58 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 72
launching the mid-range Xperia 10 and Xperia 10
Plus, and later the high-end Xperia 5. Now we have
the Xperia 1 II (pronounced ‘mark 2’), as well as the
Xperia 10 II. Confused? Sony seems to be.
With this mix of numbers and numerals, the new
Xperia Pro stands as a refreshing outlier. It’s arguably
more deserving of the ‘Pro’ moniker than any other
phone ever released, primarily because of its intended
use in professional broadcasting rather than as a
consumer smartphone.
Features
The few minutes that the Xperia Pro was allocated
during Sony’s presentation, highlighted the key
differences between it and the Xperia 1 II.
To look at, it offers a markedly similar form, with
the same 6.5in 90Hz 21:9 4K OLED display, giving it a
tall, slender silhouette. A thicker bezel and frame are
the only real external indicators that this is a different
beast. It’s much the same on the inside too, with a
Snapdragon 865 processor at its heart, backed up by
8GB of RAM, plus the same 4,000mAh battery to keep
things running. It does, however, benefit from twice
the internal storage, at 512GB of ROM.
One of the Xperia 1 II’s key selling points is the
addition of 5G, but in truth, it only supports sub6 5G
protocols – a faster and wider-reaching iteration
on the current LTE network technology. The Xperia
Pro, meanwhile, also accommodates mmWave 5G
technology, allowing for far greater data transfer over
shorter distances. It uses a unique four-antenna design
to offer 360-degree coverage, and while the Xperia
