Sony Xperia 1 VIII packs a redesign, flagship specs, microSD, 3.5mm jack from €1,500

Ben Schoon | May 13 2026 - 9:25 am PT

Sony’s latest flagship is here, with the new Xperia 1 VIII offering some powerful specs for the usual lofty price tag, this time with a major hardware redesign.

The Sony Xperia 1 VIII feels new mostly thanks to its major hardware redesign. The new look keeps some Xperia staples, like the bigger top and bottom bezels – housing front-facing speakers, taller aspect ratio, and dedicated shutter button, but it undeniably looks very different, especially with that square camera module sitting off of the top left corner of the phone.

Xperia 1 VIII comes in Graphite Black, Garnet Red, Iolite Silver, and Native Gold color variants, though the gold is solely available in a 1TB storage tier (with the rest available with 256GB of storage). Sony says the colors are a part of its “Ore” design language, with the whole phone having a rough stone-like texture.

Under the hood, this device is packing some powerhouse specs. A 6.5-inch FHD+ LTPO AMOLED display at 120Hz, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and the aforementioned 256GB or 1TB of storage. Those models ship with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, respectively, and both have support for microSD card expansion – something we basically never see in flagship Android phones anymore. On that same note, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack too.

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Battery life will likely be a tiny bit iffy with a 5,000 mAh battery, but charging isn’t particularly slow at 30W wired and 15W wireless.

Then, there are the cameras. Sony has a 48MP main sensor and 48MP ultrawide, with a 12MP selfie camera. The third rear 48MP camera, the telephoto, is now locked at 2.9x optical zoom, where prior models had a 12MP sensor with variable zoom and aperture.

The Sony Xperia 1 VII is available for pre-order now in the UK and Europe. In Europe, it starts at €1,499, while it lands at £1,399 in the UK. Pre-orders include a free pair of WH‑1000XM6 headphones.

There are no plans to bring this device to the US.