A day after the Sony Xperia 1 VIII’s face was leaked, Sony has finally officially introduced their latest flagship smartphone today and has shown a number of improvements when compared to previous Xperia devices.
Starting with the screen display, the Xperia 1 VIII is equipped with a 6.5″ LTPO OLED panel with FHD+ resolution (1080×2340) and a 120Hz refresh rate along with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and supports HDR BT.2020.
This device is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 processor chip and comes with a memory offering of up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. It is still only equipped with a 5000 mAh battery that supports 30W wired charging and 15W wireless charging like last year’s model.
Like other Sony Xperia smartphones, the Xperia 1 VIII comes with a combination of camera systems and software that seem more sophisticated and in-depth than many other brands. For this latest model, it comes with a triple camera system consisting of a main wide camera with a 48MP f1.9 sensor, a 48MP f2.8 telephoto camera with 2.9x zoom capability and a 48MP f.20 ultra-wide camera. The front camera uses a 12MP f2.0 22mm sensor.
The change is that the cameras are arranged in a three-dimensional configuration instead of three arranged vertically so far. Like all Xperia 1 series, the Xperia 1 VIII is equipped with Zeiss lenses like Sony Alpha cameras.
In terms of software, the Xperia 1 VIII also offers in-camera image editing features that come with color filters, bokeh, and photo angle suggestions that use AI technology that is seen to help users take more beautiful photos.
Another classic feature that is still shown is the 3.5mm audio plug for wired earphones and support for micro SD cards up to 2TB for additional internal storage. A physical camera button is also included on the right side of the device. The body of the device passes the IP68 waterproof standard.
In terms of operating system, it uses Android 16. There is no information about update support at this time, but last year it received 4 versions of Android and 6 years of security patches.
Meanwhile, the Xperia 1 VIII device design is also seen to come with a matte surface with four color offerings, including Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, Garnet Red and Native Gold which was introduced specifically for the model with 1TB storage.
Pre-orders for the Sony Xperia 1 VIII seem to have been introduced for the European market first, at a price of €1,499 (~RM 6918) where buyers will also get a pair of Sony WH1000XM6 headphones for free. The Sony Malaysia site states that a 12/256GB model will be available but local prices have not yet been announced.
