- Sony Xperia 1 VIII has arrived with a larger 48MP telephoto lens.
- It brings a lot of attention to mobile photography and with Zeiss branding on-board.
- The phone retails for EUR1,499 and it is powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Sony Xperia 1 VIII is here with insanely upgraded camera sensors, expandable storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC under the hood. It seems like Sony doesn’t want to let certain trademark features make the Xperia a fan favorite. Here’s everything you need to know about the Sony Xperia 1 VIII, which made its debut earlier today, i.e., May 13.
Unveiling Sony Xperia 1 VIII specs and features
Well, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII is a powerhouse when it comes to the cameras, although we have a separate dedicated section just for those. For now, let’s have an aerial view of what the phone brings to the table, both hardware and software.
The Sony Xperia 1 VIII launched with a 2025 Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC. Although it is slightly late to the party, given that the chipset was released almost eight months ago, it is still an upgrade over last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite. This gives the Xperia 1 VIII a 23 percent faster GPU, a 20 percent boost in CPU, and 20 percent lower power consumption. Call that a masterstroke, and I wouldn’t deny it.
Moving forward, we have 12GB+256GB as the base storage variant. You can ramp it up to 16GB RAM and up to 1TB storage, based on the variants. Plus, there’s a signature microSD slot on-board that gives you access to rely on on-device storage rather than cling to cloud services.
On the front, we have a 6.5” LTPO 120Hz flat panel with no cut-out for the front cam. Instead, it uses the age-old thick bezel to bring the nostalgic front-facing camera on board. It does put off a bit in terms of resolution, capped at 1080p+, which is among the lowest, at least considering the phone is a flagship.
However, I’ll let you be the judge. Additionally, we have a 5,000mAh battery under the hood, which I think could have been better. This is coupled with 30W wired and 15W wireless, which is outdated as well.
Sony Xperia 1 VIII arrives with powerful cameras
When it comes to the cameras, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII is magnificent, at least checking out the specs; the actual may differ.
The Xperia 1 VIII brings a 70mm telephoto cam with 2.9x optical zoom and a 48MP sensor on board. There’s a 48MP 1/1.35” primary snapper with OIS, a secondary 48MP ultra-wide 1/1.56” snapper, and a 12MP front-facing camera with a 1/2.9” sensor size.
Over and above, Sony does upgrade the telephoto snapper, resulting in better lighting and doubling the zoom capabilities when images are cropped to 12MP. Low-light photography has improved on the device as well, thanks to RAW multi-frame processing that expands its dynamic range and reduces noise, ensuring full-frame low-light performance.
Sony brings a new AI camera assistant on board powered by Xperia Intelligence. It can analyze subjects and give optimal camera setting recommendations based on subject, lighting, weather conditions, etc. Moreover, the phone comes with Zeiss optics branding and Zeiss T* lens coating that have proven their caliber in the photography department earlier as well.
Keep up with the tech that actually matters.
Add us as a preferred source on Google Search for quicker access to our coverage.
Sony Xperia 1 VIII pricing and availability
Post-launch, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII is already up for pre-order starting Wednesday (May 13) via Sony and selected retailers online. The pricing on the device starts at EUR 1,499 or GBP 1,400 for the base 12GB+256GB, limited to the pre-order period. There’s also a free pair of Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones bundled with the pre-orders. You can choose between Graphite Black, Garnet Red, and Iolite Silver.
Additionally, the Native Gold 1TB color edition of the phone is available exclusively from Sony with a price tag of EUR 2,000 or GBP 1,850. The shipping of the Xperia 1 VIII begins next month, in June.
