After teasing the Sony Xperia 1 VIII launch last week, it has now finally gone official in Japan and the UK. This is the latest generation of Sony's flagship, which delivers the iconic tall aspect ratio while bringing flagship-grade specs to the display, camera, processor and other areas.
Sony Xperia 1 VIII Specifications and Features
The biggest change this year is the design of the Sony Xperia 1 VIII. Dubbed the “ORE design,” the new look has been inspired by Sony's Mark camera lineup and the brand says it represents natural materials and raw gemstones.
It has ditched the iconic triple camera pill-shaped cutout for an off-centre aligned squircle camera cutout reminiscent of the OnePlus 10 Pro. The phone comes with a textured back panel and a brushed aluminium mid-frame, while retaining the core Xperia trademarks intact, like the 3.5mm hi-res headphone jack, a physical 2-stage camera shutter button and expandable storage.
Even the cameras on the Sony Xperia 1 VIII have been upgraded compared to last year's Xperia 1 VII. The phone now comes with a new AI Camera Assistant, powered by Xperia Intelligence, which can analyse subjects and weather conditions and suggest optimal camera settings like colour tones, lens selection, bokeh effects and more. Looks like Gemini Intelligence has a new competitor now.
This is paired with a revamped imaging system, which now features a triple 48 MP rear camera setup. It includes a new, four times larger 1/2.56-inch 48 MP 2.9x telephoto camera with 70mm focal length. The primary camera is also a 48 MP sensor and it is an Exmor T ZEISS lens with OIS and a new 48 MP ultra-wide angle camera with 104° Field of View. The selfie camera is a 12 MP Exmor RS mobile sensor.
As for the display, the phone comes with a 6.5-inch Full HD+ 120 Hz LTPO OLED panel in the 19.5:9 aspect ratio and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. It also features a 240 Hz touch sampling rate, Creator mode, DCI-P3 100%, ITU-R BT.2020 (REC.2020), Illuminant D65 White point, 10-bit tonal gradation and X1 for mobile.
For performance, the Xperia 1 VIII uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and is paired with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1 TB of UFS 4.1 storage. Surprisingly, the phone ships with Android 14 out of the box and is promised 4 years of software and 6 years of security updates.
In terms of battery, the smartphone comes with a 5,000mAh capacity and supports 30W PD USB-C charging. It also supports 15W of Qi wireless charging. Durability-wise the phone comes with IPX5 + IPX8 water resistance, IP6X dust resistance and Xperia STAMINA protection.
Rest, the phone is equipped with two forward-firing stereo speakers, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0 LE, GPS, NFC and USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port.
As for pricing, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII starts from 1,499 euros (approximately Rs 1,70,000) and comes bundled with Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. Pre-orders for the smartphone are now live on Sony Japan and Sony UK websites and the phone will go on sale starting May 14, 2026.
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