Sony’s new Xperia phone gets an overdue redesign
Sony’s Xperia 1 flagships have looked more or less the same since 2020, but that’s finally changing with the Xperia 1 VIII, which moves to a big, square camera island. The phone also features what should be a significantly improved telephoto lens, as well as an AI camera assistant that looks like an upgraded version of Google’s Camera Coach.
While all previous Xperia 1 phones came with three vertical cameras and the last six had them positioned at the same top left corner, the 1 VIII mixes things up. The three lenses are now arranged in a square block, with the flash and a Sony logo, raised from the phone but angled towards its edge. It’s a bit of an iPhone, but it more closely resembles the design of some of Motorola’s recent Edge phones, but with an angularity that seems distinct from Sony’s. This is the main part of an expected design refresh, breathing fresh air into Sony’s sleek, but now slightly outdated, aesthetic. It’s also a surprise, especially because it doesn’t match the Xperia 10 VII at all, which Also recently got a facelift, but instead adopted a horizontal camera bar.
The Xperia 1 VIII is available in four colors: black, silver, red and gold exclusive to the Sony online store. The camera island, frosted glass back, and aluminum edges feature a subtle texture, as well as a knurled finish on the dedicated camera shutter button. Like previous Sony phones, there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as a microSD slot and a combined IP65/68 resistance rating (this was once the best on the market, although it has since been surpassed by a number of IP68/69 phones).
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The redesign may be expected on an aesthetic level, but it likely also serves a practical purpose, allowing Sony to integrate a much larger sensor for the phone’s telephoto lens. The 1/1.56 inch type sensor here is almost four times larger than that of the Xperia 1 VII, much larger than the best from Apple or Samsung, and close in size to those of the Vivo X300 Ultra and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. With a relatively fast f/2.8 aperture and 48-megapixel resolution, this 70mm-equivalent lens could be one of the best telephoto lenses on the market, provided Sony gets the processing right. The only downside is that to accommodate the larger sensor, Sony has forgone the continuous optical zoom found on its last four flagships – just as Xiaomi copied the feature in its own 17 Ultra.
The telephoto lens is joined by main and ultra-wide cameras, both 48-megapixels and essentially unchanged from the previous phone. The camera system as a whole has been improved with a new RAW multi-frame processing pipeline, better bokeh, and updated macro shooting that has been integrated into the default camera mode and now also supports autofocus.
The other big camera upgrade is an AI camera assistant. When you prepare to take a photo, it will suggest different options for which filters, framing, and lens to use, as well as finer adjustments like brightening the subject of the photo, but not its background. The suggestions appear before you take a photo, although Sony says you can turn the feature off entirely if you prefer. It seems much more powerful than the rather basic AI Camera Coach feature on Google’s Pixel 10 phones, although I suspect many will prefer the fact that Google’s mode has to be activated manually, whereas Sony’s seems to be activated by default.
Sony has also incorporated a few other upgrades. There are new full-featured stereo speakers, apparently tuned with Sony Pictures and Sony Music, that are clearer and louder than before. The 5,000mAh battery and 30W charging remain unchanged, although Sony claims the phone will last an hour longer than before thanks to some under-the-hood optimizations. It’s now powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage (but only in the online-only gold finish). A big downside is that it will only receive four years of operating system updates and six of security patches, less than almost any other comparable flagship.
The Xperia 1 VIII starts from £1,399 / €1,499 (around $1,765) for the standard model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The 16GB/1TB model costs £1,849/€1,999 ($2,355). The phone is available to order now in Europe and Asia, but Sony has no plans to launch it in North America.
