If you think the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which tops out at $1,400, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra and its top-tier $1,380 price are exorbitant, you might be interested to know Sony's just announced the $2,500 Xperia Pro.
Why would you want an HDMI on your phone?
• As an external display for a Sony Alpha camera because the screens are usually half the size of the Xperia Pro's 6.5-inch screen.
• Sony says the HDMI input also works with "any other HDMI input equipped camera to enable a 5G data link to broadcast video in real-time." The HDMI input is not to be confused with HDMI output which has existed on other phones. Input lets other devices use the phone's screen; output pushes the content to another display.
There's a headphone jack! Something premium phones like the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Galaxy S21 Ultra, and OnePlus 8 Pro don't have.
What worries us...
At $2,500, you would rightfully expect the latest Snapdragon chip and graphics, right? Weirdly, the Xperia Pro uses a last-gen Snapdragon 865 chip instead of the faster Snapdragon 888 that will power virtually every high-end 2021 Android phone. But at least it has 12GB of RAM.
There's also the battery...
The Xperia Pro has a 4,000 mAh battery. It's not a small battery by any means. But compared to the larger 5,000 mAh you can get in the S21 Ultra, we're concerned about its ability to last, especially when used as an external monitor with a camera.