Sony has just introduced its new flagship – the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (that’s Xperia 1 mark 8 when read, BTW). It comes with it a massive redesign along with powerful hardware.
Sony Xperia 1 VIII
The back panel of the Sony Xperia 1 VIII is where we see the most changes, design-wise. It now has a square camera module on the left-hand side of the device to house the three 48MP cameras. This is a pretty drastic change from the classic vertically aligned cameras.

It is led by a 1/1.35-inch Exmor T main, joined by two 1/1.56-inch Exmor RS sensors, one handles ultrawide shots and the other offers 2.9x telephoto photos.
That said, though, Sony retained quite a lot of the features expected of the Xperia 1-series device. This includes front-facing speakers with top and bottom bezels, a dedicated shutter button, and even a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The front is a 6.5-inch FHD+ LTPO AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 coupled with up to 1TB storage and up to 16GB RAM. It also supports storage expansion via a microSD slot.
Surprisingly, it is also equipped with a relatively dated 5000mAh battery. However, the Xperia 1 VIII supports 30W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. The company has also committed to 4 Android upgrades and 6 years of security patches.
Full Specifications
| Display | 6.5-inch FHD+ LTPO AMOLED 120Hz refresh rate |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| GPU | Adreno 840 |
| RAM | 12/16GB RAM |
| Storage | 256GB/1TB |
| Rear Camera | 48MP main (1/1.35-inch Exmor T, f/1.9, 24mm focal length) 48MP ultrawide (1/1.56-inch Exmor RS, f/2.0, 16mm focal length) 48MP 2.9x telephoto (1/1.56-inch Exmor RS, f/2.8, 70mm focal length) |
| Front Camera | 12MP |
| Battery | 5000mAh 30W wired fast charging 15W wireless fast charging |
| OS | Android 16 4 Android upgrades 6 years of security patches |
Pricing and Availability
The Sony Xperia 1 VIII is available in four color options – Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, Garnet Red, and Native Gold.

It is available for pre-order in various markets like Singapore for:
- 12GB+256GB – SGD 1,989 (around PHP 96,200)
- 16GB+1TB – SGD 2,599 (around PHP 125,700)
We don’t expect to see the Xperia 1 VIII arrive officially in the Philippines. Which is a shame, because we’d love to give the device a go.

