Smartphones have beautiful screens these days but very few companies have thought of using the smartphones as external monitors for actual digital cameras. One of those very few just came out, from a company that makes both cameras and smartphones, SONY! It is the brand new Sony Xperia PRO 5G smartphone. It comes with an actual HDMI input, opening its 4K OLED display to your cameras and anything else that outputs on HDMI. And that’s its defining characteristic! And it has optional wireless streaming kits for select cameras (not just select Sony Alphas but also the Nikon Z6 III and Canon R5).
And given the benefit and costs of alternative solutions, Sony has priced it very “pro”, $2500 for the smartphone kit, and about $150 to $175 more for the camera-specific wireless streaming kits. Needless to say, this is a purpose-built smartphone for photographers and videographers and YouTubers/streamers and such…
AS of the time of writing it is in-stock and ready to ship at B&H Photo at its starting price of $2500 (not a typo!)… It has a mid-Februry in-stock estimate at Amazon itself and it is in pre-order status at Adorama.
Note that this is built up on the Xperia 1 Mark II. If you only want a smartphone and not its defining HDMI input feature, you are better off with the Xperia 1 Mark II or any other modern smartphone OR you can wait for the upcoming Snapdragon 888 smartphones that include the upcoming Sony Xperia 1 Mark III…
For a brief overview of the Xperia PRO 5G used as an external camera monitor, here’s Mr Mobile’s take on it after about 1.5 weeks of use:
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