Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII Gets Overdue Redesign with Chunky Camera Island and Improved Telephoto

At a glance:

• Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII features a chunky square camera island and a substantially improved telephoto camera.
• The phone is available in four colors and includes a dedicated shutter button and 3.5mm headphone jack.
• The Xperia 1 VIII starts from £1,399 / €1,499 for the standard model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Design Refresh

Sony’s Xperia 1 flagships have looked more or less the same since 2020, but that’s finally changing with the Xperia 1 VIII. The phone moves to a chunky square camera island, which is raised from the phone but slopes towards its edge. The camera island also features a Sony logo and a subtle texturing to the frosted glass back. The phone is available in four colors: black, silver, red, and a gold that’s exclusive to Sony’s online store. The aluminum edges and knurled finish on the dedicated camera shutter button also add to the phone’s unique design. The Xperia 1 VIII’s design refresh is overdue aesthetically, but it probably serves practical purpose too, allowing Sony to fit in a substantially larger sensor for the phone’s telephoto lens.

Camera Upgrades

The Xperia 1 VIII’s telephoto camera is a substantial upgrade, with a 1/1.56-inch-type sensor that is almost four times larger than the Xperia 1 VII’s. The telephoto lens is joined by main and ultrawide cameras, both 48-megapixel 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’s been incorporated into the default camera mode and now supports autofocus too. The phone also includes an AI camera assistant that suggests different options for filters, framing, and which lens to use, together with more fine-tuned tweaks like brightening the photo’s subject, but not its background. The suggestions pop up before you take a photo, though Sony says you can turn the feature off entirely if you prefer.

Other Upgrades

Sony has packed in a few other upgrades too. There are new full-stage stereo speakers, apparently tuned together with Sony Pictures and Sony Music, which are clearer and louder than before. The 5,000mAh battery and 30W charging are unchanged, though Sony says the phone will last an hour longer than before thanks to a few optimizations under the hood. It’s now powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage (though only in the online-only gold finish). One big downside is that it will only receive four years of OS updates, and six of security patches, fewer than almost any other comparable flagship.

Pricing and Availability

The Xperia 1 VIII starts from £1,399 / €1,499 for the standard model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The 16GB / 1TB model is a punchy £1,849 / €1,999. The phone is available to order now in Europe and Asia, but Sony has no plans for a North American launch.