm Snapdragon 888 (5 nm)

RAM12 GB LPDDR5

Storage512 GB UFS 3.1 · microSD

04Battery

76/100

76/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

Capacity4,500 mAh

Wired30 W

WirelessYes

05Build

86/100

86/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

06Video

95/100

95/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

07Value

60/100

60/100 — right at the average for legacy flagship phones of 2021.

What works

1.0" Exmor RS sensor — same as Sony RX100 VII compact.
Variable f/2.0-4.0 aperture (real hardware iris).
4K 120 fps video — unmatched for the period.
3.5 mm jack + microSD + IP68.

What doesn't

Variable-aperture is two-step (f/2.0 and f/4.0), not continuous.
$1,799 price was extreme even for camera enthusiasts.
12 MP main sensor (no high-res mode).
Discontinued.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 1-phone cohort of legacy flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .