Khaleej Times: Sony has officially unveiled the new Sony Xperia 1 VIII, marking the company’s biggest design refresh for its flagship smartphone lineup in years.

After sticking with nearly the same design language since 2020’s Xperia 1 II, Sony has finally moved away from its vertically aligned rear cameras. The Xperia 1 VIII now features a raised camera island positioned at the top-left corner, giving the phone a more modern flagship appearance while accommodating a significantly upgraded telephoto sensor.

The headline feature is the new 1/1.56-inch telephoto camera, which Sony says is four times more powerful than the previous generation. The lens comes with an f/2.8 aperture and a 70mm focal length, promising improved low-light photography and sharper zoom performance.

Joining it are a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.9 aperture and a 48MP ultrawide sensor offering a 104-degree field of view. On the front, users get a 12MP selfie shooter.

Sony is also leaning heavily into AI-powered photography this year. The Xperia 1 VIII can analyse scenes and recommend adjustments such as colour tone tweaks, lens effects, or bokeh enhancements. The feature appears similar to camera coaching tools found on rival Android devices, but Sony says it’s based on its own “Creative Look” imaging philosophy developed through years of camera expertise.

The phone retains several fan-favourite hardware features that many rivals have abandoned. There’s still a 3.5mm headphone jack, improved stereo speakers, and microSD card support for up to 2TB of additional storage. Combined with the top-end 1TB model, users can potentially carry up to 3TB of storage on the device.

The Xperia 1 VIII sports a 6.5-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. Buyers can choose between 12GB RAM with 256GB storage or a premium 16GB RAM and 1TB variant.
Battery capacity sits at 5,000mAh with 30W wired charging and wireless charging support. The device ships with Android 16 and will receive four Android OS upgrades alongside six years of security updates.

Sony has confirmed pricing in the UK starts at £1,399 for the base model, while the higher-end version costs £1,849. However, UAE pricing and availability details have not yet been announced.